For those who may not know, hate crime against Asian Americans in the U.S. has risen amid COVID-19. There have been recent attacks mainly on elderlies. With Donald Trump calling COVID-19 as the “Kung Flu” or “Chinese virus,” an increase in violence and harassment increased dramatically. Asian Americans have been told to “go back to their country” or that “every Asian has COVID.” An 84-year-old Thai man by the name of Vicha Ratanapakdee, was murdered outside his home in San Francisco. His daughter Kim stated that Vicha received “racist harassment and verbal abuse” since the beginning of the virus outbreak. There are also videos showing that Vicha was walking to his house and got pushed extremely hard to the point it resulted in death. The murderers were caught and are put on trial however this does not stop more hate crimes that other Asian Americans are experiencing. This broke my heart in pieces because I saw the video of how Vicha got pushed and I am a Thai womxn myself which makes me feel like I lost someone from my community. Although I never met him it hurts me knowing that this type of hate crime can endanger my grandparents or others’. I cannot imagine how Vicha’s daughter and family are feeling right now. A 61-year-old Filipino man by the name of Noel Quintana was slashed in the face during a train ride in New York City. The most inhumane thing about it was that absolutely no one helped Noel. This forces me to question the morals of human beings. How can someone just sit there and let an innocent elderly get slashed in the face? Do the people in the U.S. only care to do something when it only benefits themselves? No one deserves to be spat on, beaten, murdered, or harassed due to the ethnic background they come from. Especially not elderlies. There are more hate crimes going on as we speak however it is imperative that we all spread awareness, educate one another, and with Chinese New Year going on this week, to keep our families safe. It is truly disappointing to know what kind of society we live in to hear about elderlies being murdered or beaten just because people are against the Asian race. We need to do better.
This article is written by a student writer from the Her Campus at UC Riverside chapter.