Anti-Asian hate surge online / Discrimination lawsuit / Asian deportees
From surging online hate to admissions battles, Asian American communities face new challenges amid political tensions.
The Rebel Yellow - Issue #34
A new report shows anti-Asian hate speech surged online following Donald Trump's election victory, particularly targeting South Asian communities. Plus, a teen Google engineer sues the University of California system, alleging racial discrimination in admissions; and Costa Rica receives its first group of Asian deportees from the U.S., sparking concerns over human rights and treatment.
Report: Trump’s election victory sparks surge in anti-Asian hate online
Anti-Asian hate speech surged dramatically across online extremist spaces after Donald Trump’s 2024 election win, with South Asian communities bearing the brunt of the hostility, according to new research from Stop AAPI Hate. The study, released Thursday, highlights a disturbing escalation of racism and xenophobia between November 2024 and January 2025, marking the highest level of online anti-Asian rhetoric since monitoring began in August 2022.
The report analyzed discourse within domestic violent extremist (DVE) spaces in the U.S. from January 2023 to January 2025. It found a 66% surge in anti-Asian slurs following Trump’s election win, peaking in January 2025. South Asians were the most heavily targeted, receiving 75% of slurs in December 2024 and January 2025. Online threats of violence also spiked by 59% from November to December 2024, coinciding with divisive political rhetoric, particularly around immigration policies.
“We are extremely alarmed by the latest spikes of hate that Asian communities are facing today, both in online spaces and in-person — which Trump is fueling with xenophobic rhetoric and policies,” said Manjusha Kulkarni, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate. “Trump and his loyalists have stoked the flames of anti-Asian scapegoating and bigotry for years, emboldening racists to commit acts of hate.”
Political rhetoric to blame
The report links the rise in hate speech to intensified anti-immigrant rhetoric from Trump and his allies, both during and after the campaign. Incidents like Trump’s inflammatory remarks on the H-1B visa program, amplified by figures such as Elon Musk and Vivek Ramaswamy, fueled xenophobic sentiment.
Anti-East Asian hostility was further intensified by events involving alleged Chinese military actions and scrutiny of Chinese-owned companies like TikTok and DeepSeek AI. In January 2025 alone, anti-East Asian slurs spiked by 54% compared to December 2024.
As predictor of offline violence
The findings align with prior research showing that surges in online hate speech often precede spikes in real-world violence. As extremist spaces become more active, targeted communities frequently face increased threats, harassment, and physical violence.
Firsthand accounts collected by Stop AAPI Hate reflect this concerning trend. One Indian man in Virginia reported being verbally harassed at a Thai restaurant by someone emboldened by Trump’s victory. In another case, a Chinese man in the South recounted being followed and threatened by someone celebrating Trump’s win.
“As the only racial group that is majority foreign-born — and accounting for one out of every seven undocumented immigrants — AAPI communities are experiencing devastating harms as a result of Trump’s xenophobic agenda,” Stop AAPI Hate co-founder Cynthia Choi stated.
A community response
In response to the growing wave of hate, Stop AAPI Hate launched the “Many Roots, One Home” advocacy campaign on Feb. 19. The initiative aims to empower Asian Americans and allies through education, political engagement and community action.
Teen Google engineer sues UC for racial discrimination in admissions
A Palo Alto teen who made headlines in 2023 for landing a Ph.D.-level position at Google after being rejected by multiple universities has filed a lawsuit against the University of California (UC) system, alleging racial discrimination in its admissions process.
Stanley Zhong, 19, and his father Nan Zhong filed their complaint on Feb. 11 in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of California. The lawsuit targets the UC system and five of its campuses (Berkeley, UCLA, San Diego, Santa Barbara and Davis), as well as the Department of Education.
Driving the news
Stanley’s story gained national attention and was eventually mentioned at a September 2023 hearing of the House Committee on Education and the Workforce on affirmative action in college admissions. He and his father are bringing the lawsuit along with their organization called Students Who Oppose Racial Discrimination (SWORD), which comprises other students and families who believe Asian Americans face discrimination in the college admissions process.
