Asian Australians were racially harassed at a rate of 47 per week amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
A survey created by Asian Australian Alliance revealed that 377 incidents of racism were reported between 2 April and 2 June, which works out at 47 per week.
Released on Friday, the new report included attacks involving knives, spitting and discrimination.
65% of the victims were women. 40% of incidents occurred on the public street and 60% involved physical or verbal harassment.
In April, an Australian woman who was accused of racially abusing an elderly Asian woman went on to spew more ethnic slurs outside a police station.
Additionally, a Chinese Australian family’s home was graffitied and smashed with stones in a Coronavirus-related attack.
In Adelaide, a grocery store owner apologised for uploading a racist video showing an elderly Asian man being ‘fake-sneezed’ on amid the Coronavirus pandemic.
Racist attacks were committed by a stranger in 84% of the report’s cases whilst 90% did not report the incident to the police.
Even when caught, attackers were released swiftly. A 21-year-old Australian woman was seen laughing after being granted bail for “racist bashing of two Chinese students.”
Survey organiser Osmond Chiu criticised the media of reporting the incidents as being rare.
“The clear majority of victims reported as female, and the perpetrators are strangers,” he said. “And ‘Chinese’ and ‘Asian’ are being used interchangeably by perpetrators, which shows the importance of solidarity”.
“Covid-19 has brought this to the surface but clearly something existed previously, and that needs to be delved into far more,” he said.
“There were common themes [to the incidents], references to eating habits, Asians being the carriers of diseases and hoarding, and that echoes some of the historic anti-Chinese narratives”.
Last month, it was revealed that Australia had more anti-Asian racism related to the Coronavirus pandemic than America.
