People of colour, especially Asians in America are still the subject of hate crimes. Hence, Twitter is trending the #StopAsianHate to raise awareness of the hate crimes and racism carried out against Asian people. To make matters worst, the Covid-19 pandemic has amplified all of it and it’s still perpetuated throughout the Western countries.
Recently, celebrities have been rallying together to #StopAsianHate after the Atlanta shootings that have killed several Asian women. They’re using their platforms to spread awareness of the situation, which will hopefully ensure people finally realise how normalised racism is towards Asians.
The mass shooting took place in three Atlanta-area Asian spa parlors. At least eight people have died in the incident. Many of them were Asian. The person responsible for this awful tragedy is Robert Aaron Long. The 21-year-old Georgia citizen was captured and charged with eight counts of murder. He has since been taken into custody for questioning.
Atlanta Police Chief Rodney Bryant stated that it was too early to claim his acts were racially driven. He went on to explain that they “have a lot of things to process”. Allegedly, Bryant claimed that Long’s “sexual addiction” was the main reason he committed the crime.
At a news conference, a law enforcement official says early indications are that Atlanta-area mass shooter Robert Aaron Long may have been motivated by issues stemming from "sexual addiction," not racism — but he cautions that the investigation is in an early stage pic.twitter.com/jCyDGyZxQ7
— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) March 17, 2021
Asian Americans were enraged by such a statement, with a high chance of Asians residing outside America feeling the exact same way. It’s worth mentioning that perceiving Asian women as sexual objects is still very racist.
Ignorance and bigotry have led to anti-Asian crimes increasing tremendously since the start of the pandemic. Around 3800 incidents of hate crimes against Asians since last year. Some authorities including sheriff Jay Baker blamed Asians for spreading the coronavirus.
Celebrities from around the world took to social media to spread awareness of the increasing violent activities against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI).
Korean-American actress Jamie Chung stated that using Asian Americans as a scapegoat needs to stop. She also exclaimed, “These murders and countless acts of violence and the destruction of businesses and white terrorism in our communities are the direct cause of politicians and leaders fanning the flames of anti-Asian rhetoric”. Chung continued, “Historically Asian immigrants have been the scapegoat for others misfortunes”.
She ended her post by stating, “It starts by calling it what it is. MEDIA YOU NEED TO DO BETTER, CALL IT WHAT IT IS, DOMESTIC TERRORISM HATE CRIMES AGAINST ASIANS”.
Japanese-American George Takei also weighed in on the whole situation of anti-Asian sentiments and called the mass shooting “a hate crime”. The 83-year-old actor also demanded GOP leaders to “stop fanning violence with anti-Asian rhetoric”.
Takei also continued on stating that, “Words have consequences, especially those from our leaders”. This statement all started after House of Representatives minority leader Kevin McCarthy used the term “Chinese coronavirus” instead of using non-racist terms to describe the virus. He also urged reporters to question politicians who use racially insensitive words if they feel responsible for all the violence that started.
Comic book writer Sarah Kuhn stated how White people should do better. Just because they consume and love Asian pop cultures such as anime and K-Pop, they shouldn’t stop ignoring the racism committed against regular Asians.
Non-Asian people, especially White individuals have a huge tendency to disrespect Asians while consuming Asian culture, and it’s very much true.
K-Pop singers are also helping the fight against racism and teaching their large fandoms on what happened in Atlanta. They are also educating their fans on what Asian Americans have to go through in America.
Former 2NE1 (투애니원) member CL and Korean American singer Eric Nam (투애니원) took to Twitter to speak out against Asian hate crimes. The female idol tweeted, “We stand together” while Nam was in disbelief as to how Asians were treated.
Other Asian celebrities speaking out against anti-Asian racism can be seen in the following:
Ludi Lin
Daniel Dae Kim
Margaret Cho
Mindy Kaling
Simu Liu
Henry Golding
Racism should never be tolerated. It’s bad no matter the context. What a shame to witness racism against Asians being normalised to such a high standard. Also, if any of you are Asian, please do not enable your non-Asian friends to say racial slurs towards Asians. Internalised racism needs to be addressed as well and you guys are only perpetuating those stereotypes.
We as Asians need to come together. There are plenty of other celebrities rallying together to combat racism against the Asian community. We’re not alone on this. Let’s stop racism!
