Consider This from NPR - Georgia Shooting: The Latest In A Year Of Trauma And Terror For Asian Americans

Episode Date: March 18, 2021

Reports of hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islanders have skyrocketed in the past year, coinciding with former President Trump's racist rhetoric.The pattern is clear: Asian American and Pacific Islander communities are being terrorized by harassment and violence. State representative Bee Nguyen tells NPR the shootings in Atlanta this week have rattled the Asian-American community in Georgia.New York Congresswoman Grace Meng outlines a bill she's introduced to help address the issue. In participating regions, you'll also hear from local journalists about what's happening in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR comes from NPR member stations and Eric and Wendy Schmidt through the Schmidt Family Foundation, working toward a healthy, resilient, secure world for all. On the web at theschmidt.org. In New York City, 25-year-old Maria Ha was walking down a Manhattan street when she noticed a woman following her. I kind of felt someone looking at me, so I started staring back, and I realized she was looking at me, and she came closer and closer, stared at my eyes. Ha told a local ABC station the woman got right in her face

and said, you're not from here, go back to China. She ran home to get her husband. When he arrived, the woman was getting into a cab. Say that racist again. He's like communist China. Well, isn't that where you're from? Oh, you're gonna cover your face now. You're a shame. In California, Bo Ma showed up to work one morning and found human feces smeared on the front door of his business. It was the first day of the Lunar New Year. Today is supposed to be a day of celebration, but the Lunar New Year began on a disturbing note. His business? It's a preschool, Little Sunshine Preschool in Alhambra. We felt threatened, and then we called the police. Owner Boma tells Eyewitness News...

In San Francisco, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakti was out for a morning walk when out of nowhere a man shoved him violently to the ground. He died two days later. It was not the only attack like that in the region. I was just tired of seeing everything going on, the attacks against the elders. And I'm just like, why is nothing happening? Jojo Au launched a fundraiser to hire armed private security guards to patrol her own neighborhood, Oakland's Chinatown. She's raised almost $100,000. Honestly, I didn't know that it was going to spread like wildfire. And so many people were so concerned about it and wanted to do something,

but didn't know what. You know, the merchants, they even say they feel safer. Some of the shoppers here, they feel safer. So, you know, I'm glad that I did this. Consider this. All those crimes you just heard about happened this year, before a man in Georgia shot and killed eight people, most of whom were women of Asian descent. The pattern is clear. Asian American communities are being terrorized by harassment and violence.

From NPR, I'm Mary Louise Kelly. It's Thursday, March 18th. Support for NPR comes from Sotva, the comfort company. Sotva luxury mattresses are sold online and priced at about 50% less than mattress stores. Visit sotva.com slash NPR today and save an additional $225. Support for this podcast and the following message come from Integrative Therapeutics.

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It's Consider This from NPR. A group called Stop AAPI Hate tracks violence against Asian American and Pacific Islander communities. Since the start of the pandemic, they have received reports of nearly 4,000 hate incidents across the United States. And that, that is probably just the tip of the iceberg. When you think about the vulnerable community members, we're talking about folks who are seniors, often limited English speaking, and they don't know how to navigate language and cultural barriers. And so there's far more people who have not reported incidents than those who have. Connie Chung-Jo is CEO of a legal aid group, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Los Angeles. She told NPR this month the data on cases reveal some patterns.

Almost half of them are coming from California. Another thing is that women are targeted more than twice as often as men. And then we are seeing a spate of hate and violence targeted at our seniors. Those findings covered just the last year. Compared to the year before, one report found hate crimes targeting Asian people up 150% in America's 16 biggest cities. Connie Chung-Jo says it has created a pervasive sense of fear. Many of the folks that I speak to are scared to go out or they're encouraging their elderly parents not to go out of the house, even for things like daily walks or trips to the grocery store. So folks are really worried about this,

and there's also a lot of outrage of why is this still allowed to happen in our society. You'll notice her language there. Why is this still allowed to happen? Because of course, Asian immigrants and their descendants have long been targets of discrimination and violence in America. From the Chinese Exclusion Act of the late 1800s to World War II, when the American government held more than 100,000 Japanese Americans, half of whom were children, in concentration camps for as long as four years. Kung flu. Kung flu. And then, of course, in the last year, former President Trump repeatedly used racist language

to describe the coronavirus. We were the envy of the world. And then when we got hit by the, as I call it, the China virus, COVID. That last clip you heard was from an interview on Fox News on Tuesday night, the same night that Bee Wynn's phone started lighting up. I just got overwhelmed with text messages from family members, friends, checking in and the feeling that I had before we knew any of the details, you know, was this has to be a hate crime. Wynn is a Georgia state representative. Her district covers part of

Atlanta and DeKalb County. When we spoke this week, she told me she thought instantly that the man who killed eight people in her state acted out of hate. You know, I hated to think that that was what this was. And since learning more about the tragedy, my opinion on that hasn't changed. Police authorities say they asked the suspect whether his attack was racially motivated, and he told them no. He also told them he targeted these massage parlors because they represented a temptation he wanted to eliminate. What do you know about these businesses and how that might or might not be complicating the investigation? We know that these are three businesses that are Asian-owned. We know that the majority of people who work there are Asian.

