On the first anniversary of the Atlanta shootings that killed six Asian and Asian American women, hate crimes against Asians continue to be on the rise in the U.S., as Karen Fukuhara, star of Amazon Prime’s The Boys, knows too well. The actor took to Instagram on Wednesday, March 16, to speak out against Asian hate after claiming that a man struck her in the head in what she described as a “hate crime.”
“I was walking to a cafe for some coffee and a man struck me in the back of my head. It came out of nowhere,” she wrote in a statement. “I thought about confronting him first but he started coming towards me and I didn’t think it was worth the risk. After a few seconds of staring at each other, and him yelling at me, he eventually walked away.” Fukuhara stressed in her post that she was “physically fine,” but was clearly shaken. She did not go into the details of her attack, nor did she recount what the man yelled at her, but her statement heavily implied that it was a racist attack. “This is the first time I’ve been harmed physically, although racial slurs and hurtful actions have been directed to me in the past,” she wrote. “I write this, because I’ve had conversations with multi-racial friends of mine that had no idea these hate crimes happen to everyday, regular people — people that they share meals with.”
Fukuhara, who also starred in the 2016 Suicide Squad, said that she wanted to speak openly about her attack to raise awareness about anti-Asian hate crimes that have risen significantly in the past two years. A recent report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism found that anti-Asian hate crimes had risen by 339% in 2021. Just last week, a man allegedly punched a 67-year-old Asian woman more than 125 times in New York City, calling her an “Asian bitch.” Many Asians across the country have felt more vulnerable since the start of the pandemic, as headlines of violent attacks against Asian senior citizens began circulating. “What satisfaction are these perpetrators getting from hitting women, Asians, the ELDERLY? They need to be held accountable,” Fukuhara ended her statement. “What can we do as a community to prevent these horrible crimes??” She captioned her post, “#StopAsianHate.”