By Martimeano Villa
Reports provided by Stop AAPI Hate and the Stop AAPI Hate Youth Campaign have demonstrated a statistical increase in racist discriminatory actions against Asian Americans.
The Youth Campaign, a group consisting of 87 high school interns, documented more than 1,000 interviews in its report They Blamed Me Because I Am Asian. These transcribed interviews provide detailed accounts from Asian youth who, during this summer, have dealt with rising racial discrimination.
The Stop AAPI Hate report, analyzes 341 incidents of anti-Asian discrimination involving youth to the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center from March 19-July 22, 2020. Organizations such as Stop AAPI Hate, began as a group of students wanting to provide voices for those within the Asian American community facing racism and discrimination.
The Youth Campaign’s report, and its more than 990 interviews, provided varying statistics for Asian American youth, with eight of 10 Asian American youth (77 percent) expressing extreme frustration toward the growing anti-Asian sentiment rising within the country. Six of 10 Asian Americans also expressed their frustration with the racist acts targeting them.
Stop AAPI Hate reviewed 341 incidents reported by youth, included 24 accounts of physical assault. One Asian American youth recounted being sprayed with a body spray by a white kid who said, “The 
Coronavirus.” The confrontation ended with the aggressor headbutting the victim, which led to their own head striking a wall.
In another instance, an individual was followed home by students attending the same high school. The students, not known to the individual, proceeded to honk very loudly from their vehicle and made coughing gestures while yelling, “Ching Chong! You have Chinese virus!,” rolling up their windows and speeding away.
As a result of schools reopening for the year, Asian American youth have endured increased hate speech and physical discriminatory actions made against them.
Professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University, Dr. Russell Jeung, said, “All Asian Americans are being hit hard by the groundswell of anti-Asian rhetoric promoted by our president, but youth are particularly vulnerable,” highlighting the increase in anti-Asian rhetoric facing the youth, especially as a result of external governmental figures.
And Cynthia Choi, co-executive director of Chinese For Affirmative Action, said, “Now that most schools have reopened, combating racism against Asian-American students requires ongoing planning and action.” Schools have been heeded to implement procedures to incur growing understanding of the consequences racist actions can have on the self-esteem and identity perception of young Asian Americans.
In They Blamed Me Because I Am Asian, Asian American youth provided recollections of hate speech from peers, including one 15-year-old, who said, “My classmate said that the pandemic is due to poor decision-making by Chinese people (referring to their eating bats) and aimed this comment at me because I was the only Asian student at that table. They also stated that pandemics and global issues are always the fault of Chinese people.”
Another Asian American youth reported observing a woman intentionally avoid them while riding on BART in San Francisco. She allegedly leaned away, covered her face with her shirt, and continuously gave glancing looks at the individual.
After the woman moved away from the Asian American youth, she stopped acting in the aforementioned manner, noting she only acted that way toward them and no one else on the train.
The Stop AAPI Hate report offered six recommendations for schools to address anti-Asian racism in schools, borrowing from They Blamed Me Because I Am Asian, with the following:
- Intervene and investigate promptly and equitably all allegations and any form of harassment, particularly that targeting female students.
- Provide anti-racism training for teachers and administrators specifically addressing the current rise in anti-Asian hate and stereotypes of AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) students. Integrate with social-emotional learning.
- Develop school-wide, anti-bullying policies, including a defined online policy, that encourage safe and accessible reporting systems and restorative justice approaches.
- Implement Ethnic Studies throughout the curriculum, so students learn the historic roots and impacts of racism, develop agency and empathy, and commit to racial solidarity and justice.
- Provide AAPI students with culturally sustaining and responsive wellness services.
- Empower AAPI students through affinity groups, student coalitions, and collective action toward educational and racial equity.
Stop AAPI Hate and individuals like Dr. Russell Jeung remain hopeful that by implementing these recommendations, Asian American Youth may be given a voice.
Dr. Jeung notes, “The hate Asian-American youths are facing could cause irreparable damage to their self-identity and social relationships. The Youth Campaign taught our youth how to disarm hate through conducting research, analyzing data, and advocating for policies that will improve their lives.”
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All this is despicable, of course. Who could not agree with that? Well, racists, who for the most part won’t be reading this. So this is mostly about awareness.
A lot more concerned about the outright violent (verbal or physical) racist behaviors, than the woman appearing to avoid a specific racial group on BART. If someone is told purple spiders are more likely to jump into the air and fly at you and bite you because that’s what they were told and all they know, that person will be more fearful of purple spiders than green ones, even if green ones are more deadly, such is human behavior.
As described these are different behaviors – avoidance due to fear of catching the virus, and calling people racial names, spraying them, honking at them, or headbutting – the latter of which are all violent verbally or physically. I’m sure sensing people backing away from you isn’t pleasant. But I’ll bet if you’d read repeated reports about purple spiders, you might jump back from a purple spider, without thinking about it first.
Last time this subject was brought up, I posed the question regarding Latino/Hispanic. There has been much in the media about the high rates of infection in this community, by health and political officials right here in Yolo County, and in the media about the extremely high rates in Imperial County. Yet I don’t hear about anti-Hispanic/Latino sentiment around Covid-19 – and I asked why. I don’t understand why all the media coverage about high rates of infection in the Hispanic/Latino population hasn’t led to similar racism against that group as it has against Asians. DG said something about because Trump started the anti-Asian sentiment, and Asians weren’t disproportionally responsible for spreading the disease here in the US. I’m not sure I buy the Trump argument, although I won’t totally discount it.