"To think that other than the native Americans, everyone came from somewhere else."
"To think that other than the native Americans, everyone came from somewhere else."
Asians living in the United States—whether they were born there, legal immigrants or otherwise—are the new focus of hate crimes from bigoted and racist people who are mostly white. It is difficult to comprehend why these people think that they alone have the right to be in the United States. To think that other than the native Americans, everyone—including those who are telling Asians to go back where they came from—came from somewhere else.
Look at what has happened to the original inhabitants of the land. Most of them are now living in reservations and constitute a minority of the population. They, like other people of color, are also experiencing a lot of discrimination. Over the past year alone, it is estimated that there were 3,800 Asian hate crimes in the US. That represents an increase of more than 150 percent from the previous year. Considering that crimes of this nature are often underreported, we can assume that the incidents must at least be two or three times more.
Perhaps many of the unreported cases were in the form of verbal harassment—most common and also most unreported. What is very alarming is that those who are being targeted are women and the elderly.
Some have already died. There was that 84-year-old Thai-American who was pushed while walking and the six women of Asian descent who were killed in Georgia. If no aggressive action is taken to stop these hate crimes, more people will die. What was so shocking in the Georgia incident was that the police spokesman appeared to be lawyering for the gunman by saying that he simply had a bad day. A lot of people have bad days but they do not go out shooting and killing eight innocent people.
To be sure, acts of racism whether subtle or otherwise have always been around in the US. But it was only in the past few years that the violence increased in numbers that have not been seen before. Another difference is that extremist organizations identified as white supremacist groups have been able to come out openly to espouse their racists views. This is probably because of the rhetoric of a former president that appeared to encourage or even endorse racism and race discrimination. When a leader of a country use phrases like “good people from both sides,” “China virus,” or “kung flu,” this cannot help but embolden bigoted and racist people to come out openly notwithstanding that not all Asians in the US come from China.
How many Filipinos have been told to go back where they came from the past year alone? Remember the case of a Filipina woman exercising in a park in California? Of course, right-minded people are one in condemning such unprovoked acts of violence. President Joe Biden condemned it strongly and urged everyone to stop the violence because, as he said, “this is not who we are.” We have often heard that phrase before. Just who exactly are the Americans or more precisely, how do other people really view the Americans and for that matter, the United States? President Joe Biden’s words are perhaps due to the notion nurtured and promoted by the US government that the country is the bastion of democracy, freedom, tolerance and fairness. In many respects, the US government succeeded in this endeavor.
Many people and countries around the world looked up to the US not only for leadership but also for moral compass. All these however, appear to have been thrown out of the window in the last four years. The US in the last few years seemed to be a completely different country from what we were used to. The January 6 assault on the US legislative building to prevent the certification of the election was something that is normally associated with Third World countries. Yet, it happened there. The rioters identified mostly as white supremacist groups have been tagged by the Federal Bureau of Investigation as the most serious threat to the internal security of the US. With firearms easy to acquire, it will not be easy to dismantle these groups.
When President Biden assumed office, he proclaimed that the US is back. By this he probably meant going back to the system in place before his predecessor started to radically change many policies. This will also take time. Party politics there are now so toxic that there seems to be no common ground for any cooperation. Race relations which were supposed to have improved because of the election of President Barack Obama has not and might have even gotten worse. President Joe Biden therefore faces huge challenges.
For us Filipinos, let’s hope that our close relatives in the US will not become victims.