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My regular walk every evening on the outer loop. Another regular, an old fella calling out “Mr. Wuhan" in a low voice as he walked behind me. I was stunned and had to look back twice not believing what I heard. I had my iPhone camera ready on our next encounter but he knew what I was doing and quietly moved away.
I always run, and I always have. I've never really had any issues, every now and then a crooked look, but people generally ignore runners. I'm an ultradistance trail runner. I run with gear—a Patagonia running vest with silicon chest water bottles, a visor, and a buff. I cover my face with the buff when I get within about 20 feet of anyone, and I try to avoid people by jumping into the street. I have run this exact route with my partner dozens of times. But this time was different. There is a skinny path on Lake Washington Blvd, which bypasses running on the road. I slowed down through the path, it's single-track, and I didn't want to bump into anyone. This middle-aged woman saw me.
She screamed, and she pointed. "KEEP AWAY FROM ME WITH YOUR VIRUS." I was so taken aback. She followed it up with, "I MEAN IT." What I have yet to say is my ethnicity. I'm biracial, Filipino-Danish. My skin, eyes, and hair reflect my Filipino heritage, and my cheekbones, freckles, and jaw show off my Danish half. I'm not Chinese, but that really isn't the point. With a buff over my mouth and nose and my visor covering my forehead, the only thing she could have made out was my eyes and the colour of my skin.
I experienced an awful incident of anti-Asian coronavirus-related racism in Madison Square Park in NYC and am sharing with the hope of spreading awareness to prevent future incidents.
I'm a young Asian/Caucasian female and was verbally harassed with phrases including "Kung-flu." After the first incident I walked away and found another part of the park to sit in. I was found by the harassers and experienced a second incident, part of which I captured on video. I am happy to share that video but would like to remain off the record and anonymous so my name is not attached to the story or video. I've lived in NYC for 10 years and this was the first time I've been harassed based on race (all prior experiences have been based on gender). I'm concerned for people's safety with the growing numbers of harassment incidents toward the AAPI population.
My brother and I run a small restaurant. A Doordash Driver came to our store for pick up. And he said, “I don't want to get close to you. You are Asian and you have Coronavirus”. We wanted to talk to Doordash manager to discuss about the issue. But we have not received a call from them yet.
I am a railroad conductor for the MBTA Commuter Rail in Boston, MA. I was approached by two white male passengers on the train station platform, who asked why the trains were operating two hours apart. I told them that the reduced schedule was due to the COVID-19 state of emergency.
They replied, “oh right, the virus you fucking C****S started.” I responded by telling them to leave and that the police would be called. They walked away while shouting racial slurs and death threats.
My wife and I are both of Chinese descent. We are both front-line critical care physicians taking care of increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients on a daily basis. Our mother-in-law has been living with us in order to provide care for our one-year-old daughter. For the past year, we have lived in a community with an HOA. Our neighbor has been on the board of directors for the past year, and he has scrutinized alleged violations of the HOA bylaws to the point of making many of us miserable. In particular, this neighbor has repeatedly harassed my wife and I regarding my mother-in-law parking in the guest/occupant parking spot. He does not want anyone to park in the guest spots in front of his house, because it "ruins his view." We ultimately decided to ignore him, but did agree to move the car to the street so as not to incite further harassment.
Recently, I overheard him making disparaging remarks about my wife to another neighbor. When I confronted him outside to ask why it was he was spreading malicious rumors about us, he became infuriated, and advanced towards me (breaking the 6-ft barrier while not wearing a mask) while carrying a large shovel. He proceeded to "chest-bump" me and told me "I will put you down, little Asian man." Out of self-defense, I shoved him back, and he seemed surprised at the reaction. This incident was shortly reported to the police, who stated this was simply a civil matter. When I reported this to the HOA manager, she was less than helpful, and proceeded to take the side of the neighbor in claiming that this was a dispute between neighbors.
