New York’s Chinatown fights back against racism

“We’re not here to profile anyone, or to start any trouble, or break any heads but if there’s an incident, we want to record it and de-escalate the situation,” Karlin Chan, the founder of Chinatown Block Watch, told the group of 18 volunteers. “We’re not a bunch of vigilantes out looking for racists — because if you look for racists, you’ll find them.”

In New York City, where Asian-Americans make up about 16 per cent of the population, victims have been punched, stabbed, spat on, set on fire and doused in acid. Noel Quintana, a 61-year-old Filipino, was commuting on the Subway recently when he was slashed from cheek to cheek by an assailant with a box cutter. He needed 100 stitches in his face.

Last year the New York police department created an Asian hate crime task force and increased its presence on the Subway. Meanwhile, multiple citizen-led neighbourhood patrols to combat hate crime have emerged across America and rallies protesting against anti-Asian violence have sprung up.

Karlin Chan, a volunteer for Chinatown Block Watch, on patrol

JEENAH MOON

Statistics are tricky to verify because hate crimes are under-reported but according to analysis by California State University, there was an increase of 150 per cent in attacks against Asian-Americans in the country last year. Stop AAPI Hate, an initiative supporting Asian-American, and Pacific Islander communities, reported nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents between March 2020 and February 2021.

The assaults are both shockingly violent and often depressingly similar: a lone elderly Asian-American is set upon in an unprovoked attack as they go about their daily life. In California earlier this year, an 84-year-old Thai immigrant died after being shoved to the ground while he was on his morning walk.

“We’re trying to be the voices of the people who’re afraid to speak. The old people especially are timid. When they’re attacked, they don’t say anything, they don’t want trouble, but we can’t stand around as the younger generation because then this will keep happening,” said Kevin Wong, 40, a newcomer to the Chinatown Block Watch. “I’m sick of these attacks. That could be my mother, my uncle, my grandparents.”

Last month a security camera captured a brutal assault on Vilma Kari, a 65-year-old Filipina, which further horrified the city and reignited rallies.

In broad daylight near Times Square, the attacker kicked Kari to the ground before repeatedly stomping on her head. Two doormen who watched and did nothing to help her have since been sacked. Brandon Elliot, 38, a homeless man on parole after killing his mother, has been charged with felony assault as a hate crime.

“We can’t be silent in the face of rising violence against Asian-Americans,” President Joe Biden tweeted after footage of the incident went viral. “These attacks are wrong, un-American, and must stop.”

While the White House has set out plans for further police training and additional funding to crack down on hate crime, activists are hopeful that a long overdue reckoning on anti-Asian racism is on the cards.

“I hope that we’re wise enough as a country to have some very honest discussions about race,” said Jo-Ann Yoo, executive director of the Asian American Federation. “Rather than lip service, we need hand-on-our-hearts conversations about how do we live together? How do we look at each other and support each other and create allyship and community?”

The spotlight on anti-Chinese sentiment and hate crimes has raised thorny issues, including New York’s mental health crisis and the historic tensions between Asian-Americans and black Americans. For decades, both under-resourced groups have been pitted against each other in chasing opportunities.

“The stereotype and the distorted narrative is that Japanese-Americans were put in concentration camps and they rose up the economic and social ladder 20 years after [the Second World War], so that just proves nobody else should need civil rights laws or anti-discrimination measures,” said Scott Kurashige, a professor of comparative race and ethnic studies at Texas Christian University. “That’s long been a narrative used against African-Americans that you should just pull yourself up by your bootstraps.”

The most commonly cited example of black and Asian-American antagonism dates back to the Los Angeles riots in 1992. The trigger for the riots was the acquittal of four white police officers who had beaten up Rodney King, a black man — but in the chaos more than 2,000 Korean-owned businesses were looted, damaged and destroyed.

As the Chinatown Block Watch weaved through the crowds of shoppers, Chan urged the dozen new volunteers to keep their eyes and ears open. “Every race, every ethnicity has its bad players so we cannot be condemning the whole African-American population in this city, because one or two acts up,” he said, criticising a news website called Asian Dawn, which bills itself as “the alternative voice for Asian-Americans”. “They’re trying to start a race war and pushing another type of hate themselves.”

Evidence of the psychological effects is plain. Throughout Chinatown, leaflets are stuck on lampposts and inside tearooms offering assistance to people who are too terrified to walk home alone, or imploring kindness towards Asian-Americans. “I am Asian, but I am not a virus,” one reads. “Love our community like you love our food,” says another.

Elections for the mayor of New York are on the horizon and, in this neighbourhood, I spot posters for just two candidates: Andrew Yang, who would become the first Asian-American mayor in the city, and longshot hopeful Curtis Sliwa, the founder of the Guardian Angels, the citizen patrol group which has protected New Yorkers from thugs since 1979.

Elsewhere in the city, “Kill all Chinese people” was scrawled on the wall of a Subway station and “Stop eating dogs” was written on the window of a Michelin-star Korean restaurant in Greenwich Village, a very smart neighbourhood.

“My father is nearly 80 and a refugee from Vietnam and so this is personal for me,” said Elizabeth Phan, wiping away tears as she marched with the Chinatown Block Watch. “Even though we don’t talk about these things as a family.”

The neighbourhood group only carries walkies-talkies, but other Asian-Americans are increasingly arming themselves. On the city’s outskirts, Jimmy’s Sportshop is the first Asian-owned gun store in Long Island, according to Jimmy Gong, who launched the business in 2019.

“After the shooting in Atlanta it’s become very busy. It’s three times more than usual. People are very afraid of being attacked, especially Asian women,” said Gong, adding that his customers are also buying stun guns, Taser guns and pepper spray. “It’s crazy but I feel good that I can help them protect themselves.”

Back in Manhattan, a middle-aged black woman with a young child walked past the Chinatown Block Watch group and began spouting anti-Asian slurs.

Like a growing number of New Yorkers, I’ve taken an online session on bystander invention training in order to try to help stop xenophobic harassment and attacks. However, I freeze when the stranger spews hate. The volunteers quieten and leave her on her way.

After two hours, the Chinatown Block Watch called it a day. Besides the ugly slurring incident, it was a calm afternoon. “Quiet is good, that’s what we want,” said Chan, who is planning to begin night-time patrols. Victims are often targeted going to and from work.

Che Yuk Chan, an 82-year-old former NYPD police officer, is determined to join the neighbourhood group again. “People are meant to be equal but in the United States it’s a different story,” he said, shaking his head. “No matter what we do we always get pushed around by somebody. I don’t understand why there’s so much hate.”