Google’s interest in Stanley — a self-taught programmer — dates back to 2019, when the tech company’s recruiters first reached out to the then-13-year-old as he distinguished himself through various coding contests. Though his age prevented immediate employment at the time, the connection would prove significant.
Shortly after he turned 18 and a rigorous evaluation, Google offered Stanley a full-time position at the Ph.D. level in September 2023. Despite his impressive credentials — including a 3.97 unweighted GPA (4.42 weighted) from Gunn High School, a near-perfect SAT score of 1590, founding his own document-signing startup RabbitSign and tutoring underserved kids in coding — Stanley was rejected by 16 out of 18 colleges he applied to, including all five UC campuses named in the lawsuit.
“Stanley’s rejection from these UC campuses was not based on his qualifications but on his race, as an Asian American,” the suit alleges. The 291-page complaint argues that his technical achievements presented to UC were “substantially the same as those sent to Google.”
In an interview with The Rebel Yellow, Nan described the family’s reaction as the rejections accumulated. “A lot of surprises, frustration and anger. We heard about Asian American kids facing a higher bar in college admissions,” he said. “But it still caught us off-guard that even all the state schools he applied to (namely five UC campuses) rejected his application.”
Despite the setbacks, Stanley has flourished at Google. Last month, he received his performance evaluation for 2024 “with a rating and manager assessment indicating that he fully met the expectations for his position at Google and demonstrated a strong growth trajectory,” Nan shared.
The allegations
Speaking to ABC7 News, Nan outlined three main pieces of evidence supporting their case. “First of all, in addition to Stanley, there are a lot of Asian American students who actually contacted us about their college admissions stories. How they were rejected by UCs, despite their outstanding qualifications, similar to Stanley’s,” he said.
He also claimed evidence regarding faculty hiring practices. He alleged that UC not only uses race in its hiring decisions “in clear violation of the law” but is also “knowing it’s illegal” and actively concealing evidence of this practice. Additionally, the Zhongs point to public data showing what they describe as “a clear suppression of Asian enrollment, despite the strong growth of the Asian community here in California.”
The UC system has pushed back firmly against the allegations. “We believe these to be meritless suits that seek to distract us from our mission to provide California students with a world class education,” Rachael Zaentz, senior director of strategic and critical communications in the Office of the President, said. She further explained that although the UC system does collect demographic data about race and ethnicity during the application process, this information serves only statistical purposes and is kept separate from the admission review process.
The big picture
The filing adds to the ongoing national conversation about university admissions practices in the wake of the Supreme Court’s landmark June 2023 ruling that ended race-conscious admissions programs at Harvard University and the University of North Carolina. While that decision marked a national shift, California had already established this precedent decades earlier through Proposition 209, which banned consideration of race in public education in 1996.
The Zhongs’ legal action also follows a separate lawsuit filed on Feb. 3 by Students Against Racial Discrimination (SARD), which similarly challenges UC’s holistic admissions process, arguing it disadvantages Asian American and white applicants. However, the Education Department is included in the Zhongs’ suit for allegedly failing to take action against what they describe as UC’s discriminatory practices.
Nan expressed confidence when asked about the strength of their case. “We believe our case is stronger than SFFA v. Harvard. Given the Supreme Court ruled against Harvard, we feel we’ve got a strong case against both the UC and the federal Department of Education,” he told The Rebel Yellow.
Their lawsuit came after exhausting other avenues for dialogue, including an open letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom supported by thousands. “We spent over a year reaching out to the UC Board of Regents and Admissions Office, California state lawmakers and Gov. Newsom. Everyone of them either stonewalled or ignored us,” Nan said. “We never got a reply from Gov. Newsom for our open letter signed by 4000+ people. That was even more surprising, frustrating and unacceptable than the initial rejections.”
A unique approach
After their efforts proved unsuccessful and multiple legal entities declined to take their case, the Zhongs decided to represent themselves. What’s unusual about their approach is their reliance on artificial intelligence.
“Since we are representing ourselves without a lawyer, our legal complaints are largely written by ChatGPT and Gemini,” Nan told The Rebel Yellow. “A lawyer quoted us $20,000 for drafting a legal complaint. We are doing it for about $2, a reduction of four magnitudes.”
