Discourse Community

Pasang Lama

Prof. Cipriani

ENG 1211

May 18, 2021

I have a dream that my four little children will one day live in a nation where they will not be judged by the color of their skin, but by the content of their character. This is said by Martin Luther King, Jr. Good Morning my name is Pasang Lama , and thank you for taking time out of your day to participate in this event. I’m here to talk about something that has affected and impacted our fellow a\American citizens. Something that is immoral and something that shouldn’t be allowed. The topic is Asian American hate crimes. I was born in Elmhurst , New York and lived in Jackson Heights, Queens for my whole life. The people of Jackson Heights speak 167 languages, it is the most culturally diverse neighborhood in New York, if not the planet. I have learned that no matter what race , what language, what color of skin, or what religion you practice , we are all the same. We are one race – the human race. Asian American hate crimes and attacks have been rising and there needs to be an end. Asian American hate and racism is not new . It goes back to the mid 1800s when Chinese Immigrants came to America for a better life and future. They worked so hard and occupied most jobs in America at that time. Many other immigrants like the Irish were jobless which led to the Chinese Exclusion Act to be passed in 1882. This act excluded Chinese immigrants from coming to America. WOW! One race and ethnicity straight up banned from entering the land of opportunity. The Covid-19 pandemic sparked up racism in the USA. Covid-19 was originated from China and many jobs were lost and the whole world basically went into a break. This caused people to hate Asian Americans and put prejudice on them . Trump tweeted back on March 16 , 2020 about the coronavirus being the “Chinese virus” . This tweet alone saw an increase in Asian hate on social media. I thought that this was wrong and racism towards Asians should be terminated. Recently even in 2021 Asian American hate and crime has not slowed down. A USA today article states “ Hate crimes against Asian Americans rose 149% from 2019 to 2020, even though hate crimes overall decreased 7% during the pandemic, according to findings released in early March by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University.” On the one year anniversary of Trump’s tweet on March 16,2020 , six Asian women were gunned down and killed in a spa. Did you hear about that? Probably not since the media tried to censor this shooting. News outlets that cover this are on YouTube. The most popular 5 videos on YouTube about this shooting have a combined 240,000 views . Another shooting on March 22, 2021 in Colorado left 10 people dead. The most popular 5 videos on YouTube about this shooting have a combined 3.1 million views. Why is that? This makes the Asian American crime seem “not as bad”.