David Agudo

Dr. Capps

English 105

9/16/21

Xenophobia is the prejudice towards foreigners, and is currently an issue in the status quo, not
only in the United States of America, but around the world as well. Ever since the COVID-19 pandemic
began, there have been many instances where xenophobia against asian Americans has been an issue in
society. Back in December 2020, a virus named COVID-19 was discovered, which originated from China.
Since then, the virus has spread throughout the world, and has infected many people. In March 2020,
the United States of America has became the epicenter of COVID-19, and since then, the virus has
claimed the lives of millions of people all around the world. Ever since, there have been thousands of
attacks against Asian Americans, whether it is physically or verbally, simply because of their race. Race is
the main reason that these incidents arise. People are not only blaming Chinese people, but asians as a
whole, which has became a huge problem in society, and this issue has not been enforced enough.
There have been many attempts to address these issues, such as passing anti-asian hate crime laws, and
attempts to spread awareness about the issue of xenophobia against Asian Americans. However, those
attempts have not been strong enough. If there are no laws that enforce the racism against asian
Americans, then the racism and xenophobia will continue to be an issue, and the racism and xenophobia
will not stop. If awareness is not spread about this ongoing issue, and people are not educated about
this, then nothing will change, and anti-asian violence will only get worse. Governments and societies
should take urgent steps to address these issues, such as enforcing laws, spreading awareness, and
educating people about this issue, in order to prevent xenophobia against Asian Americans.

The government should take more urgent steps such as enforcing hate crime laws in order to
prevent racism against asian Americans. The government itself is not doing a good job at addressing the
issues of racism against Asian Americans because there have been some instances where the
government have made Asian Americans the targets of xenophobia. For example, according to Human
Rights Watch, former US president Donald Trump called COVID-19 the "Chinese virus", which has caused
racism against asian Americans to become worse, because of the fear it caused against them. Another
instance where the government has made asian Americans the targets of xenophobia is according to
Human Rights Watch, where secretary of state Mike Pompeo addressed the coronavirus as the "Wuhan
Virus", which has caused people to use that term more and cause more hate crimes against Asian
Americans. This encouragement of the xenophobia against Asian Americans is why the government is
not doing enough to prevent these issues, and why it is important for legislation to pass hate crime bills,
so that if people make hate crimes towards asian Americans, then they will be prosecuted to the fullest
extent of the law. Joe Biden, president of the United States of America, has signed a bill that would
address the issues of xenophobia, in particular to Asian Americans, due to the current circumstances
involving COVID-19. The signing of a bill to prevent xenophobia is a good thing because it would
ultimately decrease racism and violence, and help bring the community together. If the governments
could take further steps, and provide more severe consequences, such as a fine and jail time, then it
would help reduce racism against asian Americans.

Society should also take measures to help prevent xenophobia against asian Americans, such as
doing more protests, spreading more awareness about this issue, and schools to educate students about
this ongoing issue. The people can also make a positive impact on preventing racism, because they can
provide resources to victims of xenophobia, and sign petitions to push stricter laws regarding
xenophobia, in particular to asian Americans, to be passed. If anyone ever experiences being attacked,
or someone else being attacked, then they should speak up and inform local authorities, which they can
help enforce the laws on this issue. Schools should also offer programs that educate students about
xenophobia, why it happens, and what to do to prevent it. The educating of this issue is a good way to
spread awareness about the issue of xenophobia against Asian Americans, since more people will be
educated about this issue, and will be less likely to commit hate crimes to anyone, especially Asian
Americans. The people who are being educated will also be know how to step in, and prevent these
problems from arising. There are also many ways in which people can contribute to prevent the racism,
xenophobia, and violence against Asian Americans, which as spreading awareness through social media
to educate others about this issue in the status quo, donating to causes that support victims of anti-
asian violence, and creating tips and spreading resources on how victims could cope with racist attacks.
Acknowledging the views of the victims of the attacks, these efforts will provide a huge benefit to them.
These hate crime laws can also encourage victims of attacks to speak up, and call hotlines that are set up
for racist attacks and xenophobia, because staying quiet will only make these problems worse. The more
people speak up, and the overall awareness that is spread about this issue of xenophobia, racism, and
violence against Asian Americans, the more those efforts will help bring the community together and
find solutions to these problems.

Although enforcing hate crime laws and spreading awareness such protesting about xenophobia
against asian Americans is a good idea to address the issue of racism, it would be impossible for the hate
crime laws and the protests to fully prevent these issues. First of all, signing hate crime laws will not
actually prevent xenophobia against asians because it is hard to locate the source of why the hate
crimes happened. It requires a lot of investigation of the perpetrator's true intentions, which can be very
difficult to target. According to the The Philadelphia Inquirer, a sociologist debated that enforcing hate
crime laws against Asian Americans will not help prevent the racist hate against the Asian Americans
because the laws will only focus on punishment, and not the after effects of those hate crimes. For
example, there are murders on Asian Americans going on, by people like white supremacists, and if
there were strict hate crime laws in place, those laws would not address the negative effects of the
murders, such as funeral expenses, health care, etc. Once again, the authorities would only care about
the punishment, but not look into the true intentions of the people who have committed those hate
crimes, or the harmful effects that it may leave on the victims. These harmful effects can negatively
affect the victims because it can cause their mental health and well-being to deteriorate, which is why it
is important to realize that even strict hate crime laws will not solve the deeper problems that are
associated with anti-asian violence. Another reason why spreading awareness such as protesting may
not also be effective in addressing the issues of xenophobia against Asian Americans because of the
many problems that are associated with protests. When people protest, it can turn violent, and there
can be many people who get injured or even killed. Because protests can get violent, the people who
would be targeted would be Asian Americans, and if they get attacked, then hate crimes against Asian
Americans would be encouraged and would skyrocket. The government would also ignore what the
people have to say about the issue of racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans, and would not
make any efforts to address these problems. That is why it is important to understand that the
government passing strict anti-asian hate crime laws and the people spreading awareness such as
protesting would not be effective because those protests would only lead to more violence, and the
government would generally not care.

In conclusion, governments and societies should take urgent steps in order to prevent
xenophobia against asian Americans, because it will help address that issue. Since being exposed to
racism and xenophobia can negatively affect one's mental health and well-being, anti-asian hate crime
laws and spreading awareness can help to prevent those issues. The passing of the hate crime laws, the
spreading of awareness, and the educating about xenophobia is important because those efforts will not
only benefit Asian Americans by reducing the amount of violence against them, but those efforts will
benefit all races as well, since people will be educated about xenophobia. All of these efforts to address
anti-asian hate crimes will contribute to a happier and healthier society, while helping to prevent anti-
asian violence in the long run. This goal of preventing xenophobia against Asian Americans may not be
easy to achieve, but if the government and society work together to address these issues, then anti-
asian xenophobia will no longer be in issue in the status quo, and can ultimately bring peace and unity to
the community, which will definitely be worth it.