Tionna Clyburn | Photo by Tionna Clyburn
According to Congress.gov, House Resolution 908, a bill Condemning all forms of anti-Asian sentiment as related to the coronavirus, had 243 votes for the bill and 164 opposing the bill. This was last Sept. On March 16, a gunman shot eight people, six of whom were Asian women.
Local vandalism
Ashley Nguyen is a Wright State University (WSU) marketing and multimedia design major and of Vietnamese descent. While not the direct victim of anti- Asian sentiment, she has been around it.
Xuan Vietnamese- Thai Cuisine, a restaurant in Riverside, Ohio, was vandalized and a smell of gasoline was reported according to WHIO. This restaurant used to be owned by Nguyen’s family, and the grocery store close by is frequented by people she knows.
“I haven’t really been a victim of any of this, which I am grateful for. I don’t know what I would do if something like that happened,” Nguyen said.
Fearing for family
WSU senior media studies major Tionna Clyburn is half-Black and half- Japanese. Throughout the pandemic, Clyburn has been hesitant to see her mother go out alone.
“My mom is full Japanese so since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve been a little more wary of letting her go out by herself,” Clyburn said.
Clyburn’s hesitation to let her mother go out by herself is due to personal experience.
“There was this one distinct time I remember at the very beginning of the pandemic when it was first declared a pandemic, that very first week, we went to Meijer and all these moms with their kids were telling their kids, very loud whispers so they made sure we could hear, stay away from those Asians, they shouldn’t be in the store with, you know, the pandemic going on,” Clyburn said.
This is a single moment among many for Asian- Americans living in the United States today.
Increase in hate crimes
Racist remarks from strangers have become a new reality for Asian-Americans. A string of physical attacks has been seen as well.
“The analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, this month examined hate crimes in 16 of America’s largest cities. It revealed that while such crimes in 2020 decreased overall by 7 percent, those targeting Asian people rose by nearly 150 percent,” NBC News said.
The tragic shooting alarmed many to the harsh treatment of Asian-Americans in the United States.
