'Black and Asian unity': attacks on elders spark reckoning with racism's roots

A spate of pandemic-era violence has shined a light on anti-Asian bias, stoking concerns of division between two minority communities

An 91-year-old man shoved to the ground in Oakland, California's Chinatown. A 50-something woman thrown into a set of newsstands in Flushing, Queens. An 84-year-old man fatally assaulted in San Francisco. A recent spate of violence against Asian elders has left many Asian Americans across the country feeling targeted, wondering whether these are random acts of crime - or fueled by anti-Asian bias.

The attacks have shaken Asian immigrant communities already struggling after a year of pandemic-related challenges, including racist taunts of kung flu" or China virus" and economic devastation for Chinatowns and other immigrant communities - and four years under an administration whose trade war with China fueled xenophobia.