We Need to be Heard: The Mental Impacts of AAPI Hate

With the outburst of the widespread infection, COVID-19 has traumatized a lot of people. It has brought stress and struggles to a lot of us financially, mentally, or physically The Asian American Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community had a specific struggle as the rhetoric of the “Wuhan flu” or “China virus” spread. This led to racist slurs and physical attacks that sometimes even caused death.

There has been a great increase in racist assaults on the AAPI community in the United States Many AAPI individuals are afraid of going out of their house. They are often wary of any danger that is lurking around the corners of their path and fear that they will become the next target of a racially motivated attack

The pandemic has greatly impacted AAPI youth. It brought a heavy toll on their minds with constant stress or anxiety. According to a study conducted by L1ght, an organization devoted to protecting youth from online harassment, there was a 70% increase in cyberbullying during the pandemic among kids and teens on digital platforms. This is a huge growth of hate towards the AAPI youth.

L1ght also found a 900% increase in hate speech against China and Chinese people on Twitter, “with explicit tweets accusing Asians of being responsible for the coronavirus outbreak.”

Cyberbullying can cause the youth to feel and think in negative ways They can start to lose interest and motivation in life or feel lost in where they are supposed to be headed This can lead to negative emotions of depression, anxiety, stress, low self- esteem, fear, and more Even after it is over, these feelings can linger for a very long time.

Cyberbullying can lead to many harmful and consequential effects on the victim, specifically on their mental health

The Stop AAPI Hate organization, in partnership with the National AAPI COVID-19 Needs Assessment Study developed a study to survey people who have encountered and reported hate crimes during COVID on their experience and the effects of the discriminations they faced

According to the respondents, 71.7% reported antiAsian discrimination to be their greatest source of stress, much higher than other pandemic concerns

Many AAPI individuals are worried about being wrongfully targeted over the spread of COVID-19. By stressing over potential racial discrimination, by Alice youth and adults could lose balance in coping with their daily life

This could even lead to a decrease in their abilities to think and make good choices.

Currently, most schools and some workplaces have opened and people are returning back However, AAPI students and families are still concerned They worry about their welfare at school or work and some fear returning in person.

For example, my family tries to avoid going outside of our house for unnecessary reasons We try to protect ourselves as much as possible Everytime we go out of the door, we are very aware of any potential threats to us. We move quickly in and out of the house to keep ourselves away from the public eye

Most of my friends have pepper spray to protect themselves from unknown dangers on their way to work, school, or home.

They alway stick with each other when they can after school so that they can have extra protection Some others have decided to stay home and continue distance-learning as they are still feeling unsafe and frustrated to return.

The AAPI community continues to struggle and face challenges of racism directed at the community

As a whole, they are still feeling worried about their environment. Some people struggle to have a restful day working outside of their homes while others stress out about their plans to stay at home remotely working or learning

Although racism was an issue in our society before the pandemic, these serious incidents have shed light on the intensity of the situation We need to show more care and awareness for the community with support and comfort They need to be heard and they need support.

by Alice

The Man who Lived Across the Train Station

At the age of fifteen, I came to America with a picture of a country that was shaped by every single Hollywood movie I had watched with my mom back in Hong Kong I fantasized about the huge houses that line the clean, spacious streets where people would ride their bicycles

But the first thing that astonished me was the streets filled with homeless people. Between the tents and blankets that lay all over the ground, you could find people sleeping Above all, what shocked me the most were the people who passed by homeless people apathetically. They didn’t seem to notice their existence.

At first, I tried to avoid homeless people as much as I could I chose to walk three more blocks to take the bus at the next station than going to the nearest one where I knew homeless people lived nearby.

