Heavy snow and difficult travel expected again, heaviest snow in southern Minnesota

MPR News helps you turn down the noise and build shared understanding. Turn up your support for this public resource and keep trusted journalism accessible to all. 

Turn Up Your Support

 said she was pepper-sprayed on the arm during a racist attack while out with friends in Los Angeles. 

 the St. Paul gymnast said that she was waiting for an Uber with her friends, all of Asian descent, when a group sped by in a car yelling racial slurs. One person in the car pepper-sprayed her on the arm, she said. 

"I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off," she told PopSugar. "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.” 

Lee is currently in Los Angeles competing in the latest season of "Dancing with the Stars." She 

Reports of an anti-Asian incidents — from taunts to outright assaults — have skyrocketed in the United States. 

Stopping anti-Asian American hate in Minnesota

Asian Americans in Minnesota confront a COVID-19 backlash

I have felt the sting of pandemic-fueled racism

For Asian Americans facing racism

Learn more about the surge in violence

Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition that became the authority on gathering data on racially motivated attacks related to the pandemic, 

received 9,081 incident reports between March 19, 2020, and this June.

 Of those, 4,548 occurred last year, and 4,533 this year. Since the coronavirus was first reported in China, people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent have been treated as scapegoats solely based on their race.

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Social Issues

Conversations around race and racial justice

Sports

NewsPartners

Health

COVID-19

Nancy Yang

Author

In an interview with PopSugar, the St. Paul gymnast said that she was waiting for a ride with her friends, all of Asian descent, when a group sped by in a car yelling racial slurs. One person in the car pepper-sprayed her on the arm, she said. Suni Lee is currently in Los Angeles for the latest season of "Dancing with the Stars." 

A woman poses for a photo at the Met Gala. 

Olympic gold medalist Suni Lee says she was pepper-sprayed in racist attack

Go Deeper.

Like this?