Yesterday, I drove through rural North Carolina to get my first dose of the vaccine. As someone who does countless long drives since college, I’ve always been a little nervous before each long drive. One of my fears I routinely harbor is getting stranded in the middle of nowhere by myself. This time, I had a different fear compounding on top of the usual. I was afraid to be an Asian female on my own while Anti-Asian hate crimes are on the rise. I felt my body tense every time I saw a confederate flag (three times) or a Trump sign (I lost count).
When I made it home safely, I considered maybe I overreacted. But then today, yet another Anti-Asian crime goes viral. A white man shoots and kills 8 people, 6 of whom were Asian women in Atlanta. It is not an irrational fear I felt. This spike in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans has been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic. I’m tired of being afraid for my fellow Asian Americans, for my mom, for me. I’m tired of feeling anger.
I thought this is a relevant time to repost something I first shared on Instagram. I embedded it below but I invite you to read some of the comments on the original post (dated 2/10/21).
What are ways you can help?
- If you have any elderly Asian American neighbors or friends, check in on them. See if they could use help getting groceries or running errands. A lot of these hate crimes are targetting the Asian elderly.
- Support Asian-American-owned businesses. Here’s a list of my favorite Chinatown restaurants in Houston.
- Use your platform to spread awareness. If you don’t have your own words to share, amplify Asian voices. A couple of hashtags you can reference and use are #stopasianhate, #StopAAPIHate.
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