Boys star Karen Fukuhara reveals she was hit in the head in an apparent anti-Asian hate crime: “I felt it was important to raise awareness.”
Boys and Suicide Squad star Karen Fukuhara is trying to raise awareness about anti-Asian hate crimes and reveals she herself has recently been publicly attacked.
“Today I was hit on the head by a man (I’m physically fine) [and] this shit has to stop. We women, Asians, elderly need your help,” Fukuhara wrote in a March 16 Instagram post.
“I rarely share anything about my personal life, but something happened today that I thought was important,” she continued. “I went to a coffee shop to have a coffee and a man hit me on the back of the head. It came out of nowhere. We didn’t make eye contact before, I didn’t do anything out of the ordinary. It came to me with surprise and my hat flew off. When I looked around he was a few feet away from me (he must have kept walking after hitting me). I thought of confronting him first but he came up me too and I didn’t think it was worth the risk. After staring at himself for a few seconds and yelling at me, he finally walked away.”
According to Fukuhara, this is the first time she has been “physically injured.” However, she says she has been subjected to “racist slurs and hurtful acts” in the past.
“I’m writing this because I’ve had conversations with my multiracial friends who had no idea that these hate crimes happen to everyday, normal people — people they share meals with,” she explained. “I felt it was important to raise awareness. In the end I know I was lucky. He could have come back to hit me again. He could have carried a gun. The shock of this experience makes me think about taking self-defense courses. But why do we as “victims” need to think about this? What satisfaction do these abusers find in hitting women, Asians, and ELDERLY? They must be held accountable. What can we do as a community to prevent these horrific crimes?”
Fukuhara tagged her post with “#StopAsianHate,” a hashtag used to condemn the rising racism against Asians and Asian Americans that has gripped the nation since the outbreak of the coronavirus (COVID-19) pandemic in 2020. According to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, hate crimes against Asians increased by 150 percent in 2020 and by another 339 percent in 2021.
In response to Fukuhara’s post, some of her The Boys co-stars have expressed their support for her. “F that person!! I hope you’re okay, this is awful,” wrote Chace Crawford, who plays The Deep. “Karen, thank you for sharing your experience. I’m sorry this happened to you. I love her. Here if you need anything,” added Jack Quaid, who plays Hughie Campbell. Laz Alonso, who plays Mother’s Milk, simply wrote: “This pisses me off. I wish I was there…”
Since 2019, Fukuhara has starred as Kimiko Miyashiro/The Female in Prime Video’s The Boys, a series adaptation of the comic book of the same name by Garth Ennis and Darick Robertson. She also played the DC character Tatsu Yamashiro/Katana in the 2016 film adaptation of Suicide Squad. She is set to star in the upcoming film Bullet Train.
If you have been the victim of an anti-Asian hate crime, you can report the incident to the National Asian Pacific American Bar Association (NAPABA).
Source: Instagram, via Diversity
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Noah Dominguez (2925 articles published)
Noah E. Dominguez is a jr. News Editor at Comic Book Resources who joined the site as a writer in the summer of 2018. He has also written for sites such as WhatCulture and Gaming Access Weekly (formerly Gamer Assault Weekly) and has a degree in Mass Communications. What will he do next? Stay tuned. You can follow him on Twitter at @NoahDominguez_.
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