Centre County’s Asian American community not ‘OK’ as hate crimes rise, racism stoked around U.S.
Penn State Professor Margaret Hu, a Chinese-American, is not OK.
She’s watched as hate crimes against Asian Americans have risen across the country, with a Cal State center estimating a 149% increase in large-city incidents from 2019 to 2020. She’s seen all the horrifying news of 2021: February’s brazen attack on a 91-year-old Asian-American man in broad daylight at Oakland’s Chinatown, last month’s New York City subway attack on a Filipino-American man who received almost 100 stitches during a box-cutter attack, and last week’s hate-fueled Atlanta spa killings, where six of eight victims were Asian.
That last event has prompted much of the nation to take a closer look at hate crimes against Asian Americans. But, for Hu and many others around Centre County and the U.S., racism against Asian Americans is far from a new construct — it’s something they’ve grown up with and seen stoked in recent years.
And it’s not OK. Hu is not OK.
“I’m absolutely heartbroken by the events of this past weekend, the events of this past year. My heart is incredibly heavy,” she said during a university Zoom discussion Monday titled “Community Conversation: Anti-Asian Racism.” “And I want to thank everyone who’s reached out to me and asked me if I was OK. Because I have not been OK. And I’ve been very honest with that — but I am not OK.”
The night before an Atlanta gunman visited three spas, shooting nine people and killing eight, State College Borough Councilwoman Katherine Yeaple introduced a resolution that formally condemned acts of bias and hate against Asian Americans. She noted the significant increase in such acts, as one group — Stop AAPI Hate — reported that 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents occurred nationally over the previous 12 months.
Although a police spokesperson confirmed there were no reported local hate crimes against Asian Americans since last March, Yeaple showed there was still hate. According to a report compiled by Zencity, which analyzes data for local governments, 23% of public comments online — in State College — were negative this past year when referring to Asian Americans, with many referring to a “China Virus” or “China Joe Biden.”
“Young people in the area have been harassed, called names and coughed upon,” Yeaple said. “So we’re not immune to this national trend.”
Added Councilman Evan Myers: “We must speak in one voice and say this is not acceptable. At the same time, we hope for the day when resolutions like this one will not be necessary.”
The Centre Region Council of Governments General Forum followed the borough’s lead on Monday by adopting a resolution that condemns hate, bias and exclusionary behavior toward people of color, especially Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
Hu, a professor of law and of international affairs, recounted Monday how she was approached a few months ago by a stranger, who simply blurted aloud that “whoever did it to us with the virus” should be harmed, or worse. In the past, the Kansas native was chided about the “language barrier” and was even approached at a gas station about the process of procuring a mail-order bride.
During Monday’s Zoom, hosted by Penn State Law, Professor Victor Romero shared his own stories involving racism as a Filipino-American. There was no shortage — about how his young daughter once covered her exposed arms while wearing a princess gown because “all the (Disney) princesses are white.” Or how he once heard the immigration officers before his naturalization interview complain about all the foreign-sounding names.
Monday served as a time for the local Asian American community to remind others they’re not suffering alone, while educating even more that these recent incidents are not painful anomalies — but a painful continuation of American history.
When the U.S. banned importing slaves in 1808, it turned elsewhere for cheap labor — and toward the Chinese. And with the Chinese rise in population, backlash soon followed. Chinese immigrants were taxed for being Chinese in California in 1862, at least 15 Chinese were lynched in 1871 Los Angeles in what some historians have termed the “largest mass lynching in American history,” and Chinese immigrants were essentially banned from 1875 to 1965 — in part, early on, because all Chinese women were assumed to be prostitutes.
Hu’s father was invited to become an American citizen in 1966.
“If we don’t interrogate the fact that the law has a huge part to do with why Asian Americans are attacked right now, then I think we’re missing the point of this discussion,” Hu added.
Locally, the community has attempted to come together in the present. A candlelight vigil was held Sunday night on the steps of Penn State’s Old Main in remembrance of the victims in Atlanta, and the university “reaffirmed” its support for the Asian American community the day after the attack.
Penn State Professor Shoba Sivaprasad Wadhia — associate dean for Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion — said she was still processing everything. But she urged students and locals to look at current events in the context of history, and to remember a lot of work remains.
Still, even if everyone was not OK, Wadhia said discussing the issue at least buoyed her spirits Monday evening.
“I think our hearts are a little fuller,” she said. “And I hope that we continue the conversation.”
This story was originally published March 23, 2021 at 1:34 PM.
