Racially motivated harassment of Asian Americans is a longstanding issue in the U.S., but in the year since COVID-19 entered the country, incidents have been on the rise.
Helen Zia, AAPI activist and author of “Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People,” says while task forces addressing anti-Asian hate are steps forward, there has to be more widespread understanding that these are issues that didn’t start yesterday. “Otherwise it’ll be just acts to put band-aids on a much larger issue.”
Zia believes that real change can be made through education. Schools should teach the reality of what America looks like today.
“Very sadly it’s taking seeing videos of 84-year-old and 90-year-old people … getting knocked down and killed. That’s what now is bringing attention to what has been a longstanding problem,” Zia said.
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