Racism must be tackled at its root

A woman with a folding knife stabbed an 18-year-old Indiana University student repeatedly while she was getting off a bus in January this year. The victim's only fault was that the suspect thought she was Chinese.

Billie R. Davis, the 56-year-old suspect, later told the police that with the attack there "would be one less person to blow up our country".

Davis was charged with a federal hate crime and faced trial on Sunday. She will expectedly get due punishment, but the widespread racial hatred in US society that led to the crime needs to be highlighted.

For long, people of Asian origin living in the US have been at the receiving end of hate attacks because they are seen as people who take away local jobs, although they earn it by dint of their hard work.

Instead of securing their legal rights, some US politicians make it worse for them by issuing controversial statements, such as by blaming China for the way the US mismanaged the COVID-19 pandemic. Such actions only increase the frequency and severity of hate crimes against people of Asian origin in the US.

Nobody would say something like "Chinese blowing up America" without being brainwashed by what some US politicians utter daily.

These US politicians need to know that by demonizing China, they are sowing the seeds of racial hatred that will one day grow. The hatred against Asians may spread to Africans and Jews tomorrow, and end up cleansing US society of all other races. Something similar happened in Germany not very long ago and we hope the US does not repeat the same mistake.

The teenage girl who was attacked was lucky to have survived and is now recovering. But people of Asian origin cannot depend on luck for survival. The US government must do something to curb racial hatred and let people live without fear.