My dad was an aerospace engineer in Southern California for over 30 years, helping to make airplanes safer. I think about the stories they’ve shared with me, what they’ve seen and lived through in this country: recessions and booms, wars and social movements and protests and technological revolutions. 3,795 times when someone, out of hatred or ignorance or fear, saw an Asian face, an Asian body, and looked no further. They harm the victims of these attacks, of course, and Asian American communities, but they harm everyone else, too. That they are now and always will be seen by some people primarily as Asian — and nothing more.

Source: Los Angeles Times March 21, 2021 10:47 UTC