Although the world has seen many types of social and political strife reach their breaking point in 2020, one concerning issue that year that rose alongside the emergence of the COVID-19 pandemic was anti-Asian racism.
Although this trend showed markers as far back as March of 2020, it has escalated over the past month with instances of anti-Asian violence that drew widespread condemnation throughout social media platforms.
Much of this violence appears to be based on the idea of scapegoating Asians for the emergence of the pandemic, but it is also a suspected motive for the gunman who killed eight people — six of whom were Asian women — in a shooting spree targeting Atlanta spas.
Shortly after this incident, San Francisco would host its own, more explicitly racist attack that saw a stricken grandmother fight back against her assailant. And it seems she's made a powerful connection between her own experience and the change in social climate seen over the last year.
