As Lunar New Year celebrations wind down, it’s worth noting that this transition from the Year of the Goat to the Year of the Monkey marks a sharp rise in Asian-American political consciousness in the city — with bigger changes likely ahead.
State Comptroller Tom DiNapoli holds his annual New Year affair Thursday at the Yung Wing School in Chinatown; we bet he’ll hear something new this year.
Last weekend, several thousand Chinese-Americans rallied at Cadman Plaza to protest the manslaughter conviction of former Police Officer Peter Liang in the death of Akai Gurley.
Liang supporters ask: Why was he convicted when other, non-Asian cops got the benefit of the doubt after similar shootings? Is it just that their community gets no respect?
Smaller issues have sparked sea changes — and activists tell The Post they plan on mobilizing against Brooklyn DA Ken Thompson’s re-election next year.
Another flashpoint: the state crackdown on the heavily Asian-American nail-salon business after last year’s dubious New York Times reporting.
Assemblyman Ron Kim (D-Flushing) says the state’s actions are unparalleled. Gov. Andrew Cuomo’s “targeted enforcement will cripple the nail-salon industy . . . More than 71 percent of owners are trying to close their shops and 54 percent have laid off employees. How is this helping our workers?” Kim asked this week.
Meanwhile, other New Yorkers of Asian descent worry about the drive to alter admissions standards at the city’s elite public high schools. Asians already see themselves as victimized by quotas at Harvard University — is Stuyvesant High School next?
This has always been a town of voting blocs. It’ll be interesting to see what happens as one of New York’s quietest communities starts to speak up.
New Year, new politics? Perhaps.