FACEism: How COVID-19 is resurfacing US history of racism against Asian Americans

This has been an especially difficult year due to the coronavirus. But imagine what it must be like to also be blamed for the pandemic.

People attack you because they think you have something to do with its creation or even have it - all because of your face and what the virus is being called.

From Los Angeles to New York and in between, people are being assaulted by fellow Americans simply because they are Asian.

In a two-week period in March, when we were just beginning to understand how difficult life was going to be, a study found President Donald Trump chose to publicly call it the "Chinese" virus 20 times. Add to that the "kung flu," the "China virus," the "Chinese flu" and the "Wuhan virus."

The deliberateness of his wording became clear with a photo of his speech where he crossed out "corona" and replaced it with "Chinese."

It's wording that hits like a sledgehammer.

Words matter. How we use them can build us up or tear us down.

That's why during this frightening pandemic, it's important how we identify the disease that has killed so many.

Asian Americans have done nothing wrong, nor do they have anything to do with this virus, yet, hateful people across the country are choosing to blame them for the crisis.

The mission of the FACEism series is to expose our often-ignored history, erase stereotyping and move toward a better understanding of each other.

The other installments in the FACEism series can be found here.