Chloe Kim, a renowned athlete who brought laurels to the United States by winning Gold in the Winter Olympics 2018 in Snowboarding at a young age of 17, revealed on Instagram that she receives thousands of racist DMs accusing her and the Asian-American community of spreading Covid-19 in America and around the world.
The 20-year-old Asian-American snowboarder, who was born in California after her parents emigrated from South Korea, revealed that despite she having name and fame was subjugated to racism and wondered about how hard it is for common people of Asian descent to go about their daily work in the country.
Kim, who currently lives in Los Angeles, revealed that she is so frightened about the situation that she carries a knife and pepper spray for her safety when she steps out of her house.
The athlete shared a few screenshots she received on her Instagram DMs and most of them are down right racist calling her and the entire Asian-American community as ''bat eater'', ''you made corona'' and ''chink.'' Another screenshot shows a user calling her "You dumb Asian b—h, kiss my a**''.
"Just because I am a professional athlete or won the Olympics doesn't exempt me from racism," Kim said and continued "I get hundreds of those kinds of messages monthly. I see maybe 30 a day," she said in an interview with ESPN.
Kim revealed that racism against her community skyrocketed after Covid-19 and walked down memory lane saying a woman in her apartment yelled racist tirades against her when she was trying to get in the elevator during the start of the lockdown in March, 2020.
"I think it got worse when COVID started. I was trying to get in the elevator at my apartment one day and a woman was yelling at me and telling me, 'No, you can't get in here.' Sometimes I feel like everyone hates me because I am Asian," Kim told ESPN.
Hate crimes in the United States against Asian-Americans are on the rise since the advent of the Covid-19 pandemic and several Asians have been stabbed, pushed, spat at and even urinated upon by thugs in broad daylight and in full public view.
Kim also revealed that when she won a silver medal in 2014 and celebrated the victory by sharing a picture on Instagram, she received DMs belittling her accomplishments asking her to go back to China and stop stealing medals from white people. She revealed she cried non-stop at how she was treated as none gave importance to her work but only pointed out her roots.
"People belittled my accomplishment because I was Asian. There were messages in my DMs telling me to go back to China and to stop taking medals away from the white American girls on the team. I was so proud of my accomplishment, but instead I was sobbing in bed next to my mom, asking her, 'Why are people being so mean because I'm Asian?'"
