Hate turned my Asian American mother into a shut-in. This is not the country for which she left her homeland

by

It’s not because of the virus, as Covid-19 continues to rage in my home state of California. It is because she is absolutely certain that as an older Asian woman with a limp, she will be the target of violence.

Ever since the horrific news of the Atlanta shootings broke out, I have been trapped in this simmering rage as I watched events from far away here in Hong Kong. I cannot hug my American family and friends. I can only communicate through screens and doom scroll online.

I’ve been told it’s too early to call Tuesday’s shootings a hate crime, even though six of the eight victims shot in three different locations were Asian women.
I was told that the alleged gunman “had a bad day” and suffered from “sex addiction” after innocent Asian women were murdered while working to support themselves or their families.

This is the kind of thinking that feeds on the sickening stereotype that Asian Americans are “FULLY FINE” and not the target of racial violence.

How many more members of the community have to be attacked, assaulted or slaughtered for this to be widely recognized?

Let’s look at the statistics. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, anti-Asian hate crimes in the US increased 150% during the pandemic.
According to a new study by Stop AAPI Hate this week, there were about 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents in the past year, 68% of which focused on women.
Protesters wearing face masks and holding signs participate in a rally "Love our communities: build collective strength" to raise awareness of anti-Asian violence, at the Japanese American National Museum in Little Tokyo in Los Angeles, California, on March 13, 2021.
Attacks on Asian Americans are on the rise, especially older members of the community who are now too scared to leave their homes.

In February last year, my mom started isolating herself during the outbreak to avoid the comments and looks she got while wearing a mask outside.

She told me on FaceTime with a self-deprecating chuckle, “It’s allergy season too. I’m too scared to sneeze or cough while I’m Asian.”

But the micro-aggressions continued: people coughing in her general direction, one said “you have to be from Wuhan,” another asked, “Why are Asians so paranoid?”

As the pandemic dragged on, such casual insults have turned into next-level bigotry. Asian seniors have been robbed, cut and murdered, while hate crimes against Asian-Americans have increased.

And I dream of being able to teleport my mother here to Asia.

She could wear a mask without being judged.

She could venture into her favorite beef noodle restaurant without fear of being slapped.

She could be left alone and maybe even respected.

To cheer her up, I sent her a viral video from a local San Francisco news story this morning. An elderly Asian woman who defended herself against a man who attacked her. Pictures showed him leaving him on a stretcher with injuries.

But what I picked up to be an “Equalizer” moment of street justice, my mother saw as another tragic example of hatred and discrimination.

She points to the telling details in the video that shows the attacker lying on a stretcher and receiving medical care, while the woman is left alone, screaming and crying, tending to her wounds and trauma.

“I could have been this poor old woman,” my mother says.

And she is absolutely right.

Source