A Japanese American professor who teaches Asian American history was attacked last month. The incident is being investigated as a possible hate crime.

According to The Los Angeles Times, 71-year-old Aki Maehara was riding his electric bike in Montebello, California, around 10 p.m. on April 29 when a sedan approached him from behind and hit him.

Right before he was hit, Maehara told The Los Angeles Times that he heard someone yell a racial slur that targets people of Chinese descent.

“It sounded suspicious to me because I wear a full-face helmet … a helmet with a visor,” Maehara told The Los Angeles Times. “No one can see my face. So how the hell did he know I’m Asian?”

The professor gave the police the name of a potential suspect. He told The Los Angeles Times that he has been harassed for teaching the history of racism in the U.S. at East Los Angeles Community College.

A GoFundMe campaign was started by Maehara’s friend Glorya Cabrera to help him pay for medical expenses. The Vietnam veteran sustained a concussion, cheekbone fracture and several other injuries from the attack.

The GoFundMe campaign page stated that the money would be used to hire a home health aide as Maehara was unable to “prepare meals, bath himself, clean his blood stained bed sheets, or change his bandages” after the attack.

On May 13, Cabrera announced on the GoFundMe page that Maehara had returned to the classroom.

 “There are 4 weeks left in this semester, I will not abandon my students. I will not let a white racist stop me from educating them,” Maehara said, per the post on GoFundMe. “My message tonight to my students, (in symbolic act and lecture), is that the struggle for our freedom and liberation are intergenerational, a lifetime struggle (Angela Y. Davis) that evolves with each new generation: assess, adjust, build bridges and community coalitions, and act to achieve justice for all.”

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