In 2001 the attack on American soil by terrorist organizations changed our political and racial landscape. The news was saturated by 'Middle East Terrorists' and 'Islamic Terrorism'. Despite the attacks coming from a specific group (ironically that had been trained as terrorists by the American government) Americans and the news media were keen to blame not the group, not one country, but the entire Middle East as the source of the attack.
Within days Islamic people found themselves targeted in racial and religious-based attacks. Entire ethnic groups of people found themselves persecuted by their peers and even unjustly targeted by the US government for illegal and unwarranted investigations. Shops were burned, attacks happened in the streets, and women's religious head scarves were torn off their heads. People who had never had any affiliation with the terrorists were being persecuted and hated for a crime they had nothing to do with. But how did it get so bad so quickly?
The media had found a new darling to push their news cycle. The warmongers in our government, Republicans and Democrats passed laws to discriminate against those of Islamic descent. Islam had become a monolith to Americans, one that held the weight of any action done by a few individuals. And the language the news used at the time perpetuated this. Anti-Islamic sentiment spiked to all-time highs and that persecution and hate stands to this day.
And now we have China as our new target. The US government, essentially run by the powerful US corporations through their puppet politicians, has grown weary of the market shares lost to Chinese companies. Soon the US dusted off it's Red Scare playbook and started blaming everything that went wrong on 'The Chinese'. The emergence of Covid became easy enough to blame on China, because it was Chinese bats that it originated and China was the first location of the outbreak. Despite attempts of quarantines, it was simply to virulent to stay in one place and spread globally.
This led to a sudden spike in anti-Chinese sentiment from the Trump administration, who had already been pushing against their Government. Trump loudly proclaimed it had been the Chinese who deliberately spread it and despite all of America's failed responses and our huge body count compared to other countries, the anger was placed against China.
When the Democrats took over, they had used the anti-Asian sentiment on the far right to win votes. But when they took office, they doubled down on it. They blamed everything on China's government. The Democrats learned that accepting and perpetuating the anti-Asian sentiment was an easier sell than fighting it. High profile bi-partisan action against Chinese businesses such as banning Chinese tech from America or the recent (and highly racist) house hearings against Tik-Tok are fueling that fire.
So what can be done to distinguish China and those of Asian descent? For one thing, we must stop referring to China as a monolith. If something is being done by a Chinese group, government, or company you don't agree with then referring to them specifically rather than 'The Chinese' makes sure those negative affiliations don't bleed into innocent people. Even with no racist intent, these blanket statements feed the narrative that leads to racism in the colony that's learned to thrive on marginalizing people for political gain.
Do your research. [removed by moderator]
An uptick of anti-Asian violence has risen by 76% since 2020. As China becomes an increasingly popular bi-partisan target politically this number will only continue to climb. Be part of the solution, not the problem. Don't paint 1.7 billion people with one brush because you don't want to be bothered with research or specifics. Understand that this translates into actual hate and violence against innocent people.