The shootings in Atlanta on March 16 that claimed eight lives, including six women of Asian origin, isn’t only a potentially mortal social problem that plagues North America. The mayhem has served to highlight a painful reality, the burgeoning anti-Asian violence not merely in America but in different parts of the world.
The targeting of Asians lends a new dimension to racial attacks, that have all too frequently been provoked by the colour of the skin.
Particularly ghastly was the killing of a black, George Floyd, by a white policeman. It may be sheer coincidence that the surgical strike on Asians coincides with the start of the trial into Floyd’s death. Having succeeded to a depleted presidency, President Joe Biden faces a daunting menace at the threshold.
There is collective trauma in parts of the United States, one that could have a wider ripple effect on the Asian diaspora worldwide. Though Mr Biden is anxious to rein in the migrants from across the Mexican border, there has been no attempt yet to contain the attacks on the class group called “Asian-Americans”.
The killings have sent waves of grief through the community, amid a rising spate of such attacks in recent months and a broader increase in hatred of Asians during the coronavirus pandemic. The situation in the US is but one facet of a global increase in anti- Asian attacks.
For East and South East Asian (ESEA) communities around the world, the enormity of the tragedy in Atlanta is a painful reminder of the ongoing anti-Asian violence that has been on the increase over the past year. It bears recall that in May 2020, the UN Secretary-General, Antonio Guterres, had said that “the pandemic continues to unleash a tsunami of hate and xenophobia, scapegoating and scare-mongering”. He had urged governments to “act now to strengthen the immunity of our societies against the virus of hate.” Mr Guterres had hit the bull’s eye.
Nearly one year on, communities worldwide say the situation hasn’t improved, with many countries reporting spikes in hate crimes. For many, the pandemic has only amplified longstanding and violent racism towards Asians. This link between hate crimes and a dreaded ailment might appear to be contrived on the face of it.
The rise in hate crimes targeting Asian communities is global, with increased reports coming from Canada, and a number of cases involving anti-Asian discrimination and xenophobia reported by Human Rights Watch in Italy, Russia and Brazil last summer. In New Zealand, research by the New Zealand Human Rights Commission released last month found that 54 per cent of Chinese respondents had experienced discrimination since the start of the Covid-19 pandemic.