Vox covered the shift from avoidance to violence in October, noting how calling the coronavirus pandemic the “China virus” had the predictable effect of instilling further hostility toward those in the AAPI (Asian-American Pacific Islander) community. Even before the Atlanta shootings, a study found that there had been a 150 percent increase in hate crimes targeting Asian-Americans across the country (via CBS).
In the restaurant industry, in particular, these struggles have been compounded by a surge in unemployment from 3 percent to 15 percent, due, as Vox suggests, to the general effects of the pandemic, a greater proportion of Asian-Americans working in the service industry, and racism.
Faced with this, nearly a dozen Asian-American-owned businesses in New York have joined to create the Enough is Enough organization, to not only confront the rise of hate crimes directed at Asian-Americans but to help bring food to the underserved, especially to elderly Asian-Americans who are too afraid to leave their homes (via Time Out).
The #EnoughIsEnough fundraising campaign, which launched on February 12, managed to more than double its original goal of $10,000 in 12 hours and proceeded to rake in $75,000 to help feed the community. “The idea was just to create a voice that unifies some of the people in the restaurant industry and showing people that no matter how small your voice is, if you are willing to speak out, people are listening and I think we’ve done that,” Eric Sze, the restaurateur behind the campaign, told CNBC.
