Recently, multiple hate crimes have been committed involving the assault of Asian people, leading society to believe that these ongoing crimes are fueled by hatred towards people of Asian descent.

These crimes have led to the development of a new movement called the Stop Asian Hate movement, whose purpose is to fight against these injustices towards Asian people.

But how does our Asian community, specifically in Logansport, feel about these recent events, and what have they experienced in their lives that contributed to the creation of this movement?

Some people luckily have experienced little to no discrimination regarding their ethnicity. Senior Daniel Lin is one of these people.

“In terms of my experience with racism and discrimination, I have been rather lucky. Since I was young, I’ve only heard rather light forms of stereotyping directed toward me; it was never too harsh or cruel. Really, it was only commented regarding whether I ate pets, whether I’m good at doing homework, or having small eyes. Things never got out of hand when this occurred and eventually stopped by the time everyone had matured and aged a little bit,” Daniel Lin said.

One of the LHS Chinese teachers, Yi-Chun Lin, also has no recollection of an event in her life where she felt discriminated against or hated because of her ethnicity.

“I feel like I’m the lucky one because I have never really experienced any discrimination or racism; neither have I experienced this happen to someone else. I’ve really only ever seen videos online of asians being mistreated,” Yi-Chun Lin said.

Others, however, have unfortunately had it worse. Sophomore Halle VanCuren has dealt with racism and discrimination in her school life.

“I have experienced racism in my life. These instances may seem minor compared to others, but they did have a profound effect on me. People have done ‘ching chong’ eyes at me before. In middle school, I was waiting in line for a drink at the water fountain when a boy cut in front of me as I was stepping up to take a drink, and afterwards, he said to me ‘Americans go first.’ Another time, when I was at the fair fundraising for Robotics, a man stopped and asked me where I was from, and when I said I was from China, he said, ‘Oh, that explains why you’re so smart.’ I have also been accused of eating cats and dogs and asked how I squat,” VanCuren said.

Jaden Chin Hong is another student who experienced harmful racist behavior when he lived in Trinidad.

“Growing up mixed in Trinidad is more of a curse than a blessing. I’ve been called ching chong and chink all my life, and people have done ‘ching chong’ eyes at me. I’ve been called the n-word by the Indian population of the country and culie by the black population of the island. Essentially, I grew up not having a place/group that I ‘belonged’ in,” Hong said.

Some others haven’t actually faced outright discrimination or racism, but rather bias. One of the Chinese teachers Chunmei Guan said that she experienced this when she lived in China.

“In China, I was a minority, so as a minority, I did feel that in society that there was a certain bias against me, but I never experienced discrimination. When I came to the U.S. in 2007, I didn’t experience this either; in fact, I felt welcomed,” Guan said.

It wasn’t until last year that Guan started seeing the racism in the U.S. clearly amongst the coronavirus pandemic.

“Last year, when COVID was still new, I heard people refer to the virus as the ‘China virus’ because of where it came from, and that was the first sign of hate I witnessed,” Guan said.

VanCuren also experienced this firsthand last year in various ways.

“Last year, when COVID was first spreading to the U.S., I witnessed my classmates in my class cover up their noses with their sweatshirts and point to my friend, who’s Asian, and say that she has COVID. This happened on multiple occasions. I’ve also been told by a friend that they don’t think there’s anything wrong with calling COVID the ‘China virus,’” VanCuren said.

So, those actions have led to the new Stop Asian Hate movement, which many people have different opinions on. Myo Htetoo is all for the Stop Asian Hate movement, but still believes there are many flaws.

“On social media, I believe it is a trend to support the Stop Asian Hate movement, which is unfortunate, although it does still bring awareness to an important cause. These things called movements and actions for people’s well-being and rights are overall good things in the idea that people shouldn’t be treated differently because of their race, so overall, I think this movement is a good thing,” Htetoo said.

Hong however is in full support of this movement.

“I think the stop Asian hate movement is a fantastic idea. Ever since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an increase of unnecessary hate towards Asians in America and all around the world for something that wasn’t even their doing. It also makes me feel safe knowing there are people out there who care about me and my people,” Hong said.

Although Yi-Chun Lin supports it as well, she looks at it another way.

“Even though I do not experience discrimination/racism in person, that does not mean it does not exist. All Asians, actually, all humans should be treated with kindness and respect. I thank the people who support the Stop Asian Hate movement; however, I do want to point out that I do not just see ‘hate,’ I also see the ‘love’ that I receive from my family, friends, coworkers, etc. I see more people who are kind, nice and respectful than the small amount of hateful people out there,” Yi-Chun Lin said.

Overall, the Asian community in Logansport as well as the U.S. has seemed to embrace this movement wholeheartedly in hopes that progress will be made towards stopping the violence and hate that Asians have been facing.