老司机传媒

        It’s been about two weeks since the that took place in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, GA, where eight people were killed–six of them being Asian women.
        By now, you must’ve heard the news countless times. The 21-year-old attacker took a gun to Young’s Asian Massage, Gold Massage Spa, and Aromatherapy Spa - and started shooting. The assailant was caught later that day and, after confessing to the killings while in custody, was charged with eight counts of murder on March 17, 2021.
        All three locations that had been hit–Young’s Asian Massage, Gold Massage Spa, and Aromatherapy Spa–were lined with flowers the very next day, and people took to the streets in support of Asian Americans after these tragic murders.

        It is no secret that anti-Asian and anti-Asian-American bias has been on the rise since the beginning of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to the Atlanta shootings, there have been numerous reports of Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate crimes throughout America. Take the on March 18 in San Francisco, or the on a 68-year-old Sri Lankan man and a 66-year-old man of Asian descent in New York City just a few days after the shootings (nytimes.com, 2021).
       Some have attributed this discrimination to the “inflammatory rhetoric by former president Donald Trump, who referred to it [Covid-19] as the ‘Chinese Virus’ [and ‘Kung Flu’]” . His words, however, have simply heightened the Asian discrimination and bias that has always been present. The problem is that AAPI discrimination is only now coming into mainstream media, largely due to issues surrounding misconceptions about COVID-19.

        , a nonprofit social organization founded in 2020 that tracks incidents of discrimination, hate, and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, reported 3,795 incidents received by the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center from March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021. They found that about 68% of discrimination was verbal harassment, 21% was the deliberate avoidance of Asian Americans, and physical assault made up 11% of the total incidents.
        With this large rise in discrimination compared to previous years, more and more Asian-Americans are finally speaking out to address these injustices–and sparks are flying. Once labeled as the “model minority” (some say that is a positive label, but I believe it has been detrimental to the way Asian-Americans have been treated throughout the decades), this population has begun to hold numerous rallies in response to the increased anti-Asian sentiment throughout this pandemic. 

        So, what issues and discussions does this rise in hate crimes bring about? What are the implications for the world and, specifically, this American society?
For one, many people are now talking about the hypersexualization of women that stems back from the early 20th century–especially since movies and media have portrayed women (especially women of color) as exotic, sexualized objects. There has been a long-running idea of the Asian woman either being a “dragon lady” or a “lotus blossom,” with the “lotus blossom” being submissive, compliant, and sexualized; and the “dragon lady” being evil, conniving, and sexualized. As said in an interview for the New Yorker, “It’s the parallel to another lasting image of the Asian-America as a model minority or [a] perpetual foreigner” .
        In the present time, women have reported twice as many anti-Asian hate incidents as men. Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American studies at San Francisco State University, explained that “the coalescence of racism and sexism, including the stereotype that Asian women are meek and subservient, likely factors into this disparity...there is an intersectional dynamic going on that others may perceive both Asians and women and Asian women as easier targets” .
         Other discussions and debates that arise from this incident include gun control in the United States (especially considering the supermarket shooting in Colorado on March 22nd - which makes two mass shootings in less than a week), where the rate of gun homicide is than in other, comparable high-income countries; and how the will address and combat these recent hate crimes.

        As I thought about these tragic incidents of hate that have happened in the last few weeks, I found myself wondering an obvious question: Why is this happening?
        How has our world progressed to this point? Why does it feel like our society has become so power-hungry, so quick to judge, so awfully cold? It seems our world is filled with a lot of darkness. But there is a spark emerging, and I believe it is growing larger and more brilliant every day.
And we have to keep that spark growing. We may not know the families of these hate crime victims, and we may not have thousands (or even hundreds) of dollars to donate to these families or any non-profit organizations. But I think there are still things we can do. There are still things we as 老司机传媒 students can do.
        Abigail Lee (freshman, sociology), who has spoken out about AAPI hate before, says this: “I think that Andrews students need to be able and willing to be open and aware. Whether that means self-reflection, or telling your friend you don’t approve of what they said, people here need to act in order to change anything.”
        We can continue learning and educating ourselves. We can report incidents of hate crime if and when we see them. We can help bring awareness to the struggles of minorities and marginalized people through the conversations we have and the things that we share. We can listen to each other’s stories.