An Edinburgh Uni student has been racially attacked in The Meadows

An Edinburgh University Social Work PhD student has been the victim of a racially motivated attack in The Meadows on Wednesday afternoon.

Eric Yang was with members of the Mandarin debate team playing frisbee, when three men started “verbally assaulting” him and “trying to pick a fight”.

This is the second time in three months that Eric has been the victim of a racist attack in Edinburgh.

Writing in an Instagram post, Eric said: “I was told “this is my country”, they mocked my overweight body, were doing kung fu, approached me very close holding glass bottles, verbally assaulted me and tried to pick a fight.

“I mean, I liked Edinburgh and Scotland in many ways. But now, I have to ask what’s wrong with these people? What’s wrong with the education system? Since I was assaulted once by two teens and today by three young male adults.

“I went to the police though, at the end. But the attackers were long gone. So how to deal with them? I don’t want to be a silent Asian, so every time I choose to confront the attackers. But I only feel more powerless because I can’t do anything.”

Speaking to The Tab Edinburgh, Eric said: “I have to make it clear that I wasn’t physically hurt, but I do think they wanted to pick a fight.

“It was around 5:15pm in The Meadows, and a few members of the Mandarin debate team were playing frisbee. Three men with around 20 bottles of beer came and sat where we were playing, and we nicely asked if they were willing to move a little bit.

“In response, they immediately moved closer to us and started saying “we are not gonna be bullied in our own country”. I said, “oh, it’s your country now?” and we started to move away.

“Then they started to mock my size, so I yelled back “I have a belly so what”, and they just started to approach me, saying “ I dare you to talk back to me, say it, say it”. They were standing very close to me and holding beer bottles.

“Then they tried to ask me to follow them to the end of The Meadows. My friends stopped me from going, but as they walked away, they started to do kung fu moves.

“The worst thing is that they were young. The other thing is people were just looking at what was happening but not helping. I know it might be too much to ask, but I did sort of hope that some people would come over and tell them that it is wrong to say things like that.”

Eric is a member of The Edinburgh University American Football Team, who released their own statement earlier today saying: “On Wednesday one of our team members, Eric Yang, was the victim of a racially motivated attack while walking through The Meadows.

“The University of Edinburgh American Football team offers our support to Eric. Sadly his experience is not isolated.

“We continue to condemn racism and discrimination in all forms and encourage everyone to participate in our sport.

“Stop Asian hate.”

Police Scotland declined to comment.

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