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The Emotional Toll of Enduring Anti-Asian Attacks
Enough is enough.
It was a beautiful Sunday afternoon for a walk at Ocean Beach in San Francisco when a white man came running at my elderly father and me. He waved his arms, gesturing at us, and started shouting.
“Oh no,” I thought. “He’s going to try to shove my father.” I reached out for my father’s arm. My father is 88 years old and disabled due to spinal stenosis combined with a childhood bout of polio. He needs two canes to walk.
I tried to hurry my father back to the car, but the white man followed us, shouting, “Yes! Lift those legs! You’re already moving better!” Then he shouted at me, “Do you understand?”
Although there were other people at the beach that day, none were in earshot. No one saw us being accosted by this crazed white man. No one came to our aid.
Fortunately, we made it back to our car, and I was able to drive away to safety.
But the incident shook my father’s nerves. He began to suffer from nightmares and panic attacks. I had to take him to the hospital for an EKG once because he thought he was having a heart attack. It turned out to be a panic attack, and his doctor prescribed a low-dose anti-anxiety medication for him. But one of the side effects is drowsiness — never great for an elderly person.
