CHARLOTTE. An Asian-American-owned convenience store in Charlotte, North Carolina was destroyed by a man brandishing a metal pole and yelling racist slurs. Surveillance footage shows a man knocking an exhibitor to the ground and hurling a road sign at refrigerators. Charlotte-Mecklenburg police said a man was arrested, identified as Xavier Rashee Woody-Silas. He was charged with robbery with a dangerous weapon, threats, disorderly conduct, injury to personal property and resistance to a public official, according to public records. Mark Sung, whose parents have owned the shop for decades, said it’s not the first time this has happened. He said his Korean-American family hears insults every day, accompanied by phrases such as: “Go back to your country.”
The number of attacks involving Asian-Americans is on the rise. For example, a woman of Asian descent was assaulted on the street in New York last week, eight people were shot dead in Atlanta last month including six Asian-American women who worked in massage parlors. Nationwide hate crimes against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders increased by 150 percent during the pandemic, according to a study by California State University’s Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, San Bernardino.