He went on to elaborate the benefits of an AI-assisted approach. “We are amazed by how good the AI is at making legal arguments by citing laws and precedents. It is available 24x7, is always patient for our dumbest legal questions and never has any conflict of interest for us to worry about. At this point, we feel good about the legal arguments we made (with the assistance of AI) and the 100+ pages of evidence we collected.”
Nan also told McClatchy News that they plan to “file lawsuits against more universities very soon.” Their current suit seeks unspecified damages and demands a jury trial.
Costa Rica receives its first Asian deportees from the US
Costa Rica on Thursday received its first U.S. deportation flight carrying 135 migrants — most of whom were Asians — who arrived visibly distressed and uninformed about their transfer, according to the country’s ombudsman office.
Arrival
The flight from San Diego to San Jose carried 135 deportees that included 65 children, two pregnant women and an elderly woman, according to Costa Rican Deputy Security Minister Omer Badilla. The group comprised families from various nations, including Afghanistan, Armenia, Azerbaijan, China, Georgia, Ghana, Iran, Jordan, Kazakhstan, Russia, Turkey, Uzbekistan and Vietnam.
None of the migrants had criminal records, Badilla noted. Upon landing, many of them “expressed visible distress,” claiming they had not been given any information about their transfer, according to a report released on Friday by Costa Rica’s ombudsman office. Some of the migrants allegedly lacked access to their documents, complicating the verification of family relationships. “The lack of this information increased the distress and uncertainty of these individuals,” the report stated, criticizing both U.S. and Costa Rican authorities.
Detention and government response
The deportees were immediately transported on a six to seven-hour bus journey to a facility near the Panama border in Corredores, where they will be detained for up to one month as officials coordinate their voluntary return to their home countries. According to the report, the mothers said their children “had been unable to sleep properly for hours” and “showed great hunger” upon boarding the buses. A visit by the Associated Press at the facility in October 2023 found migrants sleeping in tents and reporting sanitation issues. Officials claimed improvements have been made since then, but journalists have reportedly been denied access to verify changes.
Costa Rican Security Minister Mario Zamora defended the government’s handling of the situation. He asserted that the ombudsman’s assessment was based on a two-hour period after the migrants landed rather than when they reached their final destination. “United Nations personnel were present, as well as translators, who helped each individual understand the situation from the perspective of international migration law,” Zamora said in a statement. “We do not agree with what was stated,” he added.
Regional impact
The deportations reflect a broader regional strategy by the Trump administration. Costa Rica agreed to temporarily house up to 200 deportees, with President Rodrigo Chaves acknowledging that the decision was influenced by the threat of U.S. tariffs on Costa Rican goods. The U.S. government will cover the costs of both the initial deportation flights and subsequent repatriation flights, while Costa Rican officials have stated they will conduct detailed assessments of each case to ensure deportees’ safety in their home countries.
Last week, Panama received a total of 299 deportees from other nations, initially housing them in hotel rooms under police guard. About one-third of those who refused voluntary repatriation were sent to a remote camp in Darien province bordering Colombia.
Melania Trump gains celebrity status in China despite husband’s contentious policies
Melania Trump has emerged as an unlikely online celebrity in China — particularly among women — despite her husband’s historically contentious stance toward Beijing.
Chinese social media platforms are buzzing with admiration for the two-time first lady, with fans praising her independence, fashion sense and dedication to raising their son Barron. After Trump’s inauguration, Joyce Yip, a 39-year-old entrepreneur from Guangzhou, for one, reportedly described Melania as “heroic, elegant and resolute” on Xiaohongshu (as RedNote is known in China). The fascination has even sparked commercial trends, with Chinese online shops quickly producing replicas of her wide-brimmed inauguration hat and knitting influencers sharing tutorials within 48 hours of the event.
The current wave of popularity builds upon the positive reception Melania received during her first tenure as first lady. During a November 2017 visit to China, she visited the Beijing Zoo to meet pandas Gu Gu and Meng’er, signing a panda print and interacting with schoolchildren. Chinese social media praised her grace and cultural sensitivity during that visit, though many commenters maintained their preference for China’s own first lady, Peng Liyuan. Today, Melania’s appeal in China transcends her husband’s policies, which have included imposing hefty tariffs on Chinese imports and using racist terms like “kung flu” during the COVID-19 pandemic.
