'A lot of Asian Americans are looking over their shoulders'

We don’t yet fully understand the motive of the 21-year-old man accused of a horrific shooting spree at Asian spas in the state of Georgia. But the outrage has sent a new wave of fear and horror through a minority community already traumatized by attacks and harassment during the pandemic.

From ex-President Donald Trump’s slurs about “the China virus” and “kung flu” to the stigma inflicted by association with the pathogen first discovered in Wuhan, many Asian Americans say they’ve had targets on their backs for months. Hate crimes against them are up 150% since Covid-19 reached US shores. Some Asian Americans have been spat on or told to go back "home." Basketball star Jeremy Lin was called “coronavirus” on court. In particularly horrific attacks, Asian American seniors have been targeted – leaving some elderly residents of West coast cities scared to leave their homes.

Anti-Asian bias is nothing new in this country, though the struggle for equality by African Americans has often been a more dominant story. In 1871, a group of Chinese men were lynched in Los Angeles. Chinese laborers long faced grave discrimination in the US, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II is a stain on the country’s history.

The current tide of hate directed toward Asian Americans comes at a moment of racial reckoning triggered by the killing of Black men by White police officers, including the late George Floyd, which ignited a global Black Lives Matter movement. And community advocates say the bias facing Black and Asian Americans reflects a broader problem of hate and White supremacist ideology in the country.

“While the focus is on anti-Asian hate, it all stems from White supremacy and anyone can be a scapegoat at any moment,” said Vivien Tsou, national field director for the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum.

The world and America

Tanzania’s President John Magufuli has died.

Prince Harry said his conversations with William and Charles have been "unproductive."

And North Korea criticized K-pop as “slave-like exploitation.”

Meanwhile in America, a suspect was charged in the killing of eight people at Atlanta-area spas.

An Amazon employee testified to senators about warehouse work conditions.

And the IRS is planning to delay Americans’ tax-filing deadline.

'A lot of Asian Americans are looking over their shoulders'

NBA star Jeremy Lin has been called “coronavirus” on court. On Wednesday, he described confronting racism in America amid the pandemic with CNN's Anderson Cooper.

"It feels very different. I think growing up it was always something that might be a little more subtle or verbal, but I think what we're seeing right now is a lot of physical actual violence, lives being taken. A lot of Asian Americans are looking over their shoulders when they go outside, when they go to the grocery store, and we're starting to slowly see more and more reporting of what is going on.

"You can even hear in the audio recordings, the cheers, the laughs, from everybody in those situations when, you know, it was called the 'kung flu virus' and everyone is cheering. I think there is a lot of racially charged hatred right now that we're seeing and feeling.

"If you look back into history, a lot of this stuff I never learned, never heard about until I had to go dig it up myself. But you look at how Chinatown came to existence, if you look at the Japanese camps or the Chinese Exclusion Act -- the first legislation and only legislation that banned a specific person from coming in -- I mean, I feel like Asian and Asian American experience has often been not talked about.

"Asian immigrants have come over and basically just been told what to do and to be quiet and to stay under the radar and to not cause any noise, and I think with this next generation as we're starting to see more and more of this happening, Asian Americans are no longer wanting to just be told what to do and keep our heads down, work hard and say nothing."

'Vaccine, vaccine and vaccine!'

As President Joe Biden contemplates sharing excess AstraZeneca vaccines with continental neighbors Canada and Mexico, a familiar voice from the far southern end of the Americas is calling on him to ensure fair vaccine distribution around the world.

Speaking with CNN’s Christiane Amanpour from Sao Paulo, Brazil, former Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said Wednesday that the US vaccine surplus could be donated to countries in need. "One suggestion that I would like to make to President Biden through your program is: It's very important to call a G20 meeting urgently," da Silva told Amanpour. "It's important to call the main leaders of the world and put around the table just one thing, one issue: vaccine, vaccine and vaccine!"

Rumors are rampant that the leftist ex-President is laying the groundwork for a 2022 comeback, after a judge cleared two corruption convictions. He could pose a serious challenge to right-wing incumbent Jair Bolsonaro – the “Trump of the Tropics” who is now the only prominent regional leader who continues to deny the pandemic’s gravity. "I can reassure you that I will not deny that invitation" if conditions are right, da Silva told Amanpour, "but I don't want to talk about that. That's not my main priority. My main priority now is to save this country."

Brazil is seeing the darkest days yet of the pandemic. A contagious new variant is infecting even people who previously recovered from Covid-19, and hospitals are so full they’ve begun turning away new patients. Fewer than 10 million people of Brazil’s 211 million-strong population have been vaccinated.

Amid what Brazilian research institute FioCruz described Tuesday as "the greatest health and hospital collapse in the history of Brazil,” da Silva's appeals to Washington are urgent -- but they are also particularly timely now that Biden is in the Oval Office, he said. "I'm asking President Biden to do that because I can't ... I don't believe in my government. And so I couldn't ask for that for Trump, but Biden is a breath for democracy in the world."

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