Anti-Asian prejudice in the United States did not begin in 2020. It didn't start with Trump standing on a podium and accusing China of causing the COVID virus. It didn't start when he used terms like "Kung Flu" and "China Virus." It didn't start with a brutal attack on a Thai immigrant who died as a result of the incident, or with two Asian American ladies being stabbed at a bus stop. It didn't start when the younger generation saw their grandparents were being harassed on the street or that their parents were being discriminated against in restaurants or at work. Rather, the anti-Asian prejudice that so many people are concerned about now has always existed, dating back to when Asians first arrived in the United States; Whether it was the Filipinos who settled in Louisiana's bayous, the Japanese who settled on the shores of Hawaii, or the Chinese who came for the Gold Rush and helped carve the railroad tracks of the first continental railroad through the Sierra Nevadas, our Asian ancestors have long faced prejudice and abuse. Both are political affronts by conservative authorities, from being denied the opportunity to testify against white people in the 1850s to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the Immigration Act of 1924, and Executive Order 9066.

There has, however, been a change. The widespread use of cameras in modern society, as well as the widespread distribution of footage on social media platforms, has resulted in visible evidence of anti-Asian prejudice. Following the racially motivated murder of Vincent Chin, a pan-ethnic Asian movement has grown into an AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) movement to promote awareness and encourage development toward better tolerance and acceptance of Asian minority. Despite all of the negative attention that has been given to the situation in the last year, the changes that have resulted provide optimism that a difference can be made and that a more united future, free of Asian racial discrimination, may be achieved.

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