“They call us Chinese, then harass us. The racism here is unspeakable.”
In a viral video with over 300,000 views since it was posted to Twitter April 6, professional esports player Lee “Fearless” Eui-seok spoke out against hateful, anti-Asian acts he has experienced since coming to the United States. His comments have attracted attention across the esports industry and provided another example of the harassment and violence Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islandershave faced throughout the country, particularly during the covid-19 pandemic.
Lee, a professional esports player and a member of the Overwatch League’s Dallas Fuel team, was asked by a fan during a livestream what it’s been like for him since moving to Texas this year. “Being Asian here is terrifying, seriously,” he said in comments translated from Korean. “People keep trying to pick fights with us. Every time they see me, it’s like Americans will come up to us and there’s even people who cough on us. … It’s my first time ever experiencing racism. And it’s always — it’s pretty severe. And they try to scare us — lots of them just try to scare us.”
