Pew Report: A third of Asian Americans living in fear; 80% believe anti-Asian attacks increasing

Attacks against Asian Americans have prompted demonstrations against xenophobia.

Racist attacks against Asian Americans are increasing making almost a third of them looking over their shoulder, fearful of being assaulted, spat upon, punched in the face, pushed to the ground or told to "go back to your country."

Since the coronavirus pandemic took grip of the U.S. a year ago, Asian Americans have become a scapegoat for the spread of the deadly contagion.

Almost a third, or 32%, of Asian adults say they have feared someone might threaten or physically attack them – a greater share than other racial or ethnic groups, a new Pew Research Center poll finds.

“There has never been a situation during my lifetime that I've felt this level of fear, and this level of vulnerability, and also the level of isolation that I do right now,” said Rp. Andy Kim, D-NJ., during a recent press conference in Washington D.C.

Four out of five Asian American adults (81%) also say anti-Asian violence is increasing, far more than most other U.S. adults (56%). The poll comes as the U.S. Senate is set to vote today (April 22) on the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act that aims to combat hate crimes against Asian Americans.

The Pew poll was taken after the shooting rampage that took the lives of six Asian women and two other people in the Atlanta area on March 16 and the rash of assaults on Asian Americans that occurred that same month.

 
Overall, 45% of Asian adults say they have experienced at least one of five specific offensive incidents since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. At the same time, 32% say someone has expressed support for them since the start of the pandemic.

Some 27% say people acted as if they were uncomfortable around them, down from 39% who said the same in June 2020. Another 27% say they have been subject to slurs or jokes, the same share as in 2020. Meanwhile, lower shares say someone has made a remark that they should go back to their home country (16%) or that they are to blame for the coronavirus outbreak (14%).

Similar shares of Asian (16%), Black (15%) and Hispanic (16%) adults say someone has remarked that they should go back to their home country since the start of the pandemic. Just 2% of White adults say this has happened to them.

Asian respondents who say violence against their group in the U.S. is increasing give many reasons for the rise, according to an open-ended question in which people responded in their own words. 

The largest number, 20%, blame Donald Trump' and the racist rhetoric he used in describing the coronavirus and immigrants, in general.

Some 16% cited racism in the United States against Asian people as the source of violence, and another 15% said the rise in violence is due to COVID-19 and its impacts on the nation. An additional 12% said scapegoating and blaming Asian people for the pandemic, especially the rhetoric that came from the Trump administration, has spurred the rise in violence against tAsian Amercans.

The survey was conducted in English and Spanish using the Center’s American Trends Panel with a margin of error of 2.1 percentage points for the full sample of 5,109 US adults and 8.9 percentage points among the sample’s 352 Asian American adult respondents.

The U.S. Census approximates that there are 22 million to 23 million Asians Americans as of 2020. Another Pew study says that Asian Americans are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S.

Bias against Asian Americans is nothing new. Experiences with discrimination among Asian adults were widely reported before the pandemic. The April 2021 survey of 73% of Asian Americans say they have personally experienced discrimination or been treated unfairly because of their race or ethnicity. This share is unchanged from June 2020 and is about the same as prior to the pandemic, when 76% of Asian adults in February 2019 said they had personally experienced discrimination or unfair treatment because of their race or ethnicity.

The biggest difference between 2020 and 2021, is that the rest of America is beginning to acknowledge the anti-Asian violence and xenophobic attacks because of the wide attention given to smart-phone videos of those assaults.

President Biden, who picked Kamala Harris as his Vice President, the first Asian American to hold that position, has acknowledged and condemned the attacks against Asians since the early days of his administration and made racial equity a priority of his administration.

Pew Research Center will also explore this and other data on Asian Americans with a panel of experts in an online event on April 29. Information about the event and registration is available here.

Racist rant on commuter train caught on video

An Asian man was attacked by a deranged racist on a commuter train.

A disturbing video posted to YouTube of an Asian man being verbally abused and assaulted has sparked an investigation by police, and outrage by some viewers of the video.

The shocking incident happened on a commuter train of the Bay Area Rapid Transit (BART) Monday night (Nov. 13) in the San Francisco Bay Area. At 10:10 p.m., at least three riders called police dispatch regarding the disturbance.

The video taken by a fellow rider shows a suspect standing and yelling racial slurs at a man sitting. At one point, the suspect slaps the victim's face. During the ordeal, some riders came to the victim's defense while others walked away.

After being slapped, the Asian man stood up as if to defend himself, when a woman intervened by stepping between the two men, apparently to deescalate what could have been a more violent situation .

On Reddit, a poster with the handle "In JH We Trust," claiming to be the victim said that he attracted the racist's attention when he protested the suspect's use of the N-word. He wrote:

OK so I'm half hoping noone sees this. That's me he is "harassing". This started because the old man was yelling the Nword repeatedly and noone was doing or saying a damn thing about it. I told him to stop talking repeatedly and that's what's caused him to start yelling at me. I am both proud and embarrassed that I didn't hit him.
OP you were sitting with another Asian dude behind me, there was another Asian couple standing who didn't say anything and after he got off Bart at Union City I asked for Hand sanitizer

Edit: I am extremely grateful to the woman for stopping me I was 5 seconds from doing something stupid.

Edit 2: Anyone know Ellen? And just for clarification my username stands for In Jim Harbaugh We Trust.

Edit 3: Yay gold!!! Thanks to all of you for the kindness. I'm terrible at taking positivity and kind words so I will say thanks to you all. Honestly, I just had enough and didn't want to hear his voice. In hindsight it was probably dumb as he could have had a weapon but I did what I thought was right. I guess I will say stand up for those around you but be smart and safe about it.

Edit: 4x gold!!! The joke I wish I had made: Sir! Sir! Did you have your Snickers today?

According to BART officials, the transit police responded and boarded the train but they were unable to locate the suspect.

BART officials called the incident "deplorable" and "unfortunate," but commended the riders who called police and voiced support for the victim without physically intervening. However, on Wednesday, it was reported by the East Bay Times that BART police said they will not arrest the man because the victim has decided not to press charges.

If you recognize the suspect in Monday night's incident, call BART police investigations at (510) 464-7040.

The hate incident occurred the same day a report was released by the Department of Justice showing that hate crimes continue to increase.

The hate crimes recorded last year included nine murders and 24 rapes, the report said. Of the 5,770 known offenders, 46 percent were white and 26 percent were African/American._______________________________________________________________________________

Asian women targeted in Seattle robberies

By Louis Chan
REPRINTED FROM ASAM NEWS

POLICE IN SEATTLE say they’ve found no connection between the robberies of nine Asian women in the last two weeks, despite happening in the same area.

The description of the suspects differ in each case, but the patterns of similarities are startling.

They all happened in homes near Seattle’s Beacon Hill and the Rainier Valley.

Jewelry and other valuables were stolen in each case.

The suspects have come up to their victims from behind, or began a conversation with their victims before snatching jewelry, purses and credit cards.

Six of the nine robberies happened between 4 and 7 p.m. and many of the victims were walking from their cars to their homes when robbed.

Authorities urge victims to call 911 immediately. Some of the victims in these cases called relatives first who then called 911. That delay costs extra minutes and stalls both police response and their ability to apprehend the suspects.

“I have to take precaution maybe have extra set of eyes,” an elderly woman who lives in the neighborhood said to to Q13 Fox .

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