Amidst the coronavirus pandemic, there has been a surge in anti-Asian racism in the United States. It’s been reported that there are now more than 1,100 physical and verbal attacks directed at Asian Americans.

Beyond the Chinese-American man who was attacked by several people in San Francisco, an Asian-American man and his two young children were brutally stabbed at a Sam’s Club in Texas and an Asian-American woman was doused with acid outside her New York City home. 

According to SFPublicPress, within a month of its formation, the group “Stop AAPI Hate received almost 1,500 reports of hate incidents. Forty-two percent came from within California and 94 were from San Francisco.”

In addition to these incidents, even the boarding students have encountered anti-Asian racism. Counselor David Lin ‘99, who is the Director of the Boarding Program, has been closely observing the situation. 

Lin said, “To be honest, most of the students who are remaining on campus are all Asian so we really have not felt an increase in anti-Asian racism within the dorms. However, there was an incident of a homeless person who was sleeping in front of the school. One of our students went outside for a walk and the homeless man did make a racist comment towards him because he was Chinese.”

Furthermore, many believe that President Trump has incited more anti-Asian sentiment by calling the coronavirus the “Chinese virus.”  

Cheyne Fernandez ’20 said, “It’s xenophobic in my opinion because individuals using this term are closing in on a specific race group and antagonizing them. Although yes, it was originally discovered in China, but the actions against API (Asian and Pacific Islander) individuals are getting out of hand. It’s a natural occuring virus the world didn’t see coming.”

He added, “People referring to this as the Chinese virus and claiming that the Chinese government created this virus have no valid proof or support that that is true. I feel like as humans we always want a simple and easy resolution to the unknown so referring to COVID-19 as the ‘Chinese virus’ is racist because you are enforcing a negative stigma against a country, a race group, an identification that people coincide with.”

Conversely, Theo Reese ’20 said, “No one blames Chinese people in America for causing the pandemic. They blame the Chinese government.”

However, he said that he does not intend to stir up anti-Asian feelings and his goal is to protect Americans from harm. Some suggest the President has repeatedly referred to it as the “Chinese virus” because Chinese officials have been blaming the US Army for starting it. 

Many Asian-Americans have been victimized, and many, not just Asian-Americans, are urging that negative anti-Asian sentiments be stopped before the country sees the same level of hatred as it did against Muslims after 9/11.