In the last year, waves of anti-Asian violence have swept through NYC. According to official NYPD figures, anti-Asian crimes rose from 30 to 133, a 343 percent spike. On February 13, 2022, Christina Yuna Lee was stabbed forty times by a homeless man. Her killing fit the pattern of violence against Asian women. Just the month before, Michelle Go was shoved to her death on the subway tracks and a week later, Guiying Ma died from a beating several months earlier. None of these cases were confirmed hate crimes but all added to the fear in the Asian American community.
America has a long and sordid history of violence against Asians, particularly the Chinese. In the 1850s, the Chinese began to migrate to the West, attracted by the Gold Rush, mining and railroad work. Racial tension flared as immigrants were labeled as a threat to white jobs. In 1854, the California Supreme Court, in People V. Hall, ruled that testimony of Asians was inadmissible in court against a white man. This effectively reversed the 1853 conviction of George Hall for the murder of Ling Sing, a Chinese miner. The court decision was a prelude to further acts of violence - a mass lynching of 19 immigrants in 1871, the 1875 Page Act prohibiting the entry of Chinese women, and the 1882 Exclusion Act, the only law ever implemented to prevent a specific ethnic group from immigrating to America. In the aftermath, several massacres occurred, as Chinese mine workers were scapegoated over low wages. None of the killers were found guilty.
The rise in anti-Asian violence is undeniable. The questions are why and how to address this issue. There are many possible factors : the pandemic’s impact on mental health, the failure of safety net programs for the homeless, the tension between the US and China. It’s clear that this violence is a blight on our society. No ethnic group should have to live in fear in America. We need more than empty words from politicians and memorials for victims.
We must tackle this epidemic of violence with a multi-pronged approach. Greater awareness would educate the public and protect the community. Better policing and more effective homeless programs would reduce the incidents of violence. Asians must speak up so they can be heard by the media and politicians. The narrative has to change from Asians being blamed for foreign tensions and Covid. Lastly, real efforts have to be made to address mental health. None of these measures will be easy. The taint of the Exclusion Act lasted well into the 20th century. Let us hope the skyrocketing violence against Asian Americans can be resolved more quickly.
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