Los Angeles, March 18 : Actress Karen Fukuhara of the ‘Suicide Squad’ fame has revealed she “was struck in the head by a man” outside a cafe. The 30-year-old took to Instagram, with the hashtag “Stop Asian Hate” accompanying the post. “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 wrote. Karen is best known for her character, Kimiko Miyashiro on the Amazon series The Boys, besides as Katana in ‘Suicide Squad’. She said she was at present, “physically fine” but incidents like these needed to stop and “women, Asians and the elderly need your help”. ‘It came out of nowhere’, Karen wrote. She rarely shared details about her private life online, but felt this “was important. “I was walking to a cafe for some coffee and a man struck me in the back of my head. It came out of nowhere. “We made no eye contact before, I wasn’t doing anything out of the ordinary. “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.” Karen feels it’s “important to raise awareness” about such incidents. “I’ve had conversations with multi-racial friends of mine that had no idea these hate crimes happen to everyday, regular people – people that they share meals with,” she added. Anti-Asian hate crimes rose 73 per cent in 2020, according to FBI data. In 2020, the UN issued a report that detailed “an alarming level” of racially motivated violence and other hate incidents against Asian Americans. In May 2021, US President Joe Biden signed an US law the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act, to address the rising rate of anti-Asian attacks. During that time top KPop band BTS also spoke out about their ‘grief and anger’ over Asian American attacks. Karen said she was lucky as the man could have come back to hit her again or “could have carried a weapon”. She explained how the shock of the experience has her thinking about taking self-defence 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.” Fellow actors left messages in her comments section, including co-stars from The Boys, in support of Karen.
