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#StopAsianHate: a hashtag to denounce racism targeting Asians

Through the hashtag #StopAsianHate, many testimonials have been published on Twitter to the United States, and in France in recent days, to denounce acts racist targeting Asian people.

This hashtag echoes the violence, verbal and physical, suffered by Asians in the name of a stigma reinforced by the Covid-19 pandemic.

The hashtag was first used in 2011 on the social network but has gained in popularity from February 2020, at a time when the first effects of the pandemic are starting to affect countries outside the Asian continent.

Since the weekend of February 20 to 21, 2021, this hashtag has returned to “trending topics”, that is, the subjects generating the most tweets in a given period, in several countries, including France.

Spitting, urination and physical assault

Testimonies denounce the stigmatization to which people of Asian origin have been victims: “To work in a Chinese restaurant is to hear des”ching Chong ” ” there are no dogs on the map ?? ”” or the trivialization that is made of it.

Others deplore physical violence, ranging from spitting or urine stream to physical attacks. “I was leaving my house, I was heading to the station to take my train, when I got stuck and hit because of my origins”, deplores a victim of assault on Twitter.

“Keep your corona”

“I took a lot of remarks that were turned into jokes when it was totally trivialized racism”, complains a Rennes student in LEA. “This anti-Asian racism I have suffered since I was very small and there with the corona it has become even worse”

Adding: “I was told ” Keep your corona ” when I coughed at the university or they made me signs of slanted eyes, and this, even from close friends”.

“We need your help to make our voice heard”

If #JeNeSuisPasUnVirus, another hashtag to denounce stigma since Covid-19, had been launched at the beginning of 2020 in France, the hashtag #StopAsianHate has taken root in the United States.

Hateful acts against Asians have pushed some personalities including Michelle Lee, chief editor of the magazine Allure, to publish, on February 16, a video on her Instagram account in which she calls for an end to the hatred targeting Asians.

“We need your help to make our voice heard, amplify our message and end the anti-Asian rhetoric that divides”, she explains.

In the United States, anti-Asian acts escalate

In her post, Michelle Lee recounts events that have taken place in recent weeks in the United States, including the murder of Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old man from Thailand who was killed in San Fransisco. But also, the story of91 year old man violently pushed to the ground in Chinatown, Oakland, California, or that of an American-Filipino, stabbed victim in the New York subway.

After these multiple acts of violence, other hashtags emerged including #StopAsianHateCrimes, #AsiansAreHuman or #StopAAPIHate.

2,808 racist incidents reported in the United States between March and December 2020

The latter is the name of a national coalition which carries out a documentation of anti-Asian acts during the Covid-19 pandemic. The organization received more than 2,808 testimonials from victims of anti-Asian hate between March 19 and December 31, 2020, in 47 states in addition to the District of Columbia.

Among these testimonies, 70.9% complained of verbal harassment, 21.4% of avoidance by stigma and 8.7% of physical assault.

24 hate crimes “motivated” by the coronavirus

The Guardian reports that the New York Police Department has noted an increase in acts of violence and murder targeting Asians in its area since the start of the pandemic.

New York law enforcement recorded 29 murder victims of Asian origin in 2020, including 24 “motivated” by the Covid-19. This is 26 more than in 2019.

“Reject the ignorant rhetoric that feeds this wave of violence”

“I am deeply concerned about the increase in hate crimes targeting Asian Americans”, lamented former US President Bill Clinton on his Twitter account.

Adding: “We must speak out against discrimination of all kinds, reject the ignorant rhetoric that is fueling this wave of violence, and reach out to our neighbors”.

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