Story at a glance
- Hate crimes against Asian Americans surged last year after the coronavirus outbreak, which President Trump repeatedly called the “Chinese virus.”
- In response, the donations towards the Asian American and Pacific Islander communities have increased.
- Community groups and organizations are wary that the support is not sustainable and will fade quickly.
After Xiao Zhen Xie was attacked in San Francisco among a wave of anti-Asian hate crimes, her family raised nearly $100,000 for her recovery through a GoFundMe. Her two black eyes have not yet fully healed, but the 75-year-old is redirecting the funds back towards the Asian American community, her grandson said in an update to the GoFundMe page.
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As attacks against Asian Americans, especially elderly members of the community, spiked, so too did support and donations for the community, which was a target of racism and xenophobia even before the coronavirus pandemic began.
Since eight people, including six Asian women, were killed in a shooting spree in Atlanta on March 16, nearly 30 philanthropic donors have pledged about $25.8 million for Asian American and Pacific Islander groups, according to an analysis by research group Candid reported by The Associated Press (AP). This doesn’t include smaller donations made directly to victims and their families, like those raised for Xiao, which have proliferated online.
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Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of the nonprofit National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, told AP that it has received a surge in donations averaging $58. But many of these aren’t “sustainable donors” and groups like Red Canary Song, an advocacy group of Asian and Asian American sex workers, are already reporting a drop in interest.
“Our challenge, not only in fundraising but across our programmatic work, is to keep interest in our cause high,” Choimorrow told AP. “This is the first time Asian American and Pacific Islander women are being heard, and we don’t want to relinquish that megaphone.”
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