March 23 (UPI) -- Ken Jeong gave his thoughts on the rise of hate crimes against Asian Americans while appearing on Late Night with Seth Meyers.
Jeong made the comments on Monday after a gunman recently targeted three Asian-owned spas in the Atlanta area, killing eight and injuring one.
Anti-Asian American hate crimes have risen in the United States in relation to the COVID-19 pandemic as the virus was first observed in Wuhan, China.
"It's just a sign that you know with the Asian American community, enough is enough. We're just fed up," Jeong said on Monday, after giving props to Late Night writer Karen Chee who recently discussed the issue on the talkshow.
Jeong referenced a study Chee cited about how anti-Asian American hate crimes have risen almost 150% in the last year, while overall hate crime went down 7%.
"This is precisely due to weaponizing terms like 'China virus' and 'kung flu' and also the fact that even in this particular crime, there is debate whether this crime was racially motivated. Asian American women are two times as likely to be assaulted in America. This was clearly, clearly racially motivated. This was clearly a hate crime," Jeong said.
He then stated that he doesn't know how to solve racism.
"It takes listening, learning, loving, being tolerant. But it really starts off in just our particular case as Asian Americans, this kung flu [expletive] has to stop. And we really need to express that loudly. And we are," Jeong said.
Jeong is a judge on Season 5 of The Masked Singer, which airs Wednesdays at 8 p.m. EDT on Fox. Caitlyn Jenner, who was dressed as a phoenix, was eliminated last week.
