Following the heinous shooting and killing of eight women, including six Asian-American women, Lana Condor is speaking out.
The star of the franchise To All the Boys I’ve Loved Before took to Twitter, where she pleaded with fans to take the hate crime seriously. She wrote,
“Wake up… your Asian friends and family are deeply scared, horrified, sick to their stomachs, and wildly angry. Please please please check in on us, please please please stand with us. Please. Your Asian friend needs you, even if they aren’t publicly grieving on social media.”
She later added that her boyfriend Anthony was afraid for her to go out to the nail salon and said,
“This is not a world we should live in.”
Lana, who was born in Vietnam and adopted by American parents as a baby, has become extremely vocal about anti-Asian racism since becoming famous. In March 2020, Lana called out Trump for referring to COVID as the “Chinese Virus” and for encouraging racism. She wrote on Twitter,
“You have no idea the ramifications your racist words and actions have on the Asian American community. You simply cannot fathom the danger you are putting our community in.”
Additionally, Lana has mentioned a few times that she has been the target of anti-Asian racism herself.
In past interviews, she described an incident in which a casting agent asked her to “be more like Hello Kitty.”
She told Teen Vogue,
“What the f*ck does that mean? That’s so insanely ignorant and racist.”
She later elaborated on the situation and told Variety,
“Also, Hello Kitty doesn’t have a mouth. [So as] a woman, I’m like, ‘One, you want me to be more like Hello Kitty, but she doesn’t have a voice.’ That’s so insulting to me.”
Lana also recalled facing racism as a child and being called derogatory names by her classmates.
Although anti-Asian racism has always been a problem in the United States, things have escalated since COVID. Reports indicate that anti-Asian hate crimes have risen by 150% in major cities.
The most recent, and most violent, hate crime occurred on Tuesday when a man shot and killed eight women, six of whom were Asian American. The media has been reluctant to officially call it a hate crime, despite the fact that the shooter clearly targeted young Asian American women.
A 21-year-old white man has been arrested for the murders.
