Olivia Munn is speaking out. The actress is raising awareness of the increasing rates of racial violence targeting Asian Americans in the United States.
Munn took to Instagram on Wednesday to share a message calling for help in combating anti-Asian hate crimes, which have skyrocketed in the country since the beginning of the coronavirus outbreak, fanned by bigoted rhetoric of some government officials and public figures.
“Over the past few days I’ve found myself at a loss for words at the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes,” Munn wrote in her powerful message. “The racist, verbal and physical assaults have left my community fearful to step outside.”
“These hate crimes have spiked since Covid and continue to increase even though we ask for help, even though we ask our fellow Americans to be outraged for us, even though we ask for more mainstream media coverage,” Munn continued.
The Rook actress went on to detail some of the recent, horrifying attacks that have left innocent people hospitalized or dead.
“In just the past week a 91-year-old Asian American man was attacked from behind as he walked down the street in Oakland, an 84-year-old Thai American was murdered in San Francisco, a 64-year-old Vietnamese American woman was assaulted in San Jose and a Filipino American man was slashed in the face in Manhattan,” Munn wrote.
“To simply exist as a minority in the country is seen as a protest to some,” she continued. “We need help amplifying the outage. We need help to feel safe in our country. We need help to be safe in our country.”
The organization Stop AAPI Hate — which was created in response to the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes following the pandemic — released a report that there have been over 2,800 incidents of attacks in the last year, with a large percentage of attacks occurring in California and New York.
