There’s been a rise in attacks on Asian-Americans in recent months, especially the elderly. This is true. Statistics confirm it.
But when it comes to perpetrators of recent acts of violence against Asian-Americans, it’s hardly white supremacy that’s to blame. Vicha Ratanapakdee, an immigrant from Thailand who lived in San Francisco, was brutally assaulted on video by Antoine Watson, a black 19-year-old.
Many attribute the 2020 uptick to the xenophobic rhetoric of Biden’s predecessor; former President Trump repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as “the China virus,” blaming the country for the pandemic. In doing so, Trump followed in a long American history of using diseases to justify anti-Asian xenophobia, one that dates back to the 19th and 20th centuries and has helped to shape perception of Asian Americans as “perpetual foreigners.”
Blaming the rise in physical assaults by whites on Asians because of the pandemic and Trump using the dreaded “Chinese virus” as a reason to hate doesn’t make any sense. This is especially true since almost all the attacks on Asians have been carried out by members of minority groups.
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