Asians have always faced racial discrimination and hate before but racial discrimination and racial hate crimes towards them have seen a significant increase during this Covid-19 pandemic and Asians of all ethnicities have been attacked verbally with racial slurs, spat at, and even violently attacked.
Government and government officials are also to blame for this current trend of a racial attack on Asians as in some instances have directly or indirectly promoted hate crimes, racism, and xenophobia through the use of anti-chines rhetoric.
Countries like the united kingdom, the united states, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Germany have used the Covid-19 pandemic to push anti-immigrant, supremacist, ultra-nationalist, anti-Semitic, and xenophobic sentiments.
The Governor of Veneto, Italy told journalists in February that the country would do better than china in handling the virus because Italians were culturally cleaner whereas the Chinese eat mice.
In Italy Lunaria, a civil society group has collected since February over fifty reports and accounts of racial assaults and discrimination towards people from Asians or people of Asian descent. The same is reported by human rights groups across France, Australia, and Russia.
In the UK Asians have been pushed in the face, taunted, and accused of spreading the virus. Another report from Spain saw two-man physically attack a Chinese American so badly that the victim was in a coma for two days.
Several attacks were reported in the UK in February at the beginning of the outbreak including several physical assaults. Between January and march UK police force had recorded at least 267 racial attacks on Asians.
Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide.(May 12,2020).Human Rights Watch. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide
A Significant Rise in Racism Toward Asian People During COVID. (October 7, 2020).Lily Bailey.Psychology Today. https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/because-we-are-bad/202010/significant-rise-in-racism-toward-asian-people-during-covid