As violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders has spiked since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic, two Harvard affiliates said they experienced verbal and physical attacks in Cambridge earlier this spring.
A March report by the nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate identified nearly 3,800 hate incidents against Asian Americans in the past year, 96 of which took place in Massachusetts.
Mary Heather C. âKiwiâ Florido, a Ph.D. candidate in the Biological Sciences in Public Health program who identifies as Filipino-American, said she was walking toward Harvardâs Sherman Fairchild Biochemistry Building, located at 7 Divinity Ave., on March 25 when she witnessed a man yell racial slurs.