Jose L. Gomez, a 19-year-old charged with three counts of attempted capital murder, allegedly wanted to kill an Asian American family that included two young children because he thought they were Chinese and “infecting people with coronavirus.”
A recent FBI analysis says the knife attack inside a Midland Sam’s Club last month is part of a recent surge in hate-fueled attacks against Asian Americans—one that will likely continue during the COVID-19 pandemic. While President Donald Trump calls COVID-19 “the Chinese virus,” some Texas Republicans have similarly deflected from the sputtering domestic response to coronavirus by demonizing China, despite the Asian American community warning that the rhetoric fuels attacks by bigots who blame them for the pandemic. U.S. senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn have both peddled racist and debunked myths about the origins of the virus, and last week Kathaleen Wall, a GOP candidate for a Fort Bend congressional district, started running inflammatory campaign ads declaring that “China poisoned our people.”
Such language alienates and inflames deep-seated prejudices against Asian Americans, says state Representative Gene Wu, a Houston Democrat who has been vocal on Twitter, flagging anti-Asian comments from Cornyn and others. The Observer recently spoke with Wu about the spike in prejudice against Asian Americans.
