Dancing with the Stars: Suni Lee victim of hate crime in Los Angeles

Suni Lee is one of the semi-finalists on Dancing with the Stars this season and is also an Olympic gold medalist.

However, that doesn’t protect her from the violence in the world today.

Suni explained recently how she was the victim of a hate crime in Los Angeles.

Dancing with the Stars Suni Lee victim of hate crime

Suni Lee spoke to PopSugar in a recent interview and said she was out with some friends in Los Angeles when she was attacked.

Suni said she was with some of her female friends and they were waiting for an Uber to pick them up. All the girls were of Asian descent.

While waiting, Suni said a car pulled up and the people inside told the girls to “go back to where they came from” and called them racial slurs.

Suni Lee was born in Minnesota to a health care worker who herself had lived in the United States since she was a child.

She said that someone in the car then sprayed pepper spray at her and the car sped off.

“I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off,” Suni said. “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.”

This is a problem that has risen since some politicians blamed the COVID-19 pandemic on Asian countries.

Since that time, hate crimes against people of Asian descent rose by 76% in 2020.

Suni Lee says she tries to ignore fan criticism on DWTS

On top of the hate crime on the streets of Los Angeles, Suni Lee also gets trolled by people on social media.

Her status as an Olympic gold medal winner for the United States didn’t buy Suni much respect from some Dancing with the Stars fans.

“On social media, I always see a lot of mean comments about like me not being able to dance or [saying] I need to go home,” Suni said.

“I feel like they’re right. I let them get to me and I’m just like, ‘See, no one believes that I can do it.’ I did not think I would make it this far,” Suni admitted.

“If I didn’t care about what everybody said, like, I feel like I could be so much better.”

Dancing with the Stars airs on Monday nights at 8/7c on ABC.