Cheng Rui Emma Zhu, 14, of East Lyme said she wasn't surprised when she heard about the shootings at three Atlanta-area spas that left six women of Asian descent dead last week.

As an Asian American, she says she's experienced "microaggressions" in her own community her entire life, from comments about the shape of her eyes to jokes about the food she brings to school for lunch.

"It's upsetting to say that I wasn't surprised," Zhu said. "It wasn't surprising that people could be so hateful based on race."

The ninth grader at East Lyme High School said she expected racism toward Asian Americans to spike amid the coronavirus pandemic, following rhetoric about the virus's origins in Wuhan, China.

And she was right.

According to police data gathered by the Center for Hate and Extremism at California State University, anti-Asian hate crimes surged 149% in the U.S. in 2020 and 883% in New York City. The reporting database Stop AAPI Hate — AAPI stands for Asian American and Pacific Islanders — was created in 2020 due to the rise of anti-Asian violence during the pandemic and it reported 3,759 incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes nationwide between March 2020 and February 2021.

State leaders and local Asian Americans have been speaking out in the wake of last week's attacks, calling for more conversations about racism and action against hate crimes.

"I want every Asian American in Connecticut to know that we hear you, you are not a virus. And that you should feel safe in your home and we are all Americans," Alan Tan said Friday during a forum on anti-Asian violence. Tan, co-chair of the state legislature's Commission on Women, Children, Seniors, Equity and Opportunity, joined state leaders who offered support to Asian Americans statewide and condemned surges in anti-Asian hate crimes during the pandemic.

Southeastern Connecticut residents speak out 

Two Asian Americans from Waterford, Bo Du and Armi Rowe, say that although they haven't experienced racism in their community, they share the pain of fellow Asian Americans across the country who feel afraid, angry and targeted.

Du said he thinks racism of all kinds is its own kind of pandemic. "In my opinion, racism and violence are viruses — even worse than the COVID-19 virus — and we need to confront them with the same urgency and commitment," he said.

As a Chinese-American, Du said he was alarmed and concerned about the rise in anti-Asian violence and thinks many throughout AAPI communities are, as well.

"Recent incidents across the country bring a lot of worry to our community," he said. "These recent acts of violence and intolerance stand in direct opposition to our values."

Rowe said she was lying awake Friday night thinking about the targeted attacks against Asian Americans. She said she thinks these attacks are part of a larger, systemic issue.

"It's almost like an autoimmune disorder our country has with racism," she said. "In a sense we're attacking ourselves and that's what needs to be addressed."

Rowe said she has been in the U.S. since the mid-1970s and doesn't remember anti-Asian aggression being as prominent in decades past. She thinks the aggression and violence is part of a larger fabric of racism in America that she thinks is getting worse.

"We're not just another group that's being targeted, this is part of a problem that has been growing in America. The Black community has dealt with this the longest, but it's all a part of the same problem — what is it that's turning Americans against other Americans? What happened that they no longer accept the colorful fabric of our society that we were raised to embrace?"

Rowe said she hopes people responsible for racism can realize that they are attacking people who, just like them, deserve to live, work and thrive in the United States. "Maybe it's reframing and saying, 'Look you're only attacking fellow Americans,'" she said.

"We have just as much right to be here, we've been here, we contribute to the economy. These are innocent people who are just going to work and walking down the street," she added.

Data shows growing number of attacks 

The shootings in Atlanta followed reports of violent attacks on Asian Americans across the nation in recent months, including an attack on a New York subway and another on a sidewalk in San Francisco.

Mui Mui Hin-McCormick, vice chair of the Asian Pacific American Coalition of Connecticut, said during Friday's forum that the rise in hate crimes could likely be attributed to rhetoric surrounding the virus that causes COVID-19. Calling the virus "the China virus" or "the Wuhan virus" has had a "direct negative impact" on AAPI communities, she said.

According to Stop AAPI Hate, hate crimes reported in 2020 and 2021 have occurred in all 50 states and the District of Columbia, with reports ranging from Asian Americans being physically assaulted to verbally harassed and coughed on.

According to Stop AAPI Hate, 42.2% of reported hate crimes target people who are Chinese. People of Korean, Vietnamese and Filipino descent also are commonly targeted. Data show that hate crimes are most commonly committed inside businesses or on the street.

The database ranked the top 10 states most likely to experience anti-Asian hate crimes. Connecticut was not among them.

According to the FBI, law enforcement agencies reported that there were 4,784 reports of single-bias hate crimes — targeted at someone solely because of their race, ethnicity or ancestry — in 2019. Of those, 4.3% were the result of anti-Asian bias, the FBI said.

At least 215 people reported being victims of an anti-Asian hate crime, and another 26 people were victims of attacks on Pacific Asian Islanders in 2019, the FBI reported. Of all reported hate crimes motivated by race, religion, gender or sexual orientation that year, 76 incidents were reported in Connecticut.

FBI data on hate crimes in 2020 is not yet available but shortly after taking office, President Joe Biden signed an executive order recognizing that anti-Asian hate crimes had spiked in 2020 and were still on the rise in 2021.

"During the coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) pandemic, inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric has put Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons, families, communities, and businesses at risk," the president wrote in his order, which called for increased support and protection for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and action to condemn and combat racism.

