An ongoing issue the United States has had is racism. It is something that no matter how much we try to educate others, they’re too stubborn to understand how morally wrong their beliefs can be. In this case, a community that is often overlooked is the Asian community.

Currently, with the outbreak of the coronavirus, people have been unnecessarily racist to Asian people. The Asian community has been under fire by those blaming them for “bringing the virus” into the U.S. There have been so many people who have been physically assaulted since the virus cases started back in March of this year. Attacks have varied from a group of teens pushing an Asian woman into a water canal, to a group of people assaulting an Asian man on the street and beating him severely.

The two situations I just described to you are examples of things that have occurred worldwide, but let’s focus on the U.S for now. In the first two days of quarantine, an Asian woman in Manhattan was assaulted while minding her own business. The 34-year-old woman was spat on and blamed for the virus by another woman who approached her, and when she tried to walk away, she was pulled by her hair until the police came to separate the two women. Then another occurrence happened back in July, which left me in absolute shock when I saw the news. An 89-year-old woman in Brooklyn was set on fire by two 13-year-old kids shortly after they had slapped her for no reason. The two kids approached the woman with their faces covered and attacked her.

Both of these situations, and many more, didn’t even get a single segment in the news. No one cared enough to speak up about all the terrible things that happened and have been happening in the Asian community, especially this year. While both of these instances had an article written for them, no one has genuinely spoken up for either of these women, nor any Asian person in general, besides the people who are already part of the community.

It shocked and disgusted me to find out about the second news story because I sincerely don’t understand who in their right mind would do something so terrible to an elderly person. I was relieved to find out that she (thankfully) didn’t receive any major injuries, but I was upset to find out that the attackers were only charged with 3rd-degree assault because they are underage. I hope this story will spread like wildfire and our community will finally stop overlooking all the terrible things that keep occurring towards Asians, and people of Asian descent, and do something about it.