Anti-Asian Racism Is on the Rise in Australia — and It’s Coming From the Top Down
This past year saw a wave of anti-Asian racism, egged on by a club of conservative “anti-anti-racist” commentators who brand opponents of bigotry as stooges for the Chinese Communist Party. It’s long past time to challenge their sly dog whistles and disingenuous smears.
A victim of anti-Asian racism during the pandemic speaks anonymously to News.com.au.
The COVID-19 pandemic triggered a global surge in anti-Asian racism. Although the instigators of that surge claimed they were focusing on China as the source of the virus, it really targeted people of Asian appearance all over the world.
In France, passengers on a public bus abused a woman of Vietnamese and Cambodian origin. In India, citizens from the country’s northeast have been insulted and spat on because of their appearance. And in Indonesia, Japanese nationals have endured harassment.
In the United States last year, authorities logged fifteen hundred reports of incidents of racist abuse against Asian Americans from March 19 to April 15 alone. They detailed instances of people being spat on, yelled at, and threatened. In Chile, people of East Asian descent suffered verbal and physical assaults. Racists circulated flyers saying “Chinese get out.”
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