Due to recent news, the rate of Asian American hate crimes has increased drastically since the coronavirus pandemic started nearly a year ago. There was prejudice from people of different ethnicities towards Asian Americans when Former President Donald Trump blamed China for the world’s shutdown, even resorting to calling the coronavirus the “kung-flu.” All of the sudden, there was an influx of Asian American hate crimes across the country nearing the beginning of Lunar New Year. From the huge amount of race based attacks on asian americans, elderly and youth, to people still basing their judgement on asians based on stereotypes and on things that the people cannot control.   

In Monroe County, Pennsylvania, a 19 year old Asian American named Christian Hall was shot seven times by Pennsylvania State Troopers when he was in a mental health crisis. Hall even had his hands up, like the State Police asked him to, but he was still shot dead by those same policemen. His death was unfortunately one of many deaths caused by prejudice against Asian Americans and the worst part was that this event was very recent. The intensity of these attacks only seems to increase as there were more and more reports on Asian American hate crimes that weren’t on the mainstream news. 

During and even after Lunar New Year, the Asian American community was speaking out against the racism and the prejudice they faced, whether it was directly or indirectly. They were signing petitions, donating to those who have lost their loved ones, going to protests, or spreading awareness all across different social media platforms like Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram, and more as quickly as possible and word got around fast. Even President Joe Biden made a statement about the events and signed an executive order directing federal agencies to combat the xenophobia against the Asian American community. His statement reads, “Today, I’m directing federal agencies to combat the resurgence of xenophobia, particularly against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, that we’ve seen skyrocket during this pandemic. This is unacceptable and it’s un-American.”  

Even after all of these events, nothing is really changing, at least for now. There was a recent report by Instagram user nextshark about a Japanese Buddhist temple being set on fire and being vandalized in Little Tokyo, located in Los Angeles California. Being that Buddhism is an important part to Asian American culture, it was a painful sight seeing such a sacred building burned down. To quote from NBC, “Surveillance video caught a man jumping the security fences at the Higashi Honganji Buddhist Temple on Thursday night, smashing a 12-foot-high glass window with a rock, yanking a pair of metallic lanterns off their concrete bases and lighting two wooden lantern stands on fire.” Obviously there are a lot more discriminatory situations similar to this, however, this recent event is one of many examples of xenophobia against asians specifically.  

The rise of hate and discrimination against Asian Americans is not a surprise, but it has been very apparent ever since the start of the pandemic. There is a possibility that there is a lot more hostility towards Asian Americans than what the news stations and the general public would have thought. To quote from Asian American journalist Jennifer Chen, “You know, initially, I think a lot of people were scared. But as time has gone on, they have said that more elderly Asians are reporting – self-reporting, which is a huge step, I think, for the Asian American community.”