'The Boys' star Karen Fukuhara reveals she was attacked in an anti-Asian hate crime

Suicide Squad star Karen Fukuhara is speaking out about a violent and racially-motivated incident where she says she was targetted as an Asian woman. Writing in a series of slides on her official Instagram, The Boys actress says a man she did not know physically hit her on the head, causing her hat to fly off, and then verbally accosted her.

“Today I was struck in the head by a man (I’m physically fine) & this s**t needs to stop,” she began her post, captioned with the simple but weighty hashtag, “#stopasianhate.”

“Us women, Asians, the elderly need your help. I rarely share about my private life, but something happened today that I thought was important,” she continued before adding a long slide where she described the incident.

“I was walking to a cafe for some coffee and a man struck me in the back of my head,” she stated in the white text overlaying a black background. “It came out of nowhere. We made no eye contact before, I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary.”

Noting that the force of the assault was so strong, her hat flew off of her head, she added, “I thought about confronting him first but he started coming towards me and I didn’t think it was worth the risk. After a few seconds of staring at each other, and him yelling at me, he eventually walked away.”

Unfortunately, Karen reveals that this isn’t the first time she has had to confront anti-Asian hate, writing, “This is the first time I’ve been harmed physically, although racial slurs and hurtful actions have been directed to me in the past.” She then goes on to say she’s sharing her personal experience because her conversations with others in the Asian community have revealed just how prevalent anti-Asian hate crimes are, and she feels compelled to spread awareness.

She ended off her statement by lamenting how it is always incumbent on the victim to do something to protect themselves, rather than on society at large to make sure violent crimes and hate crimes don’t occur in the first place.

“The shock of this experience has me thinking about taking self defense classes. But why is this something we as ‘victims’ have to think about? What satisfaction are these perpetrators getting from hitting women, Asians, the ELDERLY? They need to be held accountable.”

“What can we do as a community to prevent these horrible crimes?” she asked.

The comments section of her post is loaded with friends and fans concerned for her safety and welfare, including her co-star and Gossip Girl alum Chace Crawford who wrote, “F this person!! Hope you’re ok this is awful. ❤️,” and Olivia Munn, who commented, “I’m so grateful you’re safe ❤️❤️❤️.” Daniel Dae Kim added, "Thank you for sharing your story and I’m glad you’re safe!🙏🏼"

While Karen didn't share the time or date of her attack, the news comes almost exactly a year after a man entered targeted several Atlanta spas and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women.

Karen’s story also comes merely a couple days after a 67-year-old Asian woman in Yonkers, New York was brutally beaten in the entrance vestibule of her building by a man in an unprovoked attack. The man has been charged with attempted murder and a hate crime.  Several suspected anti-Asian attacks and hate crimes have been reported in the last few years since the start of the pandemic. CNN reported last year that anti-Asian attacks and hate crimes surged in 2021 by 164 per cent.