Anti-Asian sentiment has spiked globally since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, resulting in verbal discrimination and physical attacks — some of which have been fatal — on Asian Americans in the U.S.
More than 2,500 incidents of anti-Asian discrimination have been flagged to Stop AAPI Hate reporting center since its launch in March 2020. Seven out of 10 incidents involved verbal harassment, with physical assaults accounting for 9 percent of incidents, according to the report. David Yi, “Pretty Boys” author and founder of Very Good Light, said that in promoting anti-racism, beauty brands should include racism against Asians and Asian Americans.
“Behind the scenes, the majority of people are Asian, but if the industry doesn’t speak for those people who really support the industry, it’s totally neglecting the issues — especially when the industry has a lot of press power,” Oh said. Still, the industries’ most powerful companies — many of which have spoken in interviews with WWD of the importance of Asian and Asian American consumers to their overall businesses — have yet to take a stance against anti-Asian hate crimes.“From a purely economic, business standpoint, how could you ignore these terrible things happening to a very valuable consumer segment?” said Ju Rhyu, Hero Cosmetics’ cofounder and CEO.
“There’s this huge blurred line between being a true Asian-based brand versus the people that are employed by them,” Martin said.
Where dafuq were you clowns a year ago when we had a president who was spouting “China virus!” every other tweet and Asian Americans were getting the snot beat out of them? Only NOW do you notice a year later