The CEO of Xi’an Famous Foods said a series of attacks on New Yorkers of Asian descent serves as a reminder that such crimes can still occur in diverse or liberal areas.
“I was raised in America, so this is home to me. Our livelihood is here, I speak English much better than I could speak any other languages,” Jason Wang told CBS. “It is very disheartening to be reminded you’re the perpetual foreigner. It’s an issue that a lot of us face.”
Wang added that he had lived in parts of the country where he was among very few Asian Americans, but “when one moves into the city, where it’s diverse and cosmopolitan … you would expect that these kinds of things shouldn’t happen anymore.”
“It’s a place where we should feel safe, and I used to as well,” said Wang, who heads a chain of fast casual restaurants in New York City.
“Nowadays, it would seem like there’s nowhere that is safe,” he added.
Attacks on Asian Americans have been an increasing concern in the U.S. amid the coronavirus pandemic. More than 3,000 incidents have been reported since the pandemic began.
In the first months of 2021, the attacks appear to have increased in severity and specifically targeted the elderly. A man shoved a 91-year-old Asian American man in Oakland last month before also assaulting a 60-year-old man and a 55-year-old woman.
“We have to make sure that everybody gets the message, loudly and clearly that we will not tolerate anti-Asian bias,” House Democratic Caucus Chairman Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) said in February. “We will not tolerate anti-Asian bigotry. We will not tolerate anti-Asian hatred. We will not tolerate anti-Asian conspiracy theories. We will not tolerate anti-Asian xenophobia. We will not tolerate these hate crimes.”