Two days later, this neighbor called one of his family members to verbally accost my mother-in-law, who is elderly and barely speaks English. She felt that her life was being threatened at that time. I again reported this to the HOA manager and, once again, she refused to escalate the issue, and instead took the side of the neighbor while also blaming my mother-in-law. I find it incredibly disheartening that, while my wife and I are risking our lives to take care of others affected by this terrible disease, petty individuals like this neighbor are inciting racial hatred against us in our community, and we are unable to seek any form of remedy from the HOA management. We would like to request any possible assistance from Asian American support organizations in bringing into the limelight this and other cases of discrimination against Asian Americans. Thank you.
My mom and I, both of Chinese descent, were walking on the sidewalk. A man walking towards us tried to shoo us away from him with his hand and shouted, “Stay away, I don’t want your coronavirus!”
The tax accountant I was working with at the time sent out a blanket email in late March to all his clients saying he was advising doing tele-conferences rather than meetings in person due to the “Chinese Virus Epidemic”. At best, this is unprofessional and insensitive, and at worst, it’s in-your-face racism (to use his business as a platform from which to project his racial biases). He later sent out a second similar blanket email where he referred to the "Wuhan Virus". This behavior encourages racist people to openly express their racism towards Asian-Americans, as it serves no other purpose.
I was hiking with my girlfriend and her roommates in a regional park. At the beginning of our hike, a woman walking the opposite direction to us approached our group and punched both my girlfriend and I in the face and said, "f** you coronavirus." Our group did not escalate the matter further, and the woman walked away from us without a single look back.
There was a sign placed outside of a local business advertising a sale on their ice cream, calling it the "China Virus Special". The owner was contacted and he refused to change or remove the sign, but as more residents expressed their anger in person and online and threatened to boycott, the sign was removed after 3-4 days.
A man put a bike tire with "Made in China" and a Corona beer bottle in front of my neighbor's house. My neighbor is Chinese American and we suspect this was a racially-motivated act relating to COVID-19.
My next door neighbor says in my surveillance camera, "You are dead!" I reported this to the Police Department. After the police are gone, he continues with racial slurs. Now he says, "Chinese disease. I live next to a Chinaman. Oh my God. It is a Chinese disease. That's what President Trump says." I am very upset that I have to deal with this ignorance and bigotry in my backyard.
I was at the gas station down the street from my apartment in Highland Park when a man pulled up behind me and got out of the car mumbling about Wuhan and Chinese people. He seemed a little manic and unstable so I tried to leave the gas station as soon as I could.
When I turned to glance at him, he had his phone out at chest level as if being covert, seemingly filming me. When we briefly made eye contact he said "f*** you" as he continued to film me. Each time I made full eye contact, he turned his back from me and continued to mumble as if trying to hide that he was filming. I felt unsafe so I got in my car and quickly snapped a picture of his license plate. I really didn't know what else to do. It had me fuming...there's so many Asian American communities in Alhambra and SGV which are neighboring Highland Park - I was thinking about their safety and how this man might've already harassed them.
Weijia Jiang, a White House correspondent for CBS News, asked the President why he sees coronavirus testing as a global competition when more than 80,000 Americans have died. "Maybe that's a question you should ask China," Trump told Jiang, who was born in China and immigrated to the United States when she was two years old. "Don't ask me. Ask China that question, OK?"
During the news of the closure of non-essential businesses in Nevada, my apartment complex sent out a general email noting that there was a first confirmed case of COVID-19. A majority of residents I spoke to on my walks with my dog (from 6 feet away) told me they hoped that whoever it was, gets better (since the name listed on the apartment-wide announcement was anonymous). However, a few neighbors had called me on my phone and asked if it was I who had COVID-19 because they presumed I was "Asian" and more "accessible" to the virus because of their assumptions on where I might shop, eat, socialize, etc. In my own apartment complex, where I've called home for the past year or so, I didn't know that I would be surrounded by misconceptions, hate, prejudice, and plain ignorance. Nevada is a diverse state, and I was not expecting to be surrounded by such negative assumptions about who I am, where I go to get groceries, and how I live my life. This form of "attack" is not as violent or physical like many of the cases we now see in the news. However, this type of prejudice-filled thinking is what brings many people to attacking Asian American Pacific Islanders across the country.
Racism has many forms and transforms itself in many ways - even in intimate settings like at home. I hope the attacks, prejudice, and racist-filled thinking stops.