An Asian American judge will decide Eric Adams’ fate in NYC
Federal Judge Dale E. Ho, 47, faces the biggest decision of his brief judicial career as he weighs corruption charges against New York City Mayor Eric Adams. Just 18 months after taking the bench, Ho’s ruling could determine the fate of the city’s top official.
Early years and education
Ho, the son of Filipino immigrants, was born and raised in San Jose, California. His grandfather, Raymundo Seña Estacion, fought for the U.S. in World War II and powered through the Bataan Death March during the Japanese occupation of the Philippines — an experience that influenced Ho’s understanding of democracy.
At Princeton University, Ho excelled across disciplines, including breaking new ground directing Theatre Intime’s first production with an all-Asian cast and crew, staging David Henry Hwang’s “Fresh off the Boat.” Speaking to the Daily Princetonian, Alexander Nehamas, Ho’s former thesis advisor, remembered him as “one of the best students I’ve had at Princeton.”
Legal career and civil rights work
Following his summa cum laude graduation in 1999, Ho started as a paralegal in the Manhattan District Attorney’s Office. After earning his law degree from Yale in 2005, he clerked for a Manhattan federal judge before joining the NAACP Legal Defense Fund and later leading the ACLU’s Voting Rights Project.
Ho argued two significant Supreme Court cases during his ACLU tenure. In Department of Commerce v. New York (2019), he prevailed in blocking the addition of a citizenship question to the Census. Though unsuccessful in Trump v. New York (2020), which challenged the exclusion of undocumented immigrants from congressional apportionment calculations, the policy was later reversed under President Joe Biden.
Path to the federal bench
Biden’s September 2021 nomination of Ho sparked intense debate. Republican senators questioned his civil rights background and social media history, with Sen. Ted Cruz (R-Texas) calling him an “extreme partisan” and Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) describing him as “angry.”
Ho responded by pledging that everyone in his courtroom would receive “a fair shake, a fair opportunity to be heard, and ultimately equal treatment under the law.” Confirmed by a 50-49 Senate vote in June 2023, he took his oath two months later. His pre-judicial experience included service on the 2018 New York City Charter Revision Commission, where he worked on campaign finance reform.
The Adams case
Ho’s oversight of the Adams case has revealed his systematic approach to complex legal questions. On Friday, he appointed Paul D. Clement, a conservative former U.S. solicitor general, to evaluate the Justice Department’s dismissal request. The decision came as multiple prosecutors resigned over the case’s direction.
Ho denied the mayor’s motion to dismiss key charges in December 2024. Now, with the April 21 trial postponed and a potential hearing set for March 14, Ho continues his examination despite noting his limited criminal law experience.
Nehamas, Ho’s former mentor, reflects on his position. “I don’t envy his position, but I admire the fact that at such a young age, he’s already reached a point where he gets to decide issues that have significant results for the life of the country,” Nehamas told the Daily Princetonian.
Blogilates’ Cassey Ho calls out Nordstrom over alleged design dupe
Fitness entrepreneur Cassey Ho, founder of Blogilates and activewear brand Popflex, is accusing Israeli apparel manufacturer Gottex Studio and U.S. retailer Nordstrom of "blatant design patent infringement" on her patented Pirouette Skort — a signature piece celebrated for its tiered design and functionality. Ho claims Nordstrom Rack is complicit by selling the alleged knockoff under its private label, Street Level.
Allegations of duplication
In a detailed blog post, Ho laid out side-by-side visual comparisons between her original design for the Pirouette Skor and the Gottex-manufactured product sold by Nordstrom Rack. She points out key similarities, including the skort’s tiered overlay, adjustable waistband and overall structure — details she claims are too identical to be coincidental.
In a viral YouTube Short titled “Help. I’m being silenced!!”, Ho directly confronted both companies, accusing Gottex of copying her design down to the color palette, stating, “They didn’t even bother to try to change one thing about it.” Emphasizing the magnitude of the alleged infringement, she called out Nordstrom Rack’s size and influence, with “$4 billion in value, 351 stores and 54,000 employees.”
