Asian American professors worry about safety amid rise in anti-Asian attacks
Anti-Asian hate crimes have more than doubled since 2019. “These issues bring up the question of who is American and who is Asian,” Terasaki Center for Japanese Studies director Hitoshi Abe told the Daily Bruin. “This is the world we are living in now, and I really wonder why people can’t value diversity more.”
"Ever since Frank Chang immigrated to the United States from Taiwan in 1979, he has never seen so much violence against Asian Americans.
Some Asian elderly professors at UCLA said they have become concerned for their wellbeing and that of their loved ones with the rise of anti-Asian violence. Of these attacks, many have targeted older Asian individuals. (Chelsea Westman/Daily Bruin) Chang, an electrical engineering professor, is one of many Asian American professors who are unsettled by the rising Asian hate crimes and concerned about both their own safety and the safety of their families.
“I feel uncomfortable because it’s something that’s constantly in the back of my mind,” Chang said. “I’ve never really been concerned until now.”
Many of the high-profile attacks against Asian Americans have been against those who are elderly. A man attacked a 91-year-old Asian man in Oakland’s Chinatown in January. Another person slashed 61-year-old Philipino man Noel Quintana across the face with a box cutter in Harlem in early February.
There have been more than 3,700 reported hate incidents against Asian Americans in the U.S. between March 2020 and February 2021, according to a national report by Stop AAPI Hate. The hate incidents include verbal harassment, shunning, physical assault and online harassment, according to the report."— Irene Zhou and Elana Luo, Apr. 16, 2021
This post is an excerpt. Read the full article on the Daily Bruin website.
Read more about Hitoshi Abe.
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