After searching for information on how the pandemic affects Asian American women’s fear of being attacked, it gave me a deeper understanding of why Asian women are often the victims of racist attacks. For me, the thought of being harassed and assaulted for the simple reason that I am Asian woman is extremely frightening and alarming. I feel that the research I did is extremely important, as I have been the victim of such racist attacks. I discovered that data of attacks is undercounted by federal authorities. However, an organization called Stop AAPI Hate, reports that in 2020,201, two thirds of the reports were from female victims. I found out that the those with a sexual dimension tend to be classified as sex offender, erasing the racial aspect. Our former president Trump’s anti-Asian rhetoric is also partly responsible for the racist attack. Attacks including punching, elbowing, pushing, shooting were done without uttering a word by complete strangers. Thus, they live in fear every day. While I knew that there were a lot of racist attacks going on against Asians, I had no idea why most of the victims were women. I learned from my research that there’s a fetishization of Asian women dating back to history for decades and they have been stereotyped as sexually submissive. Attack against Asian women are often motivated not only by racial motives, but also by sexual motives. Therefore, Asian women are at greater risk due to Covid19 and the history of stigmatization of Asian women. The audience I am most interested in writing for is Asian American women. If I were to share my opinion, I would choose an op-ed as genre. I would like to inform them to ensure that they understand why we are the most vulnerable among our community and be cautious.
