Elderly Asian woman fights off attack in Bay Area
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An elderly Asian woman on Wednesday was attacked in San Francisco, becoming the latest victim in a stream of attacks against Asian people in the Bay Area and across the country, KPIX 5 reports.
Details: Xiao Zhen Xie, 76, said she was waiting by a traffic light when a man suddenly punched her in the left eye. She then attacked the assailant with a stick in self-defense, sending him to the hospital for his injuries.
- Xie's daughter, Dong-Mei Li, told KPIX 5 that her mother is "very traumatized" and her eye was still bleeding later on Wednesday.
The big picture: Anti-Asian racism has increased since the beginning of the pandemic, with people blaming the Asian community for the coronavirus pandemic.
- The director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University told Axios that the center tracked a rise in anti-Asian violence after former President Trump started calling COVID-19 the "China virus."
- By the numbers: An analysis by the California State University, San Bernardino found that hate crimes targeting the Asian community rose by nearly 150% in 2020.
- The Stop AAPI Hate reporting center collected nearly 3,800 self-reported cases of anti-Asian bias between March 19 last year and Feb. 28.
The backdrop: Shootings in Atlanta this week left eight people dead, including six Asian women. Atlanta police have said they are still trying to determine whether the shootings constitute a hate crime.
Editor's note: This post has been corrected to reflect that information about the rise in anti-Asian violence from the director of the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University (not the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center).
