Education leaders in California Schools strongly condemned the racist attacks and emphasized the crucial roles of academic institutions in combating xenophobia and teaching tolerance as discrimination and hate crimes surge around the country.

While racism against Asian Americans and other races has always existed especially in the state of California, the recent increase started a year ago after the coronavirus pandemic, which started in China. Asian Americans were recently attacked in Oakland, San Francisco, and other cities, and just last Tuesday, a man in Georgia killed eight individuals which include six Asian women.

According to the website EdSource, close to 3,800 Asian Americans have reported being victims of racism since the start of the shutdown a year ago. Victims shared experiences of physical or verbal attacks based on the report of Stop AAPI Hate, a group that was formed last year in order to draw attention and awareness to the issue.

Moreover, despite the drop in hate crimes overall, police reports collected by the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at Cal State San Bernardino signaled for a worsening situation. From 2019 to 2020, there is an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in major cities around the country, The LA Times reported.

Based on the survey of Pew Research Center in July 2020, the survey found out that there were more anti-Asian and anti-Black sentiments before entering the pandemic shutdown. The survey also showed that 6-in-10 Asian adults stated that it is more common for individuals to express racist or racially insensitive views regarding individuals who are Asian than it was before the pandemic compared to 4-in-10 White, Black, and Hispanic adults.

Meanwhile, forty-five percent of Black adults also stated that it was more common to hear racist comments regarding Blacks since the global health crisis.

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Blamed for the Pandemic

The superintendent of San Francisco Unified, Dr. Vincent Matthews shared that the pandemic has brought a lot of pain and suffering for many, as the emergence of conspiracy theories put the blame on the Asian community for the coronavirus pandemic. Matthews also pointed out that there is a need to stand together against violence perpetrated against any member of the community.

In addition, Vice President Kamala Harris, whose mother was Indian American, also offered her support not only for the Asian American community but also for other races. She andUS President Joe Biden visited Atlanta on Friday to offer solace to the families of the victims, The Day reported.

During their visit, Harris emphasized that everyone has the right in going to work, going to school, while walking down the street, safe. The US Vice President also added that to be recognized as an American, it should not be as the other but it should be us, which means that harm against any one of them is harm against all.

The rise on hate crimes about Asian Americans heightened after the release of the information that the pandemic originated in China, and some experts were afraid that it might happen also to Latin Americans due to the ongoing border dispute.

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