NEW ORLEANS — The deadly shootings in Georgia that claimed the lives of eight people are putting attention on the ethnicity of many of the victims. Authorities say six of the victims appear to be women of Asian descent.
According to one advocacy group, there have been more than 3,000 hate-related incidents in the U.S. against Asian Americans since the pandemic began.
Doctor Crystal Zheng opened up about her experience with racism here in New Orleans. During a recent virtual event by Tulane University’s School of Medicine, the infectious disease doctor detailed personal insults thrown at her during the pandemic.
“I did want to bring attention to my own personal experience with that because, as an Asian American doctor, I did experience racism in the community. People yelled ‘coronavirus’ at me on the streets,” Dr. Zheng said.
Shortly after the initial outbreak of COVID-19 last year, Doctor Zheng published an opinion piece in the investigative journalism endeavor, The Lens.
She wrote, in part, “no matter my cultural identity or professional achievements, I’m always shadowed by jokes about my eyes and questions like ‘but where are you from,from?”
She also wrote about an incident last April that prompted Tulane Police to issue a campus-wide alert.
“Someone came up to two Tulane employees with a gun and said are you Chinese or Japanese? If you are Chinese or Japanese I’m going to kill you. That really affected me,” Dr. Zheng said, during the Tulane’s School of Medicine reflections on the past year of pandemic response.
No one was arrested in April 2020 incident and it made Doctor Zheng fearful about going to work.
Tulane University issued a statement regarding that incident:
“Tulane University was horrified by this incident and all of the reported acts of hate and violence against members of the Asian/Pacific Islander American community which have been on the rise throughout the country during the ongoing pandemic. We value not only our important Asian/Pacific Islander community at Tulane and in New Orleans, but also their contributions which have helped define our city and our nation.”
In a statement Wednesday, Dr. Zheng said the politics surrounding the pandemic has emboldened some people to act on racist sentiments.
For many Asian Americans, we were taught at a young age to put our heads down, work and don’t rock the boat. That kind of mentality could often lead to encounters with hate and racism going under-reported, but the calls for change are getting louder, especially on social media.
From world-famous musicians to Asian Americans in New Orleans, there are pleas for solidarity. But in a polarized country will those pleas truly be heard?
