Utahns of Asian heritage keep wary eye for pandemic-related harassment
No formal reports of hate crimes, but several say numbers may not tell the full story
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Kristin Murphy, Deseret News
SALT LAKE CITY — For state lawmaker House Minority Whip Karen Kwan, attacks on Asian Americans in the pandemic have brought to mind her great-great-grandfather, who helped build the transcontinental railroad connecting America’s coasts but was barred from U.S. citizenship by federal law.
“It recalls a time in which the Chinese were considered suspicious,” said Kwan. “He came at a time when this kind of rhetoric was the standard way of thinking, that the Chinese were inscrutable, and they needed to be careful of Chinese people.”