Ho also criticized Gottex for marketing the alleged copy as a “one-of-a-kind creation,” calling it an audacious misrepresentation. “They couldn’t even pick their own colors. These are the same colors as on the POPFLEX website,” Ho said in her video.
Threats of legal action
Ho’s initial response was to issue a cease and desist letter through her legal team to Gottex. However, instead of acknowledgment, she received an email from CM Law, representing BKF (Gottex’s parent company), on her birthday that warned Ho that if she pursued further infringement claims, BKF would sue her for “unfair competition and tortious interference with business.”
Ho responded with disbelief and frustration, stating in her video, “Are you kidding me?” She interpreted the legal threat as an attempt to intimidate and silence her for defending her intellectual property.
Ho’s open invitation
While Gottex faces the direct allegations of copying, Ho also holds Nordstrom Rack accountable for profiting from the alleged infringement. She urged them to remove the copied skort from their stores and consider selling her authentic Popflex design instead.
“Instead of letting one of your vendors treat me like this and try to shut me up, you could work with me,” Ho said. She proposed turning the dispute into an opportunity for collaboration: “Let’s turn this into an enemies-to-lovers arc. But first things first: take those dupes out of your Nordstrom Rack stores, and then let’s talk.”
Dupe culture
Previously, Ho accused fast-fashion giant Shein of copying her designs without consent. Despite initial reassurances from Shein’s U.S. president, Ho continued to encounter similar violations.
Independent designers like Ho often find their creations replicated by larger corporations that sell cheaper imitations without credit or compensation. While many companies have adopted this practice with little consequence, Ho’s design patent gives her a legal foundation to pursue action.
90-year-old Japanese incarceration survivor warns against repeat of history under leaders who “fail to honor the constitution”
In commemoration of the Day of Remembrance, Yale’s Japanese American Student Union (JASU) hosted a poignant event on Feb. 19 featuring Sam Mihara, a survivor of the Heart Mountain incarceration camp. The event, held at the Asian American Cultural Center and reported on by the Yale Daily News, honored the anniversary of Executive Order 9066 — the 1942 mandate that led to the forced incarceration of approximately 120,000 Japanese Americans during World War II.
A dark chapter in history
Born in San Francisco in 1933, Mihara was only 9 years old when his family was uprooted and sent to the Heart Mountain incarceration camp in Wyoming. Now 90, he has dedicated much of his life to educating the public on a dark anti-Asian chapter of American history, sharing firsthand accounts that highlight the injustices faced by Japanese Americans during the war.
Unforgiving life inside the camp
Mihara recounted the dehumanizing conditions his family endured at Heart Mountain. The camp was surrounded by barbed wire and guarded by armed soldiers with orders to shoot anyone attempting to escape. “I still have that number. It’s in the National Archives. There’s a file on me, as well as every one of the 120,000 people,” Mihara revealed, referring to the prisoner number assigned to him upon arrival.
Mihara spoke of shared toilets with no privacy, meager and culturally unfamiliar food rations, and poorly insulated barracks that left families vulnerable to Wyoming’s brutal winters. The medical care was woefully inadequate, leading to severe consequences for his family. His father lost his eyesight due to untreated glaucoma, and his grandfather died of emaciation under the camp’s insufficient care. “It was a horrible death. He was down to skin and bones before he passed,” Mihara recalled.
“I think it could happen again”
Mihara also touched on the reparations survivors received under the American Civil Liberties Act of 1988, signed by President Ronald Reagan, which offered a formal apology and financial compensation to those interned. Beyond personal restitution, Mihara has worked to ensure the history he experienced is never forgotten, helping transform the Heart Mountain site into a museum and educational facility visited by thousands of students each year.
He warned of the potential for history to repeat itself: “If you have a situation where you have hatred, where you have hysteria and we have some leaders who fail to honor the Constitution, I think it could happen again. I think everyone needs to be in their regard to do what they can to make sure that future leaders don’t do this again to anyone.”