An Asian woman was running errands on Monday night when a man allegedly dumped an unknown liquid on her and told her to "go back to China."
The incident occurred while the woman was picking up packages in midtown Manhattan.
According to the New York City Police Department, the victim told authorities the man approached her from behind as she was bending down and poured the liquid on her neck and packages, telling her to "go back to China." He then fled the scene. The woman was uninjured.
The victim later reported the attack to police.
The alleged attacker is described as a slim Black man in his 20s, standing about 6 feet tall. The police department's Asian Hate Crime Task Force is investigating the case.
The attack is the latest in a troubling spate of attacks and discrimination since the COVID-19 pandemic came to the United States last year.
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Many advocates have blamed, in part, former president Donald Trump — who referred to COVID-19 as the "China virus" and "Kung Flu" — for fueling the racism.
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A report released last September by the Stop AAPI Hate Youth Campaign, which surveyed nearly 1,000 Asian American young adults, found that eight out of ten respondents expressed anger over the current anti-Asian hate in the United States. An analysis by Stop AAPI Hate, the youth campaign's parent organization, found that one in ten tweets concerning Asian Americans in the months before the 2020 presidential election contained racist or disparaging language.
Last month, President Joe Biden signed an executive order condemning the surge of racism toward the Asian American Pacific Islander community brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Manju Kulkarni, executive director of the AsianPacific Policy and Planning Council, calls the current administration's recognition of racism "a promising step moving forward." But she says much more action is needed.
"A lot of work is going to be needed moving forward," Kulkarni says. "If each and every one of us gets involved, then we're going to be able to tackle this together."
To learn more and to report crimes, go to: Asian Americans Advancing Justice (advancingjustice-aajc.org) Stop the AAPI Hate (stopaapihate.org) National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (aapiern.org), Asian Americans Advancing Justice-LA (advancingjustice-la.org) and Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council (asianpacificpolicyandplanningcouncil.org).
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