“Far from being the enemy, Asian Americans have actually been on the front lines, with many Asian American health care workers involved in caring for their fellow Texans,” Xie said in a prepared statement. “I am so sad that we are the ones to be blamed for the cause of COVID-19. We ask that the people please don’t stand by in silence; silence is complicity.”

According to Stop AAPI Hate, Chinese and Korean Americans were the most and second most represented in self-reported hate incidents.

The Dallas-Fort Worth area has the second-largest Chinese population in Texas, behind Houston, and is home to the state’s largest Korean population, according to AAPI Data, an organization that tracks demographic information related to Asian Americans, Native Haiwaiians and Pacific Islanders.

McKinney resident James Huang, 43, who grew up in New York, said he was often exposed to racist verbal abuse and harassment directed at him.

Huang said he thinks anti-Asian racism has always existed, but that the sentiments were magnified by former President Donald Trump and other politicians who openly used hateful rhetoric to blame the coronavirus pandemic on China.

He said an effective way to combat hate is for members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities to become more engaged in the community.

“We should encourage our second generation to run for office and to become civil servants,” Huang said. “Another way, which I think is more of a long term goal, is using our community as a whole to really make a difference.”

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