The growing problem of anti-Asian violence has finally come to the attention of media and government officials nationwide. In the period from March 2020 to December 2020, a national coalition, Stop AAPI Hate (https://stopaapihate.org/) received over 2,800 first-hand reports of acts of aggression or hate speech, 126 of them against Asians over 60 years old.
Reports from across the country, from Indiana to North Carolina, small towns and big cities like San Francisco and New York, show that everyday bias is often becoming physical. Attacks range from verbal insults to spitting, hitting, pushing, and in some egregious cases, setting clothes on fire, slashing the face, and violently pushing down unsuspecting victims. None of these are acceptable.
The combination of more activist young people and their proficiency with social media tools has helped to fuel the growth of AAPI organizations who are collecting data, giving the issues and the survivors a voice, and pushing these issues into the spotlight of public media. The star power of Hollywood actors has also helped to garner attention.
What can we do? Are we seeing these incidents in Boston? Is our Chinatown safer than others? Are people reporting incidents that do happen?
Despite anecdotal evidence of assaults here in Boston, many people interviewed note the reluctance of AAPI seniors targeted to come forward and report assaults. This hesitancy comes from cultural norms, as well as the very real traumas our communities have faced at the hands of authorities. Many immigrants come from countries where the very act of engaging with authorities can be dangerous.
Still, at least 67 locals have reported hate and discrimination between March and December of 2020 to the Stop AAPI Hate hotline. This easy reporting form allows for various languages to be used. (For example, https://stopaapihate.typeform.com/to/KUT4C8HE)
While state sen. Jamie Eldridge first presented the Safe Communities Act nearly 10 years ago, it has just been refiled by state reps Liz Miranda and Ruth Balser. The bill aims to prevent immigration status from being raised in community health settings and to encourage greater trust in public services, whether it’s getting a COVID-19 vaccine or reporting a hate crime. Two recent attacks of elder Chinese in Quincy appear to be unrelated to race, but there’s an old Chinese proverb: Dig the well before you are thirsty.
We can prepare ourselves for better safety now. One way is to train to be a safe but engaged bystander. The Hollaback! Organization offers local trainings (the last one they did in Boston appears to have been in 2015.) (https://www.ihollaback.org/). There are simple intervention strategies they call the 5 Ds: Distract, delegate, document, delay, and direct. The time is ripe for another training here.
The Massachusetts Asian American Commission has a community resource guide (not yet translated into Chinese.) It can be downloaded here:
(https://www.aacommission.org/resources/anti-asian-hate-resources/). Their site also has a list of public entities where one could report an incident of violence.
In addition to the numerous agencies both community and governmental, there are growing number of national coalitions like Stop AAPI Hate (https://stopaapihate.org/), which are collecting data and building resources and training. Stop AAPI Hate has an easy multilingual tool to report assaults.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice is another organization with a multilingual tool to collect stories of assaults.
https://www.standagainsthatred.org/stories
May the Year of the Ox bring us strength to persevere, to prepare, and to dig that well.
To read this article in Chinese (Traditional), please click here.
