Almost a year after they almost died stabbed inside Midland, Texas, Sam’s Club, Bawi Cung and their two children have visible scars.
However, it is the invisibles that are most difficult to overcome. Cung cannot walk through any store without constantly looking in all directions. Her 6-year-old son, who is now unable to move an eyebrow, is afraid to sleep alone.
On a Saturday night in March, when the COVID-19 shopping panic took over the country, Cung was looking for rice for a cheaper price. The family was in the meat section of Sam’s Club when Cung suddenly felt a blow to the back of the neck. A man he didn’t know cut his face with a knife. The attacker left, but soon returned to stab the boys. He injured the 3-year-old child in the back and cut the 6-year-old child from his right eye to a few inches beyond his right ear.
The terrible encounter brought home the dangerous climate that Asian Americans have faced since the coronavirus entered the United States, with racially motivated harassment and attacks occurring from coast to coast.
Now, just over a year and thousands of incidents later, some of the first victims think that moving forward was difficult or, at best, bittersweet. A recent wave of attacks on elderly Asian Americans – including the death of an 84-year-old man from San Francisco – has fueled fears that hostilities have only worsened.
In the case of Cung, the man responsible for the attack believed that the Myanmar man and his children were Chinese and were spreading the virus, according to the FBI.
Cung said he is not sure what would have happened if a Sam’s Club employee, Zach Owen, had not intervened.
“Maybe I can kill you. Maybe he can kill my whole family. I don’t know, ”said Cung. “God protected my family, God sent Zach to protect my family right there at the right time.”
Owen, who was stabbed in the leg and deeply cut in the palm of his right hand, and an out-of-service Border Patrol agent arrested the suspect, Jose Gomez, 19.
Verbal attacks have also left a lasting mark.
In April, a confrontation in a park in Richmond, California left an irrevocable impact not only on Kelly Yang, 36, but on her children. She was forced to discuss anti-Asian racism with her son, 10, and her daughter, 7 – a talk she didn’t think would happen for a few more years. An elderly white couple, upset about their loose dog, called Yang, who is Chinese-American, an “Oriental” and said the words that many Asian Americans fear: “Come back where you came from”
Their children thought the couple wanted them to come home. Torn, Yang ended up explaining that they wanted to “go back to Asia”.
“It means that we are not welcome here.”
Her son started to cry.
Yang believes the couple was encouraged by then President Donald Trump’s use of racially charged terms like “Chinese virus”. She applauded President Joe Biden’s recent executive order condemning anti-Asian xenophobia as a good start. But Yang fears that many non-Asians have already ignored the issue as if it had ceased when Trump’s presidency ended.
“I don’t know what can be done,” said Yang, who writes novels for young adults and plans to incorporate his experience into his next book. “But I know how to talk about it, recognize it, remember it – that’s what we do with wars – we have to remember what happened.”
Douglas Kim, 42, chef and owner of the Jeju Noodle Bar in New York, is certain that the racism fueled by COVID-19 is behind the vandalization of his Michelin-starred Korean restaurant in April. Someone used a Sharpie to scribble in the winter foyer “Stop eating dogs”, referring to a stereotype about Asian cuisine. Finally, Kim decided not to report him.
“It pissed me off at the time, but I have more important things to worry about,” said Kim. “Maintaining a business is more important.”
He shared a photo of graffiti on Instagram to draw attention to hate crimes. There was a wave of support, but he feels that a lot of it has disappeared.
However, Kim hopes that fewer people are stereotyping Asian Americans as non-US foreigners.
“I think it’s all about education,” said Kim. “If you raise your children like this, they will learn like that. I think things are changing, but it’s still not 100%. That’s why someone obviously wrote this on our door. “
More than 3,000 incidents have been reported to Stop AAPI Hate, a California-based reporting center for Pacific Islander Asian Americans, and its partner advocacy groups, since mid-March 2020. What is frustrating is that meetings do not always reach the legal definition of hate crime. Still, police in several major cities saw a sharp increase in hate crimes directed at Asians between 2019 and 2020, according to data collected by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino. New York City went from three incidents to 27, Los Angeles from seven to 15 and Denver had three incidents in 2020 – the first reported there in six years.
A wave of crimes that has victimized elderly Asian Americans in the past two months has renewed the clamor for more attention from politicians and the media. On Wednesday, California Governor Gavin Newsom signed legislation that allocates $ 1.4 million to Stop AAPI Hate and the UCLA Asian American Studies Center. Funding will go to community resources and additional tracking of anti-Asian hate incidents.
Local officials and citizens also noticed. Initiatives such as increased police presence, voluntary patrols and special crime hotlines are becoming a reality. Renowned brands like Golden State Warriors and Apple, based in the Bay Area, have pledged to donate to the cause.
Cynthia Choi of Stop AAPI Hate wants the news cycles to focus not only on the most recent crimes, but on the solutions being discussed. Policing and prosecution are not necessarily the answers, she said. The COVID-19 vitriol is rooted in more than a century of anti-Chinese and anti-immigrant attitudes. She and other advocates believe that more investment in education and community resources could help address these root causes. Anti-Asian xenophobia should be part of ongoing conversations about racial calculus, added Choi.
“Our work to deal with anti-Asian racism is closely linked to the fight against anti-black racism,” said Choi. “It will require all of us, it will require public education efforts, it will require racial solidarity efforts that really unite our communities.”
Before immigrating to the United States six years ago, Cung, the hate crime survivor in Texas, had never faced racism. Now, it is difficult for him to hear stories about anti-Asian-American violence. Initially after the attack, Cung struggled to find out how Gomez tried to kill him simply because of his appearance. Now, he prays for his attacker.
As for what should happen to Gomez, who remains in prison on three counts of attempted capital murder, Cung said it depends on the courts.
“I can forgive him, but we cannot accept racism or this type of terrorist attack,” said Cung, who received more than $ 20,000 in donations online.
One thing he expects – the life of a newly naturalized American citizen in a country where “they respect people”. Cung remains unconcerned about not fitting into some people’s idea of what the United States looks like.
“Perhaps personally they have racism,” said Cung. “I don’t care. I am proud to be Asian and Asian American.”
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Tang reported from Phoenix and is a member of the Associated Press race and ethnicity team. Follow her on Twitter at https://twitter.com/ttangAP