Asian American communities are bracing themselves against an increase of violent assaults, leaving the marginalized group feeling under attack and isolated. Read more:Attacks against Asian Americans are surging. While data is scant, the numbers in New York City and San Francisco — cities with large, long established Asian American communities — are up. Racially motivated attacks are chronically underreported, reporter Marian Liu says. “On top of that, there's a high threshold to proving what a hate crime is.” Liu spoke with Post Reports senior producer Reena Flores about the recent string of viral videos showing violence against elderly Asian Americans and how those attacks have left people in the minority group fearful. “The community has been left feeling very isolated.” Liu says. “They had to report this on their own, create their own database. And many have taken to patrolling their own streets —like people are patrolling Chinatown on their own.” About US is an initiative by The Washington Post to cover issues of identity in the United States. Sign up for the newsletter.