Violence Against Asian Americans

We are heartbroken and outraged by the horrific acts of hate in Atlanta and mourn the lives lost and grieve the lives that are forever changed. 

 

There has been a huge surge of documented hate violence towards Asian Americans over the past year, and Asian American women have overwhelmingly borne the brunt of it, and these acts have been likeliest to take place at Asian American businesses.

 

Here at the NABWMT we have fought hard against violence against people at the margins especially those in the LGBTQ community. However we have rarely shouted out against such acts against Asian American Pacific Islanders. Now is the time!

 

Whether racial slurs, discriminatory practices, or acts of gun violence, we know anti-Asian violence is being fueled by years and generations of vicious anti-Asian rhetoric and action. White supremacist harm is abundant in Asian-American, Latinx and Black communities.

 

For example, Chinese immigrants began coming to the United States in significant numbers in the 1850s, largely to California and other Western states, to work in mining and railroad construction. There was high demand for these dangerous, low-wage jobs, and Chinese immigrants were willing to fill them. Almost immediately, the racist trope of “Asians coming to steal White jobs” was born. And in 1854, the California Supreme Court reinforced racism against Asian immigrants in a ruling that people of Asian descent could not testify against a White person in court.

 

Economic woes in the 1870s spawned another spike in anti-Asian racism and scapegoating. In 1882, Congress overwhelmingly passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which banned Chinese immigration for 20 years. 

 

By the 1940s, tens of thousands of Japanese immigrants and Japanese Americans had built lives in the United States. After Japan bombed Pearl Harbor and the United States entered World War II, the U.S. government forced all of them into internment camps for the duration of the war over suspicions they might aid the enemy. 

 

Fast forward to last year when racism against Asian Americans occurred during the coronavirus pandemic, which former President Donald Trump frequently called “the China virus,” “the Wuhan virus,” and the “Kung Flu.”

 

LGBTQ people have been disproportionately impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic. LGBTQ people are more vulnerable to the health risks of COVID-19 and often more likely to work jobs in highly-affected industries — with data released this week by the HRC Foundation showing that 24% of LGBTQ people of color are currently unemployed due to the pandemic, compared to 13% of the general population.

 

Those who are living at the intersection of being LGBTQ, Asian American have to confront a surge in anti-Asian hate and violence and have to face a multi-fronted battle to live their lives openly and safely in this country.