Racism against Asian Americans an ugly thread in U.S. history

“In the U.S., there was a continued rise in the anti-Asian incidents during the period when the coronavirus pandemic ran rampant in the country,” said a report released by the China Society for Human Rights Studies on April 15.

The report reveals the dark history and harsh reality of the racial discrimination against Asians in the U.S. society, emphasizing that Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are subject to discrimination and violations in various forms, and cannot fully enjoy their human rights.

It claims that the increasing racial discrimination against Asians exposes the country’s fundamental racist nature.

Some U.S. politicians and media outlets are reluctant to acknowledge the racial discrimination against Asian Americans, but massive incidents are telling the truth that such discrimination is getting severer.

According to a survey released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB), hate crime cases in the U.S. decreased by 7 percent in 2020 compared with 2019, but those against Asian Americans increased by 149 percent.

According to a report published on Nov. 18, 2021 by the national coalition Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate, from March 19, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021, a total of 10,370 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander people were reported to the organization, with the majority of the incidents took place in public spaces such as public streets and businesses.

Statistics released by the New York City Police Department on Dec. 8, 2021 showed that anti-Asian hate crimes in the city rose by 361 percent from that of 2020.

There’s a Chinese saying that it takes more than one cold day for the river to freeze three feet deep. The UN Secretary-General António Guterres said in March 2021 that "Thousands of incidents across the past year have perpetuated a centuries-long history of intolerance, stereotyping, scapegoating, exploitation and abuse."

Discrimination on a systematic basis is akin to a long-standing malignancy in the United States. In the late 19th century, some politicians and media deliberately stigmatized Asian Americans as "Yellow Peril," and in 1924, all Asians were forbidden to immigrate to the U.S.

Asian Americans have suffered from long-time prejudice, exclusion, and racial violence. The Associated Press once observed that "Racism against Asian Americans has long been an ugly thread in the U.S. history."

In recent years, U.S. politicians have poisoned the U.S. society through political manipulation, which made the racial discrimination against Asians even more rampant. They politicized, labeled and stigmatized the virus, further exacerbating the discrimination against Asian Americans.

White House press secretary admitted that there was "no question" that the former U.S. administration's "damaging rhetoric" led to "elevated threats against Asian Americans." In September 2020, 164 Republican congressmen voted against the bill condemning discrimination against Asian Americans.

Unfortunately, the current U.S. government proceeded to manipulate the public opinion and politicize the COVID-19 origins tracing, further stoking the Anti-Asian sentiments within the U.S. Deceived by some U.S. politicians' and media's lies about the coronavirus pandemic, some African Americans mistook Asian Americans as their enemy and attacked Asian Americans to vent their anger. What the U.S. politician did has further indulged the racial discrimination against Asian Americans.

The increasing racial discrimination against Asians reflects a mindset of the U.S.: bullying the weak, which comes from the “white supremacy” environment. The U.S. government and society have long turned a deaf ear to Asian Americans' complaints of racism and discrimination. The U.S. has never compensated for or reflected on the sufferings it has inflicted on Asian Americans, and even tries its best to cover up or blur relevant facts.

In the U.S., Asian Americans are portrayed as outsiders in racial conflicts. Such identification of Asian Americans in the U.S. makes them the target of racist exclusion. Numerous vicious violent attacks against Asian Americans have gone unfiled as hate crimes. After the three shootings that occurred in Atlanta on March 16, 2021, the spokesman of the local police office openly denied that it was a hate crime and even defended the shooter by claiming that he was having a "bad day." Being labeled as a "permanent alien" is a traumatic experience shared by many Asian Americans, said BBC in a report.

The cold reality reflects that Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are subject to discrimination and violations in various forms, despite the fact that they have made prominent contributions to the progress of the U.S. society and that the ethnic composition of the United States is changing.

The poor records of the U.S. on racial problems mirror the deep-rooted institutional and structural deficits of the U.S. society, profoundly reveal the hypocrisy of the “American human rights,” and debunk the so-called “beacon of human rights.”

(Zhong Sheng is a pen name often used by People’s Daily to express its views on foreign policy and international affairs.)