Many scholarly sources agree with claims of increased racism against Asian Americans and give insight to the increase in cases of violence against the Asian American population. In the article titled “Addressing Anti-Asian Racism in The Era Of COVID-19: Next Steps For A Research Agenda”, Lu Dong explains that, “Anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents (including avoidance, verbal harassment, civil rights violations, and physical assault) increased by 149 percent in 2020” (Dong, 2). A 149 percent increase means that the hate crimes towards Asians have increased to significantly more than double what they used to be. It shows just how much of an impact the stigma created by COVID-19 impacted the Asian community. Not only did the number of violent incidences increase, but the number of people avoiding Asian Americans also went up due to racism. Much of this racism is caused by the generalization of people due to their ethnicity. Although Asian Americans did not start COVID-19, the people who commit hate crimes against them generalize Asians as a group that started the disease. Racism is discrimination against a person or people of an ethnic group. In this situation, we see that the racists are discriminating against Asian Americans because of this generalization. We must teach our society to treat people as individuals rather than generalizing, which leads to discrimination and racism. This is one step that America can take towards mitigating the racism against not only Asians but all people. 

There is much evidence supporting the harmful effects of anti-Asian racism not only damage Asian people physically but also mentally. In the book “Toward a Radical Asian American Studies Pedagogy”, the authors state, “Across the US, Asian Americans are terrified of becoming an additional anti-Asian violence statistic” (Curammeng, et al, 207). In this statement, it’s apparent that many Asian people fear that the hate crimes that have been committed make them afraid that it will also happen to them. The physical negative impacts such as murder, vandalism, and avoidance, due to the acts of racism have also traumatized many individuals in the Asian American community. To solve this issue, it is imperative that society reaches out to the Asian American people and let them know that they are accepted and are treated as American people. Another reason why many people in the Asian American community are afraid that they may be the next victim is because of racism caused by the police. The authors in the article “Does racial discrimination matter: explaining perceived police bias across four racial/ethnic groups” found that compared to white citizens, minority citizens had a higher rate of experiencing racism and bias from the police (Melde, et al, 2022). With the added pressure from racism by the police, the fear instilled in the Asian American community only rises. Proper training in law enforcement and judicial systems should be required so that police racism issues will be solved, and everyone can be approached and judged by law regardless of their ethnicity. Once we can accomplish this, we can take off some of the burden that weighs upon Asian American individuals who are afraid of becoming victimized by racism.