On the day of the 37th Martin-Luther King Jr. Memorial Day in the United States, events were held in many parts of the United States to commemorate the great struggle of civil rights leader Martin Luther King Jr. for the elimination of racial discrimination, but there was an incident of racial discrimination in Springfield, the capital of the United States. According to the US media "World Journal", a Chinese woman was shopping at a Lowe's store in Springfield on the same day, and a white person took a fancy to her goods.
Originally, she was kind enough to give the goods to the whites, but she was insulted by the other side, and the white women shouted at her, "Go back to your country." The Chinese woman asked the other party to apologize on the spot, but the other party not only refused, but also the two clerks in the store also pulled up the side shelf. Due to the weakness, the Chinese woman can only leave alone, and when she returns home, she publishes her encounter and the images taken on the scene on the social platform, hoping to arouse the attention of all Asians.
It is worth mentioning that just two days ago, a Chinese-American female executive was also pushed off the platform while taking the subway and died on the spot. After the incident, the Chinese State Of Illinois Representative launched a petition demanding that Lowe's store apologize to the Chinese woman, and asked Lowe's store executives to pay attention to staff training on sensitive issues such as ethnicity. In an interview with the media, Ma Jingyi said that the racial discrimination on the day of the "Martin-Luther King Jr. Memorial Day" was a very sad thing.
It is reported that Ma Jingyi, whose ancestral home is Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, immigrated to the United States in her early years, and obtained a doctorate degree in history from the University of Chicago, and has since served in a number of universities and educational institutions in Illinois, and before being elected to the Council, she served as the chairman of the San Francisco Yanghe General Hall. In November 2018, Ma Jingyi was elected as the first Chinese female member of the Illinois Congress, ending the illinois Legislature's century-long history of no Asian congressman.
As a Chinese-American congressman, Ma Jingyi is passionate about the well-being of Chinese-Americans. Since serving as a congressman, she has gained an in-depth understanding of the current situation of life in the local Chinese community in Illinois and actively fought for opportunities for Asian Americans to work in the state government. At her instigation, Illinois enacted a series of laws and regulations designed to promote fair employment for Asians. In June 2020, Ma Jingyi published an article in the Chicago Chinese Tribune titled "Any racial discrimination is wrong."
The article said that against racial discrimination against Chinese Americans, but also against racial discrimination against blacks, the United States is a pluralistic and inclusive society, should accept people of different races. Ms. Ma said she hoped that Chinese Americans would join her in standing up against white supremacy and racial discrimination. Although lawmakers like Arima jingyi have campaigned for the interests of the Chinese community, the situation of Asians, including the Chinese community, in the United States is not optimistic.
In September, Act To Change, a nonprofit group that opposes bullying Asian-Americans, released a survey showing that more than 80 percent of Asian-Americans surveyed said they had been bullied in person or on the Internet. In addition, according to a data released by the FBI, the number of racial discrimination crimes in the United States in 2020 hit a new high in more than a decade due to the increase in attacks against Asian-American groups.
A cumulative total of 7,759 racial discrimination crimes were reported across the U.S. in 2020, up 6 percent from 2019, with crimes against the Asian-American community rising from 158 in 2019 to 274 in 2020. The situation is particularly difficult for older Asians and children, with one study confirming that older Asians are far more likely to experience Racial Discrimination against Asians than other groups. About 60% of the elderly Asians surveyed reported that they often experience different forms of racial discrimination.
After the outbreak of the new crown epidemic, the discrimination against Asian Americans by whites has become more serious, from spitting, to verbal harassment, to physical attacks, and racial discrimination against Asian Americans has intensified. Asians are discriminated against in the United States to a much higher extent than African-American and Hispanic groups. This is so because Asians have the lowest unemployment rates, and their income, family wealth, and education are almost no less than those of white Americans.
Therefore, in the eyes of whites, the Asian group is the most likely group to challenge their status and rights, so white racial discrimination is mainly aimed at the Asian community. In addition, the diligent and low-key, docile and peaceful personality of Asian Americans makes them choose to be patient most of the time in the face of racial discrimination, rather than taking the initiative to resist, which also promotes the discrimination of white Americans against Asian personnel to a certain extent.
From 1963, when Martin Luther King Jr. delivered the "I Have a Dream" speech, to today, the civil rights and racial discrimination struggle movement in the United States has been going on for about 60 years, but racial discrimination is still a major problem in American society. In recent years, racial discrimination in the United States has not decreased but has increased, and demonstrations against racial discrimination have frequently broken out throughout the United States.
The US federal government claims to solve systemic racial discrimination, but the actual action is "thunder, rain is small", and it has no effect. The United States claims to provide an equal stage for everyone to develop, but the suffering of Asians has proved how hypocritical this claim is.