The Philippine Embassy in Washington D.C. today urged the United States government to protect Asian-Americans, including Filipinos, from race-fuelled attacks.
The embassy said in a statement that it noticed “with concern the rise in attacks on Asian-Americans” in different parts of the US. It added that while it appreciates the “swift action” taken by the authorities to apprehend the perpetrators of such crimes, they should “further ensure the protection of persons of Asian descent, including Filipinos.”
Read: Filipino man’s face disfigured after attack in New York subway
“Filipinos are advised to exercise utmost caution in view of these incidents. Those who experience attacks are advised to immediately call 911 to report incidents,” the embassy said.
A string of hate-fuelled attacks has targetted Asian-Americans since the pandemic began, according to activists. An elderly Thai man out for his morning walk died in January in San Francisco after a teenager barreled through him. A 61-year-old Filipino had his whole face disfigured when he was attacked by a man wielding a box cutter in New York City early this month. A few weeks ago, an elderly Vietnamese woman was robbed in San Jose, California.
An advocate said that the attacks against Asian-Americans were reminiscent of “yellow peril,” a racist ideology that arose in the 19th century that sees Asians as a threat to the Western world. Experts believe that such crimes were a result of the spread of the coronavirus, which was first discovered in Wuhan, China in late 2019.
In response, community leaders put up a website called Stop AAPI (Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders) Hate, which began recording instances of such crimes from March 2020, when the World Health Organization formally declared the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
As of this month, the website has received more than 2,800 first-hand reports of hate crimes, which included verbal harassment (71%), shunning (21%), physical assault (9%), and being spit on (6%).
