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Recently, there has been a lot of news about Asian Americans being racially discriminated against, including physical attacks, harassment and intimidation. Many of these tactics have been used against women and elderly.

According to researchers Russell Jeung Ph.D., Aggie Yellow Horse, Ph.D., Tara Popovic, and Richard Lim, 3,800 racially motivated incidents have been documented against Asian Americans from March 19, 2020 to February 28 of this year. Women were disproportionately more harmed, reporting 68% of the incidents. Professor Jeung at San Francisco State University said that there is an “intersectional dynamic going on that others may perceive both Asians and women and Asian women as easier targets.” 

While 68% of the incidents involved verbal harassment, 11% involved physical assault. A third of the incidents were directed at Asian American businesses, while 25% of the incidents occurred on public streets. 

Racial tensions have been high over the past year, with the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement following incidents of police brutality against Black Americans.  “I think there are separate trends, the violence that we’re seeing now and the racism we saw last year, but they are related,” Professor Jeung said. 

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, anti-Asian and xenophobic sentiment has been rising throughout the country. This was made worse by President Trump repeatedly calling COVID-19 the “Kung Flu Virus” or the “Chinese Virus” which encouraged Americans to point the finger at another country.  But by doing so, Asians living in America have been made vulnerable and now many feel very unsafe in their own neighborhoods.