Joon-Ho’s statement comes from the recent drastic increase in hateful and violent crimes against Asian-Americans, citing a near 150% increase in 2020 according to reports done by NBC News. Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder and director of demographic data and policy research nonprofit AAPI Data, told NBC that while the uptick cannot be entirely attributed to incendiary, racist rhetoric about the coronavirus, he believes former President Donald Trump’s wielding of the fact that the virus originated in China and repeated elevation of the “China virus” rhetoric did play a part in fostering hate.

The analysis revealed a surge in cities such as New York, where anti-Asian hate crimes rose from three in 2019 to 28 in 2020, an 833% increase. Los Angeles and Boston also experienced notable rises, from seven to 15 and six to 14, respectively. Meanwhile, Washington, D.C. experienced a decline from six to three anti-Asian hate crimes. Chicago remained unchanged, with two crimes each year.

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