Skip to content Skip to search

Republish This Story

* Please read before republishing *

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free under an Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives Creative Commons license as long as you follow our republishing guidelines, which require that you credit The 19th and retain our pixel. See our full guidelines for more information.

To republish, simply copy the HTML at right, which includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to The 19th. Have questions? Please email [email protected].

— The Editors

Loading...

Modal Gallery

/
Sign up for our newsletter

Menu

  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships
    • From the Collection

      Changing Child Care

      Illustration of a woman feeding a baby a bottle
      • 1 in 4 parents report being fired for work interruptions due to child care breakdowns

        Chabeli Carrazana · February 2
      • Washington, D.C., offers financial relief to local child care workers

        Orion Rummler · September 20
      • As climate change worsens hurricane season in Louisiana, doulas are ensuring parents can safely feed their babies

        Jessica Kutz · May 5
    • From the Collection

      Next-Gen GOP

      Illustration of a woman riding an elephant
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • A banner year for Republican women

        Amanda Becker · November 11
      • Republican women could double representation in the U.S. House

        Amanda Becker · November 4
    • From the Collection

      On The Rise

      Illustration of three women marching
      • Can Cheri Beasley build a winning coalition in North Carolina?

        Candice Norwood · October 11
      • Los Angeles has never elected a woman mayor. Karen Bass hopes to change that.

        Nadra Nittle · September 8
      • Judge J. Michelle Childs is confirmed to D.C. appeals court

        Candice Norwood · July 20
    • From the Collection

      Pandemic Within a Pandemic

      Illustration of four people marching for Black Lives Matter with coronavirus as the backdrop
      • Some LGBTQ+ people worry that the COVID-19 vaccine will affect HIV medication. It won’t.

        Orion Rummler · November 23
      • Why are more men dying from COVID? It’s a complicated story of nature vs. nurture, researchers say

        Mariel Padilla · September 22
      • Few incarcerated women were released during COVID. The ones who remain have struggled.

        Candice Norwood · August 17
    • From the Collection

      Portraits of a Pandemic

      Illustration of a woman wearing a mask and holding up the coronavirus
      • For family caregivers, COVID is a mental health crisis in the making

        Shefali Luthra · October 8
      • A new database tracks COVID-19’s effects on sex and gender

        Shefali Luthra · September 15
      • Pregnant in a pandemic: The 'perfect storm for a crisis'

        Shefali Luthra · August 25
    • From the Collection

      The 19th Explains

      People walking from many articles to one article where they can get the context they need on an issue.
      • The 19th Explains: What we know about Brittney Griner’s case and what it took to get her home

        Candice Norwood, Katherine Gilyard · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why the Respect for Marriage Act doesn’t codify same-sex marriage rights

        Kate Sosin · December 8
      • The 19th Explains: Why baby formula is still hard to find months after the shortage

        Mariel Padilla · December 1
    • From the Collection

      The Electability Myth

      Illustration of three women speaking at podiums
      • Mayra Flores’ victory set a record for women in Congress. It also reflects the growing visibility of Republican Latinas

        Candice Norwood · June 21
      • Stepping in after tragedy: How political wives became widow lawmakers

        Mariel Padilla · May 24
      • Do term limits help women candidates? New York could be a new testing ground

        Barbara Rodriguez · January 11
    • From the Collection

      The Impact of Aging

      A number of older people walking down a path of information.
      • From ballroom dancing to bloodshed, the older AAPI community grapples with gun control

        Nadra Nittle, Mariel Padilla · January 27
      • 'I'm planning on working until the day I die': Older women voters are worried about the future

        Mariel Padilla · June 3
      • Climate change is forcing care workers to act as first responders

        Jessica Kutz · May 31
    • From the Collection

      Voting Rights

      A series of hands reaching for ballots.
      • Connecticut voters approved early voting. Here’s how their new secretary of state wants to make it happen.

