#StopAsianHate Voices From Asian America: Some of the recent victims of the violence against Asians

(Graphics by Christine Chen of APIAvote.)

I wrote about four incidents of violence against AAPI elderly in the same posting last Feb. 6. Each incident was terrible but putting them all together it was shocking: the slashing of an elder's face in the New York subway, the violent shove of an elder in Oakland, the robbery of an elder in San Jose and the death of an 84-year old grandfather in San Francisco. 

However, it wasn't until the video by Nobel Peace Prize nominee Amanda Nguyen's video went viral, showing the violence of the unprovoked attacks on the elderly, who could have been our own grandparents that anger turned into action.

In the video, Nguyen complained that mainstream media hadn't been reporting the incidents and she was right. But seeing the elderly men falling, a woman fighting to hold onto her purse and the subway victim's scar got the media's attention.

After viewing the video, actors Daniel Wu and Daniel Dae Kim offered a $25,000 award that would lead to an arrest for the the attacker who pushed a 91-year old violently to the Oakland sidewalk.

“I decided, ’You know what?" Nguyen tells CNBC. "If we are getting locked out of mainstream media, I’m going to turn to social media, and I’m going to have a call to action for mainstream media outlets to uplift Asian stories'” 

The video racked up millions of views on TikTok, Instagram and Twitter.

Soon, the networks were. interviewing Wu, Kim and Nguyen. AAPI journalists advocated for coverage of the incidents and produced and reported special extended segments on news shows.

However, despite the media attention, the attacks continued. Most of the victims were the helpless elderly. Then the rallies, opeds, other celebrities and politicians began speaking out.

The following are not all of them. It seems like we hear of a new incident of hate directed at AAPI every day.

Then a lone white gunman walked into a spa in Georgia. 

#StopAAPIHate reports that from March 2020 to March 2021, about 3800 incidents have been collected on their website. Experts believe that many more attacks, insults or harassment have not been reported.

In the first two months of this year, over 500 incidents of violence and hate have already been recorded, says @StopAAPIHate.