Time for silence to end

Rowe, who immigrated from the Philippines, has lived in Waterford for 19 years. She grew up in Queens, N.Y., and attended a school that she called a "melting pot" where "the more unique your name was, the more you fit in."

Rowe, now 52, attended school with actress Lucy Liu, who was interviewed on CNN last week about the attacks in Georgia. Rowe said the actress' statements really struck a chord with her.

"What really resonated with me was the fact that it's in the nature of Asian Americans to not be as vocal about bias or any sort of racist or anti-Asian sentiments," Rowe said. She said it's time for that silence to be over and it's "critical" for people in the Asian American community to speak out about hate crimes and violence.

Zhu, the 14-year-old from East Lyme, connected with that sentiment. For years, she said she has resisted telling anyone about comments that have hurt her — comments that she said made her ashamed to bring Chinese food to school, made her embarrassed to speak Mandarin with her parents in public or even to be called by her first name.

For years, Zhu has chosen to be called by her middle name, "Emma," to avoid students making fun of her name. She recently told some friends she wanted to be called by her first name again, and was mocked.

She said that she had been made fun of for the shape of her eyes about 20 times, a number she said was extremely low compared to friends who'd heard thousands of comments.

Zhu said the Georgia shootings stood out to her the most because Asian women were targeted and as an Asian, she has already, at 14, begun to see herself sexually fetishized by classmates because of her race.

"This hate crime in Atlanta hurt a lot for me," she said. "There have been a lot of hate crimes over the past year, but this specifically really hurt. It's scary."

She said she hopes to speak up more about microaggressions and racist comments that she experiences, to help promote change.

"As Chinese Americans, we've always been kind of the 'model minority' and stayed quiet," Zhu said. "But this year just disproved the idea that if you just stay quiet, this country will be good to you."

The need to work together

Rowe, unlike Zhu, said she hasn't experienced any racism while living in southeastern Connecticut, but thinks it's a problem that is spreading across the country. "This is a growing problem, there's a lack of tolerance and acceptance in society today and it's just disheartening."

She said she's been encouraged by the way the southeastern Connecticut community has responded to other widely reported instances of hate crimes, like the deadly attack on a Pittsburgh synagogue and killings of Black people by police. "I think everybody who is a target of hate needs to come to the table and work together and ask, 'What can we do about this?'"

She hopes people continue to speak up and speak out against hate.

"The more people are exposed within their own community to others who are from different backgrounds, the more there are conversations between those cultures and the more we're rolling up our sleeves and doing the work together, the less likely it is that we will see that hatred," she said.

Du, who immigrated to the U.S. from China in 1999 for graduate school, has lived in Waterford since 2008. He is the principal of the Southeastern Connecticut Chinese School, an educational weekend program that offers Chinese language classes, along with culture, history, art and sports lessons, out of East Lyme High School.

Du said he has always felt welcome and respected in southeastern Connecticut, and hopes that will continue. He said he thinks it's important to acknowledge the anti-Asian racism that is being demonstrated in cities across the country.

"I'm hoping everybody can join us in continuing to treat others with respect, standing up against this targeted hatred and ignorance and having the kind of courageous conversation that can effect real change," he said. "We need to get our voice heard and tell people this is not acceptable."

Gov. Ned Lamont on March 18 announced that flags in Connecticut would be flown at half-staff until sunset Monday in memory of the victims of the Georgia shootings, in accordance with a proclamation from President Biden.

Connecticut's Attorney General William Tong, the first Asian Pacific American to serve in that role, released a statement last week regarding violence against Asian Americans in the wake of the shootings.

"Words matter. Vile and racist hate speech puts Americans and families like mine at risk and it has to stop. The politicians and leaders perpetuating the scapegoating of Asian-Americans must be held accountable. Blood is on their hands today," Tong said.

New London-based social worker Janelle Posey-Green will host a forum on anti-Asian racism and violence on Monday, March 29 at 6 p.m. through her group CT BIPOC Mental Health & Wellness Initiative. Posey-Green will be joined by therapist Moses Farrow, Waterford resident Susan Duong and Norwich social worker Malyna Kettavong.

Duong, 58, said she was motivated to participate in the forum after the attacks in Georgia. She said the racism she's experienced in her life has been subtle, but throughout the pandemic she'd seen an increase in the number of people who stare at her, give her dirty looks or cross to the other side of a hiking path to distance themselves from her. She said she has to be careful not to cough or sneeze in public and feels as though she is always on high alert. That feeling has only gotten worse since the shootings.

"It really struck a nerve, I think everything that I've been trying to suppress for all these years kind of bubbled to the surface," she said. She hopes the forum will open the door for dialogue in the community.

"We'd just like to get the word out there that we're not bad, we don't carry the virus, it's not our fault. We just want to live in peace like everyone else," she said.

Authorities last week identified the eight victims of the Georgia shootings as Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Soon Chung Park, 74; Suncha Kim, 69; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.

A 21-year-old white man named Robert Aaron Long was charged with eight counts of murder in the shootings. Authorities' statements that the shooter was not motivated by race but by sex addiction have drawn widespread criticism.

t.hartz@theday.com