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 13
      • Women lawmakers in Minnesota are in the vanguard of the democracy movement

        Barbara Rodriguez · February 3
      • Election workers believe in our system — and want everyone else to, too

        Barbara Rodriguez, Jennifer Gerson · November 8

    View all collections

  • Explore by Topic

    • 19th Polling
    • Abortion
    • Business & Economy
    • Caregiving
    • Coronavirus
    • Education
    • Election 2020
    • Election 2022
    • Election 2024
    • Environment & Climate
    • Health
    • Immigration
    • Inside The 19th
    • Justice
    • LGBTQ+
    • Military
    • Politics
    • Press Release
    • Race
    • Sports
    • Technology

    View All Topics

Home
  • Our Mission
  • Our Team
  • Latest Stories
  • Search
  • Upcoming Events
  • Contact Us
  • Newsletter
  • Donate
  • Work With Us
  • Fellowships

We’re an independent, nonprofit newsroom reporting on gender, politics and policy. Read our story.

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

A woman holds a sign that reads
(Photo by JASON REDMOND/AFP via Getty Images)

Coronavirus

Asian American advocates fear new attacks on women and older adults after COVID-19 origin report

“We want our communities to be prepared,” so the Asian American Foundation issued a toolkit on how victims and witnesses can respond.

Orion Rummler

LGBTQ+ Reporter

Orion Rummler headshot

Published

2021-08-30 11:00
11:00
August 30, 2021
am

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

Violent attacks against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders coincided with the start of the pandemic, and although media attention has waned, reports haven’t stopped.

And Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) advocacy groups are worried that the COVID-19 origin report, released Friday by the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, may drive a new rise in attacks against the community, especially against women and older people who are seen as more vulnerable targets. They also fear officials may not take victims’ reports seriously unless people are speaking out regularly and emphatically.

The report’s inconclusive results come after scientists involved in the research reportedly said that time is running out to find reliable information on the virus’ origin — and as the White House continues to pin the lack of results on government officials in China not cooperating with investigations.

The 19th thanks our sponsors. Become one.

The potential blowback from this reminder of the virus’ roots in China, and the difficulty investigators have had with obtaining information, is what the AAPI groups are bracing for.

“We wanted our communities to be prepared,” said Sonal Shah, president of the Asian American Foundation, explaining why the recently formed philanthropic group released a toolkit last week. The kit encourages victims of hate crimes or similar incidents to call for help in the moment, write down details later and file a police report. It also encourages people to seek legal representation if necessary.

Stories by experienced reporters you can trust and relate to.

Delivered directly to your inbox every weekday.

Please check your email to confirm your subscription!

Submitting…

Uh-oh! Something went wrong. Please try again later.

SurveyMonkey data cited by the Asian American Foundation’s toolkit found that a majority of Asian Americans are worried about being attacked again or bringing unwanted attention to their family if they report a hate crime.  

Reported physical assaults against AAPI people, mostly adults and seniors, have increased by nearly 6 percent since last year, according to data released this month by the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate. Reports of vandalism and online hate have also increased, while verbal harassment has decreased compared to 2020. 

Yushu Fu, who moved to the United States from China 10 years ago, told The 19th that after the pandemic started — and as former President Donald Trump frequently referred to the coronavirus “the Chinese virus” and “Kung-flu” — she felt like she was being held responsible for a crisis that she had nothing to do with. 

“You kind of feel like you got a little shorter,” said Fu, who lives in Delaware and now holds U.S. citizenship. “I remember when I go to the store I would always put a hat on and a mask.” Either consciously or unconsciously, she said, she just wanted to cover herself up. 

Fu said that her father-in-law, who is White, eventually advised her last year not to go anywhere by herself — or to take her son, who is now 3 years old, out alone. 

“That kind of put a weight on me,” she said. “I realized, okay, it’s not just in my head.”

Stop AAPI Hate has received as many reports of hate incidents in the first six months of 2021 as it did in the last nine months of 2020, it said in a letter to the White House earlier this month. And Asian-American women are still reporting the bulk of the hate incidents, according to the group’s data. Women reported 63.3% of the incidents tracked from March last year through August. The organization has said it does not independently verify each report. 

Data released by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF) this month found that 70 percent of polled AAPI women 50 and older said that racism and hate had impacted their lives in some way. 

Drishti Pillai, research manager at NAPAWF, said that while the Biden administration has helped shift the tone away from the Trump years by condemning attacks against the community, more can still be done. 

“Staying silent isn’t enough, you have to actively condemn these acts of hate and make sure that people understand that AAPIs, we are still American, we are as much American as anyone else,” she said. 

Shah stressed that AAPI people who experience a hate incident should report it so the scope of the situation can be shown to local officials. 

Bystanders should also help victims report incidents, she said, and speak up. 

