BY ERIN MCGAY Staff Reporter
When the coronavirus finally reached the United States last spring, Donald Trump made several accusations blaming China for the virus, including referring to COVID-19 as the “China Virus,” spurring a storm of xenophobia throughout the country. The United States saw a 150% increase in Asian American hate crimes. On March 17, 2021, a white gunman opened fire on several spa parlors in Atlanta, Georgia, killing eight people total, six of which were Asian women.
Discrimination towards Asians in America did not begin with the pandemic. The patterns present in the hate and violence against Asians come as “the country faces economic, political, and social challenges or crises,” Dr. Ivan Y. Sun, an Asian-American university professor of Sociology and Criminal Justice wrote in an email. He noted the ethnic cleansing that took place during the 19th century when Asian low-labor workers were no longer needed for the rail and mining industries because of
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