How should Asian American Christians respond to anti-Asian racism?
Be like water: clear, humble, persistent, and restorative.
In my hometown of San Francisco, dozens of Asian Americans have been harassed, spat upon, and assaulted since the start of the pandemic, a pandemic for which many have blamed us. Stop AAPI Hate, an organization I cofounded in 2020, has an online tracker for reporting attacks. One 67-year-old individual shared this story:
I was standing in an aisle at [a hardware store] when suddenly I was struck from behind. Video surveillance verified the incident in which a white male using his bent elbow struck my upper back. Subsequent verbal attacks occurred with “Shut up, you Monkey!,” “F**k you Chinaman,” “Go back to China,” “bringing that Chinese virus over here!”
One in five Asian Americans nationwide have experienced such traumatizing, racist attacks over the last two years. One in six cases of the 11,000 incidents reported to SAH involve physical assault, and an additional 8 percent involve people coughing on or spitting at Asian Americans.
