Asian Hate Crimes and Covid-19

by Youth Reporter Chaewon Kim

The rise of Covid-19 has led to an increase in crimes abhorrent to the Asian community. In late May this year, President Biden ordered intelligence authorities to conduct an additional 90-day review of the origin of Covid-19.

Asian Hate crime is not only a problem in America, nor is it caused by all Americans. For example, people who are stressed out by economic instability due to Covid-19 channel their frustration to Asians. Since the first Covid-19 outbreak, Asian hate crimes have been committed in the United States.

Also, since the first outbreak of Covid-19 took place in China, many think it is not hygienic, and neighboring countries are also looking at it poorly. The World Health Organization (WHO) has yet to express its position on several hypotheses, including ones that suggest that Covid-19 originated from China, the United States and Italy.

Among the victims of this innocent violence, 63% were women, with many elderly and children.

To prevent hate crimes toward Asians, Korean film directors made films on this theme, and a volunteer group painted murals to prevent hate crimes in Asia. Even among the victims of Asian hate crimes, Koreans were the second-largest in the world. We should all pay attention and understand each other’s culture so that this does not happen again.