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‘Is this patriot enough’? US army veteran shows battle scars to call out hate crimes against Asian Americans
Several reports pertaining to violence and racism against the Asian American community have surfaced in the past year.
A video clip of a US army veteran, also an elected official in Ohio, has been doing rounds of social media against the background of anti-Asian violence in the country. Lee Wong trended on Twitter after removing his shirt during a meeting of the board of trustees in West Chester Township, Ohio, to show scars he received when he was with the US military.
"I am 69 years old and I am gonna show you what the question about patriotism looks like. Here is my proof. This is sustained from my services to the US military," Wong says in the 59-second video referring to red scars on his chest.
"Now is this patriot enough?" Wong asked after showing the scars on his body. "People looked at me strange and they dare to question my loyalty to this country. I don't look American enough," he added, calling upon the people to remember the US constitution that he said states “we the people, we are all the same, we are all equal.”
The video has gone viral with Twitter users using the hashtag StopAsianHate and WeAreThePeope.
Earlier this month, Microsoft and its CEO Satya Nadella along with other US lawmakers condemned the acts of hate against Asians and the Asian American community. On Sunday, members of Congress asked the department of justice to take a leading role in the probe of the shooting in Georgia where a gunman killed eight people, including six women of Asian descent, as they laid flowers at the three massage businesses where the crime took place. “We cannot allow the AAPI community to be gaslighted into thinking that this is not a hate crime,” Mark Takano, one of the representatives from California, said at the shooting site, reported AP.
US Democratic senator Tammy Duckworth also expressed concern about FBI director Chris Wray’s initial assessment of the shooting not categorising it as a hate crime and had said it “looks racially motivated.” "From where I sit, I want to see a deeper investigation into whether or not these shootings and other similar crimes are racially motivated,” Reuters quoted Duckworth as saying.
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President Joe Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris too visited Atlanta, one of the incident sites, to extend support to the Asian American community. “In the past few weeks, we’ve seen too many examples of horrific and brutal assaults on women, including the tragic murders in Georgia...It hurts all of us, and we all must do more to create societies where women are able to go about their lives free from violence,” Reuters quoted Biden as saying.
Several reports pertaining to violence and racism against the Asian American community have surfaced in the past year. In one of the studies, researchers argue that Donald Trump’s campaign rallies for the 2016 election campaign heightened White identity as well as have increased the perceived threat the White Americans are facing. The study revealed that Trump's events had some correlations with the increase in domestic hate. As per the researchers, the counties hosting former president’s rallies witnessed a 226 per cent rise in hate-motivated crimes.