Then, gradually, I also grew used to normalizing homelessness I ignored every tent, blanket, and empty cup that lay on the streets

by Sharon

Despite my attempts to ignore the homeless people, the image of homelessness was stuck in my head for a long time. During my sophomore year of high school I became responsible for picking up my sister from elementary school

Every day at four, I would walk to the station near my school and wait for the train that would bring me to her school. As I waited for the train, there was a man who would always catch my attention. The man was skinny and with a big beard on his face and lived outside the bar on the corner of the street

I remember the time when I lifted my head from my phone and found him sitting across the station with a blanket covering him from head to toe. Looking at him from a distance, he didn’t seem as hopeless as I expected, but rather chill and relaxed

Since then, observing this man became part of my daily routine. He was always sitting in the same position with his legs between his arms; always quietly staring at the road and everyone who walked by his side However, people on the street seemingly never paid attention to him They walked across him and his belongings as if they didn’t exist.

There were times when people stood right next to him for minutes without giving him any acknowledgement I realized how normalized homelessness had become and how I had also been ignoring the problem.

We never talked, nor did I see him ever talk to anyone. One time when a drunk man approached him and started yelling all kinds of unimaginable words at him. He didn’t respond. He looked down and waited, perhaps for the drunken man to leave or for someone to help

Seeing this interaction reminded me of something that I had taken for granted; the fact that he is just like me, a human, who deserves to be treated with dignity

He wasn’t there to cause any trouble, he just happened to be there, living his life.

When I looked at him, I thought of not only him but all the other homeless people whom I had ignored, complained about, or even some that I used to loathe I realized I was just lucky to be the one with a home at the end of the day.

The year when the pandemic started, my sister and my classes went online until we graduated from our schools I never saw the man again, but his image stuck with me long after I moved to another city.

I eventually realized he is just one of the 500,000 homeless people in the US; one of the 500,000 who are struggling to live

by Sharon

Nothing Personal

It was just another day of working at my job As I was walking toward the store I felt the cold breeze of a winter day I walked in, took off my headphones, and proceeded to clock in. I was a little tired, but still happy to be able to work because it gives my family some needed income to help me participate in debate I changed into my work uniform and got ready to help customers

I work at a suit shop. My first customer was looking to rent suits for a wedding. I thought that this would be fun. It was still a relatively new experience for me to help customers try on suits

I told my manager so that she could make sure everything was going well and I proceeded to ask the customer what kind of suit he was looking for. He wanted a blue suit, so I started taking his measurements

However, when I was in the middle of my measurements, he asked my manager, “Can you do it instead? I don’t want him measuring me for my wedding, maybe for the prom but not my wedding.”

He insisted that I didn’t have enough training. Although my manager said that she would make sure that I did it correctly, he insisted that she do it

He then said,”It’s nothing personal.”

“It’s alright,” I responded.

But it wasn’t alright His continued insistence that it was “nothing personal” made me believe that there was more to it.

It felt racially motivated. I could see the disgust in his eyes

by Zayne

I sensed that he didn’t like me because I was a Brown person in this affluent suit shop where the customers were primarily white and discrimination was normal.

This behavior fit into a pattern I had seen of white people pretending not to be racist or covering up their racist actions Oftentimes discriminatory actions like these get overlooked, but they continue to happen.

As someone who has experienced discrimination, I was able to realize it was yet another subtle form of white people being racist toward Brown people

Everywhere we go we are judged for our skin color, but this was the furthest I had seen it go. A man refused to work with me because of my skin color. It wasn’t just the racism, it was the power dynamic in the incident that troubled me I felt helpless and, after the continued insistence that it was “nothing personal,” I felt rage.

I had experienced the same thing before but was unable to act or do anything about it It was a man against a child, and a white customer against a Brown employee It was an abuse of privilege and disrespected me in every way.

He was a man yet still had no courtesy to respect me at all because he had all the power and I had none However, I couldn’t do anything at the moment so I just let it happen because, as an employee, the customer is always right.

It isn’t always like this

I had also helped a customer who was extremely nice. As two people from minority communities, we bonded over feeling out of place in this store. In a suit shop filled with mainly white people, people of color oftentimes feel alienated or left out

Throughout this experience, I felt a connection with the customer because we both felt the same way about the store. I was pleasantly happy with our conversation as I helped this customer find the shoes he wanted This positive experience made me feel a little better about the future of the world

As a community, we have become used to letting discrimination happen, but at times we have to stand up.

by Zayne