During the past year, the AAPI community has been facing an increase of violence and hatred. However, this hasn’t been the first time this has happened in history. George Takei’s They Called Us Enemy reminds readers that discrimination against the AAPI community isn’t anything new.

            With the uprising of brutality being made against the AAPI community, I can’t help but wonder why? and how long has the community as a whole been discriminated against? Unfortunately, the violence and racial intolerance has a deeper history than it seems at surface level. Recent news shows how the COVID-19 pandemic has affected people’s view of the AAPI community, and often sparks rage among others. However, what people fail to notice, is that it is not only the recent pandemic that has influenced others to have hatred towards the AAPI community, but rather an extensive history of Asian Americans experiencing racism.

            After reading They Called Us Enemy by George Takei, I couldn’t help but find that a quote of Takei captured my attention. In this slide, George Takei is speaking on a Ted Talk stage about his experience as a Japanese American in the United States during World War II. “… IT IS BURNED INTO MY MEMORY.” illustrates that even after decades since the internment camps, Takei still faces the reality of the brutality of the racism that he and many others faced at the time.

            There has been recent efforts made to produce change for the AAPI community, but racism against Asian Americans has been deeply rooted into our society. A long and thick root growing fungus, producing a rather ugly plant above the surface of the soil. Because we only see the plant that is growing above the surface, it will take a strong shovel to help solve the whole problem as a whole. But with the help of others, I can only be hopeful that we can see change for the AAPI and the POC community as a whole.