MEMPHIS, Tenn. — “I’m an American now,” said Duke Akiba, a Memphis resident.
We met Akiba last summer. He is originally from Japan.
At that time, he was figuring out what it meant to be Asian in Memphis.
“I never felt like it was real…like it was happening in my world until I started seeing social media posts,” said Akiba.
He is referring to anti-Asian hate. It not only caught Akiba's attention, but brought fear.
“Makes me feel more scared. To me, it’s terrorism,” said Akiba.
“It’s definitely something on the back of mind whenever I’m out,” said Marie Ensell, University of Memphis Asian American Association member.
Ensell's mother is Chinese, and her dad is white.
She's witnessed discrimination even from within her family.
“I often see microaggressions,” said Ensell. “There’s always been these stereotypes of Asians as being exotic or in other ways dirtier, less developed, less civilized.”
There is also the over sexualization of Asian women.
According to the Center for Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, hate crimes against Asian-Americans went up 149% from 2019 to 2020.
Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate found nearly 4,000 incidents reported between March of last year to this February.
These incidents include harassment, shunning, and violence.
“There’s definitely an increase because of COVID. It serves as an excuse, the legitimization of aggression against a whole race of people,” said Ensell.
That aggression has been shown against the elderly.
“That’s why it’s so shocking to me. As a Vietnamese, I’ve always been taught to respect the elder,” said Bang Nguyen, a Memphis resident.
Aggression has also been shown towards women such as in the Atlanta spa deadly shooting.
“The attempt to legitimatize an attack that literally murders multiple people on the basis that someone else was having a bad day is incredibly unacceptable,” said Ensell. “One bad day turned into another person’s suffering, another person’s pain.”
In the U.S., these hate crimes go way back prior to WWII Japanese Internment Camps and the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882.
“I think it’s taken a long time because we do…the Asian culture is to turn the other cheek, to lay low in order to be successful,” said Ensell.
She said laying low is no more.
“To choose to take those aspects where we’ve positively contributed to all Americans’ experience through Asian American work and to push us as people away as a forever foreigner is also very unfair,” said Ensell. “If you want to take one part of our culture or anything we produce or use any of our products, I want to see the support.”
“If you see something unjust, step up, speak up. Sometimes just another person being there can make a difference,” said Nguyen.