Olympic gymnast Sunisa Lee says she has been subjected to vicious racist hate for choosing to date a black man – just months after she fell victim to an anti-Asian pepper spray attack.
The gold medalist publicly debuted her relationship with USC football star Jaylin Smith on December 26, when she shared several sweet photos of the pair cuddling up on Instagram, while captioning them with a simple heart emoji.
But while some fans were quick to voice their excitement over the Dancing With the Stars contestant’s relationship news, Suni, 18, recently admitted that she has also been facing a lot of backlash over the images – much of which has come from people within the Asian community.
According to a comment posted by Suni on TikTok, some of her fellow Hmong Americans have taken issue with her dating a black man and have furiously slammed the couple online.
Sunisa Lee admitted that she’s been viciously trolled for choosing to date a black man – months after revealing she was subject to an anti-Asian pepper spray attack
The gymnast confirmed she was in a relationship with USC football player Jaylin Smith on December 26, when she shared a few adorable snaps of them cozying up to Instagram
Although some fans were excited to find out that she had a boyfriend and were so happy for her, Sunisa recently admitted that she’s been facing a lot of backlash over the relationship
Her comment came in response to a video posted by a fan using the name @alixphom on the app, in which he filmed himself clapping and offering a thumbs up while showing a picture of Suni and Jaylin behind him.
‘I know that Sunisa will be judged by certain eyes in the Hmong Community because her man is black,’ he wrote in the caption.
‘LOVE is LOVE, no matter what race or gender you are. Keep doing you QUEEN.’
‘This makes me so happy,’ Sunisa wrote in the comment section. ‘I’ve received so much hate.
‘They support me when it’s beneficial for them, never when it comes to my happiness. Thank you!’
After her admission, many more people responded with love for Sunisa and her new beau.
According to the Olympic gold medalist, some people in the Hmong American community took issue with her dating a black man and have slammed the couple online
She opened up about it after a fan sent support. The fan (pictured) wrote, ‘Sunisa will be judged by the Hmong Community because her man is black. Love is love, no matter what race’
‘This makes me so happy,’ Sunisa replied in the comment section. ‘I’ve received so much hate’
She said they ‘support her when it’s beneficial to them,’ but never ‘when it comes to her happiness’
After her admission, many more people responded with love for Sunisa and her new beau
‘I knew she was [gonna] get so much hate for this,’ one person wrote. ‘But I 100 per cent support her and this relationship.
‘I’m glad she’s happy and they are so adorable together.’
Another added: ‘The Hmong community still has a long way to go. I’m here for her.’
‘The Hmong community should respect others choices in life,’ someone else said. ‘If they keep judging than we’re just gonna lose more Hmong folks.’
‘I’m super happy for her but I honestly bet if she was [with] a Hmong guy, she would be getting praises instead of hate,’ a fourth comment read.
A different TikTok user commented, ‘They’re mad because their parents didn’t allow them to do that so they hold it against their kids too.’
Back in November, the 18-year-old revealed that she was a victim of a racist attack in Los Angeles during an interview with PopSugar — where a group of people in a car sprayed her with pepper spray and called her ‘ching chong.’
The horrifying moment happened when she was waiting for an Uber after a night out with friends, who were all also of Asian descent.
Back in November, the 18-year-old revealed that she was a victim of a racist attack in Los Angeles – where a group of people sprayed her with pepper spray and called her ‘ching chong’
While waiting for an Uber after a night out with friends, who are also of Asian descent, a car drove past and the passengers started yelled out racist slurs
Suddenly, a car drove past them and the passengers started yelled out racist slurs, including ‘ching chong,’ before telling the gymnast and her friends to ‘go back to where they came from.’
Sunisa said one of them even sprayed her arm with pepper spray.
‘I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off,’ she recalled.
‘I didn’t do anything to them, and having the reputation, it’s so hard because I didn’t want to do anything that could get me into trouble. I just let it happen.’
The athlete made history last summer when she became the first Hmong American to ever participate in the Olympics.
According to Time Magazine, the ethnic group, which mostly hails from Laos, China, and Vietnam, was recruited by the CIA to fight in a covert military operation in Laos, known as the Secret War.
The athlete said they told them to ‘go back to where they came from’ and sprayed her arm with pepper spray
Sunisa made history last summer when she became the first Hmong American to ever participate in the Olympics
However, they were abandoned when American troops withdrew from Vietnam. Many fled to Thailand, but in the late ’70s, Hmong refugees began relocating to the U.S. Now, communities are concentrated in Minnesota (where Sunisa grew up), California, and Wisconsin.
‘Everybody knows Suni,’ Koua Yang, who immigrated to the U.S. in 1980 during one of the first waves of Hmong refugees to come to America, told the outlet.
‘We get to celebrate as a community, as an ethnic group, one of ours, a shining star at the highest level.’
After her win at the 2020 Olympics, Sunisa thanked the Hmong community for their support in a special message.
‘I just want to say thank you for all your support,’ she gushed. ‘I love you guys so much, see you soon.’
In October, the FBI released data that showed a 76 percent increase in anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020.
Stop AAPI Hate, a coalition of Asian American and Pacific Islander advocacy groups and scholars, previously claimed that anti-Asian hate crimes have gone up exponentially since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.
The group said they received reports of nearly 10,000 incidents since March 2020, with 43 percent of targeted victims of Chinese descent.
They believe that the rise in attacks were spurred by what many say were then-President Donald Trump’s inflammatory remarks blaming the COVID-19 pandemic on China. He famously dubbed coronavirus ‘the China virus’ and ‘kung flu.’
Source: DailyMail
