Illustration: Liu Rui/GT

Since Donald Trump 's victory in the presidential election, there has been a surge in people saying they have been subjected to blatant racism and harassment. That disturbing white supremacist language and anti-Semitic Nazi imagery have been found spray painted around the country. That Muslim women wearing hijab have been harassed. That Asian-Americans have been called racist slurs and told to "go back to your country." Some of the stories have been later found to be false according to US police. Meanwhile, Time magazine has reported that the Southern Poverty Law Center received 200 hate crime reports since election day.It appears that certain toxic elements in American society have been emboldened by Trump's victory and have now become more open about their racist hostility. Yet there shouldn't be much surprise, as the US has always been a racist nation.Over time, much of the outright racism morphed to become more hidden and casual. Instead of outright racial slurs, they insist on false stereotypes and other generalizations. Instead of being attacked openly, bullying took place more online and anonymously.The underlying feelings were always there however, just lurking beneath the surface. Not like the German EU commissioner who recently used racial slurs to describe Chinese. What is even more telling is that this was his stated method to "wake Germany up." Think about that carefully.China responded correctly, with the foreign ministry spokeswoman Hua Chunying describing it as "remarks actually reflecting some Western politicians' deep-rooted and baffling sense of superiority."For some in the Asian-American community, this has been quite a surprise as they lived in areas where outright hostile discrimination was rare. They mistakenly believed and insisted that Asians in America did not experience discrimination to the extent of other minority groups. They mistakenly believed and insisted a few issues like poor media representation were all Asians in America had to worry about.This false belief led them to ignore or be oblivious to the plight of Asians who have been targeted with racial abuse for years. For example, the reality for Asian students who were targeted with violent bullying at South Philadelphia High School, where CNN reported "by the end of the school day, as many as 30 students of Asian descent had been physically attacked and many were sent to the hospital for treatment."Assuming the stories are true in light of Trump being elected, many misguided Asian-Americans are now experiencing what blatant racial abuse feels like. With reports of witnessing a Chinese food deliveryman being called a chink, the name-calling is indeed sad. Yet there is little attention from these same people when Chinese food deliverymen are robbed at gunpoint regularly. The targeting of Chinese for crime had become so bad that there have been protests about it from Philadelphia in the East Coast to Sacramento in the West Coast.Philly.com reported on the protest that resulted in a Council Hearing to address "crimes of violence that target Chinese business owners, particularly restaurant owners." Sacbee reported that Chinese gathered on WeChat to form crime patrols and that "increased police presence and outreach to the Asian-American community (resulted in) a 43 percent drop in robberies in September."Misguided Asian-Americans don't necessarily have to support any initiative that deals with how Asians are racially abused in the US, but don't go around spreading nonsense that it doesn't happen. These incidents stemming from the election are only giving a taste of what many Asians in America have already been going through for years.It is not the time for schadenfreude that the misguided Asian-Americans who went around saying there were few serious racial issues for Asian-Americans are now experiencing blatant racial abuse. Chinese in America can defend their interests and safety if they stick together and organize on social media like WeChat. What is important now is to maintain the same vigilance and opposition to these new racial abuses after Trump, just as it was for the racial abuse before Trump.It doesn't matter who is targeting Chinese for abuse, whether they are criminals or racists. If there are any initiatives in your area that oppose white supremacy and the resulting racial abuse from the election, support them. This is a cause where it is in our interests to join with other minorities. Even if you support Trump as president, that isn't a reason to ignore the racial abuse from white supremacists. That is going backfire on you, your family and all people of color.The author is a writer from Kulture Media, a media watchdog on behalf of Asian Americans. opinion@globaltimes.com.cn