“If it’s not happening to us doesn’t mean that it’s not our problem,” she said. “Because when it does happen to us, we want somebody to speak up for us, too.” 

One reason TAAF released the toolkit, Shah said, was because it was important to remind officials and the news media not to play down the attacks.

Jason Wu, co-chair of GAPIMNY-Empowering Queer & Trans Asian Pacific Islanders, said that systemic change is needed to address the violence faced by AAPI people — and discrimination faced by the community as a whole. 

“Policing, hate crimes prosecutions, none of that provides more resources or support for our communities, none of that actually changes anything systemically,” he said. 

He is also worried about a spike in hate incidents, but added: “I’m always worried. None of this is new … anti-Asian attacks are only one part of it.” 

  • More from The 19th
    Rep. Grace Meng (L) (D-NY) joined by Rep. Mark Takano (C) (D-CA) and Rep. Judy Chu (D-CA) speaks on the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act at the U.S. Capitol.
  • House passes hate crimes bill after year of increased violence against Asian Americans
  • ‘Never being American enough:’ Asian women on living in a country that feels increasingly unsafe
  • How Sens. Mazie Hirono and Susan Collins worked across the aisle to pass a bill on anti-AAPI hate crimes

“The violation of Asian women is embedded in American history and culture,” Xoai Pham, a trans Vietnamese American writer, wrote this spring in an Esquire magazine story that Wu pointed to. 

“Asian women are seen as inherently violable—whether we’re cisgender or transgender women only determines the degree of violation,” Pham wrote.

In Delaware, Fu started speaking out not just because of the atmosphere of fear, but because of how her local leaders seemed to perceive people of Asian descent.

Fu organized Delaware Asian American Voice after Democratic state Rep. Gerald Brady admitted to using a racial slur to refer to Asian women — and characterizing them as sex workers through a deragatory description — from his government email address. Brady apologized and is not seeking reelection, but that is not enough for everyone. Liz Shuler, president of the AFL-CIO, called for Brady’s resignation from his local executive director position within the labor union on Friday. 

Fu said that Brady’s email and her interactions with local lawmakers as she lobbied for his ouster made her feel that her hope earlier in the pandemic — that politicians and media were taking discrimination against AAPIs seriously — was naive. 

“Tactics like this do not ingratiate you to anyone who could help your cause,” Delaware state Rep. Eric Morrison, a progressive Democrat, wrote in a public Facebook comment to Fu after a July town hall meeting. 

Like many people of Asian descent, Fu over the years has felt she experienced microaggressions at her job and felt stifled by stereotypes that Asian women are expected to not make waves or be angry. These experiences didn’t bother her as much until she became a mom, she added. Now, when taking her son to the neighborhood playground she tries to avoid eye contact with people who appear to have a problem with her.

“I’m thinking about, my kid is going to grow up here and experience all the discrimination,” she said. “It hurts me in a different way. … It’s very upsetting for me to think about, one day my son will be old enough to realize what this is and how he is going to take it.”

Pillai said policymakers should start caring about the rise in anti-AAPI violence — and about the political power of Asian American women.

Nearly 80 percent of AAPI women 50 years and older surveyed by NAPAWF said they voted in the 2020 election — and a majority also voted in congressional elections and governors’ races, Pillai pointed out. Asian Americans are also the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the country. 

“It is important to understand that these stories and these voices can no longer be ignored,” she said.

Disclosure: The Asian American Foundation has been a financial supporter of The 19th.

Share

  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Email

The 19th Represents Summit

Don’t miss our biggest event of 2023!

Register Today

Become a member

Up Next

Protester holding a sign that says cancel rent.

Business & Economy

The 19th Explains: The Supreme Court says evictions can resume. Here’s what that means, and how to get help.

The decision, effective immediately, stated that Congress must authorize a federal moratorium in order for the ban to continue -- and that looks unlikely.

Read the Story

The 19th
The 19th is a 501(c)(3) tax-exempt organization. Our stories are free to republish in accordance with these guidelines.

  • Donate
  • Newsletter
  • Events
  • Search
  • Jobs
  • Fellowships
  • Contact Us
  • About Us
  • Community Guidelines
  • Membership
  • Membership FAQ
  • Major Gifts
  • Sponsorship
  • Privacy
  • Twitter
  • Facebook
  • Instagram