And I think for anyone who lives in Atlanta and you hear the word massage parlor, that there is an understanding that perhaps there are other sex worker related things that take place in these massage parlors. And it's largely accepted. It's complex because on one hand, we want to make sure that we protect any sex workers. On the other hand, we also know that there are a lot of vulnerabilities with women in the sex working industry. And regardless of what the alleged suspect in custody says or claims, the truth is it was three Asian businesses. It was targeted. It did result in six Asian women dying. And you simply cannot separate the misogyny, the sex industry

piece from the racism piece. I can hear the anger in your voice. It sounds like this one hit really close to home. It does. You know, I think about it a lot because I think about the history of Asian Americans in this country and the violence and brutality towards Chinese rail workers, the fact that our country implemented an Immigration Exclusion Act that started with Chinese exclusion and then expanded to include all Asians, an entire continent of people excluded from being able to come to this country, that our country incarcerated Japanese Americans. And so there's a long history of Asian American violence in this country, and it's been erased, and it is not told. I think very intentionally to make us keep our heads down, to pit communities of color against each other,

to make us adhere to this model minority myth. And then it's also reinforced because our families have experienced some sort of fear. And as an Asian American child growing up, my parents always wanted me to keep my head down, to remain silent, to not get any attention from anywhere because they were always afraid, ultimately, that we would be a target. And that sense of safety and that sense of invisibility has harmed our community. Georgia State Representative Bee Nguyen. At the federal level, there is an effort underway to address violence and harassment of Asian American communities. One of the leaders of that effort is Congresswoman Grace Meng, Democrat from New York. She's introduced legislation on the issue.

Her district covers parts of New York City and Queens. We spoke this week before the shootings in Georgia. I mentioned your district is New York, New York City, in Queens. And I know you've had attacks there recently. Would you tell us what's happening? Tell us the story of one? Sure. Just last week, a young mom in the middle of the day, daylight, was pushing her baby in a stroller. She reported that someone came up to her, yelled Chinese virus, and spat in her direction and the baby's direction three times and then ran away. And it sounds like that is one of too many incidents like that, that you're hearing about from your district and all over. Definitely. People are scared. People are literally telling

their elderly parents and grandparents, do not go out, you know, we'll buy groceries for you. I had a mom that night when I heard about that incident, she had seen it on the news and she texted me. She said, that's it. I'm not letting my kids play outside anymore. Yeah, the risks of letting their kids play outside. And you nodded too. I've seen there are some efforts underway by community groups to train older Asian Americans on how to defend themselves from attacks. I guess it gives me pause because obviously, you want people to be able to defend themselves should they need to, but it also feels like it shouldn't be on these people to have to defend themselves. Kids and old people, it should

be on everybody else not to attack them. Right, right. It is sad, heartening, but sad to see some of the community-led efforts where people are giving out whistles and pepper spray and you know teaching you know how to intervene and as a bystander you know these are things that one shouldn't have to have to learn and be able to walk outside and have the freedom to, you know, be in public regardless of what you look like. So help me draw the line between your bill and that incident you described of the mom with her kids. How would it prevent attacks like that going forward? Well, I don't know, honestly, if it would prevent it. Right now, what's happening, especially at the federal level, is we're not getting enough data from local law enforcement and the local communities. So we really want to use this as a community education effort.

We want the Department of Justice to work with local community groups, you know, publish information in multiple languages, you know, anything from it's not okay to use these racial slurs to here's how to report incidents like this. So the goal on all ends, both ends, is really more education and accessible resources for our community. Do you have any Republican co-sponsors? Not yet. We are still collecting and hopefully we'll gain more. We welcome anyone who wants to help us push this forward. Congresswoman Grace Mann of New York. We spoke on Tuesday before news of the attack in Georgia. Her office confirmed to NPR on Thursday that her bill still does not have any Republican co-sponsors.

And a final word. As we record this, authorities have identified four of the eight victims shot and killed on Tuesday. Delaina Ashley Yawn was 33 years old. Paul Andre Michaels was 54 years old. Xiaojie Tan was 49 years old. Daoyou Feng was 44. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Mary Louise Kelly. Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability,

upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography.