Fighting AAPI Hate: Violence against Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders rising amid COVID-19 scapegoating
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The Southern Poverty Law Center | Read the full piece here
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Friend,
The United States has a long and shameful history of violence and
discrimination against Asian Americans.
The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first major U.S. law
restricting immigration, was enacted amid concerns about maintaining
white "racial purity" and a period of falling wages blamed
on Chinese workers. It followed the Page Act, which largely prevented
immigration by Chinese women, who were stereotyped as lewd,
promiscuous and disease-ridden.
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These anti-Chinese tropes led to brutal attacks. In 1885, white coal
miners in Rock Springs in the Wyoming territory killed 28 Chinese
people, injured 15 others and expelled hundreds more from their homes.
It wasn't the only such massacre.
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And during World War II, 120,000 Japanese Americans were unjustly
incarcerated in primitive, remote "relocation centers" in
the West, surrounded by barbed wire and armed guards.
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"[T]he stereotypes of Asians that emerged from the history are
familiar - that Asians are foreigners, economic threats, disease
carriers, and that Asian women are promiscuous and
hyper-sexual," says Dr. Jennifer Lee, the Julian Clarence Levi
Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia University.
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Today, we're seeing a new wave of violence and hate incidents
directed at the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community.
Since early 2020, the website Stop AAPI Hate has documented more than
4,000 self-reported anti-Asian hate incidents. That's just the
tip of the iceberg. AAPI Data, where Lee is a senior researcher,
estimates from its survey results that more than 2 million Asian
American adults - one in eight - have experienced a hate
incident since the onset of COVID-19.
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Numerous incidents documented by Stop AAPI Hate involve blaming the
coronavirus on Asian Americans. In one typical example in Austin,
Texas, a man at a supermarket yelled, "This pandemic
wouldn't have happened if you stayed in your country where you
belong, you c[----]. You brought the virus on purpose."
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"I have to admit that as soon as former President Trump started
calling the coronavirus the 'Chinese virus' and the
'China virus,' and 'Kung flu' and 'Wuhan
virus,' I immediately knew to expect instances of anti-Asian
hate because of our history," Lee said.
READ MORE
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In solidarity,
Your friends at the Southern Poverty Law Center
Editor's note: Dr. Jennifer Lee
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, the Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences at Columbia
University, recently spoke to the Southern Poverty Law
Center's Hatewatch
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blog about the rising violence and hate incidents targeting
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders during the COVID-19 pandemic.
The full interview can be read here
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.
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working in partnership with communities to dismantle white supremacy,
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