Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) hate is a very relevant issue in our country, and I think that AAPI hate should be dealt with at a much higher scale. 

There are practices occurring as of late, specifically because of Covid-19. It has caused a surplus of hate towards those in the Asian community that is entirely xenophobic. These practices aren’t accounted for and go unpunished because of the lack of legislative enforcement surrounding racism in our country. 

In a recent weeks we have had a series of high-profile attacks agains Asian Americans. The week of March 18, a 21-year-old man killed 8 people, most of them Asian American women. Many of the recent attacks were racially motivated. Without laws in place to prevent hate at a national level, nothing will change at a local level. 

I took a survey of a percentage of students who were aware of the AAPI hate. The importance of making our nation aware and prevalent is at its highest. 

“Hate is our biggest virus,” said Isabelle Prince, 9. “It is very prevalent in today’s society. It brings us down as a nation. We have no excuse for killing people.”  

“They don’t deserve it,” said Jessica Davis, 9, expressing her support for the AAPI community.