Asians from diverse communities say they need to unite against hate crimes, racism
Bedford Mayor Michael Boyter, who is half Japanese, says he was bullied as a child because he “looked different,” and his mother also faced discrimination because she was Asian.
His mother’s death last year, the news of the recent shooting of six women of Asian descent in Atlanta, escalating hate crimes against Asians during the COVID-19 pandemic and last summer’s Black Lives Matter protests brought out the hidden emotions and memories for Boyter.
Boyter and others in North Texas said it’s time for the Asian community to unite and stand against hate.
“It just hurts to see it,” he said.
“There are different groups of Asians. The Japanese experience is different than the Vietnamese experience. It’s just a cultural thing. I don’t think it’s part of the Asian community to draw attention to ourselves; it’s just the nature not to rock the boat,” he said.
The Asian community is hurting right now, and it’s time to come together, he said.
During the past year, Stop AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) Hate, an organization that tracks hate crimes against Asians, received over 3,800 firsthand accounts of hate incidents. Some included attacks on Asian American senior citizens in San Francisco. In other incidents, a San Antonio restaurant was covered in graffiti and a family was stabbed in Midland.
Aisha U-kiu, who lives in Hurst, said since the six women were killed in Atlanta, she always keeps her doors locked and turns on her alarm.
U-kiu remembers the trauma she felt after 9/11 when she was still in high school, and her mother wore a head scarf.
“What hurt me the most is when I hear people say it’s not a racial issue not only outside but inside the Asian community.”
U-kiu is Pakistani and said she is standing with the east Asian community in support after the shooting deaths in Atlanta.
Lucy Vo, president of the Dallas-Fort Worth chapter of the National Association of Asian American Professionals, said in a Facebook message to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that it is disturbing to see hate crimes targeting women and the elderly.
“As a culture, caring for the elderly and treating them with respect is engrained in our traditions,” Vo said.
Vo added that her organization hasn’t seen an increase in hate crimes targeting the Asian community in the Dallas/Fort Worth area, but she is seeing more “microaggressions.”
“More than the anger and the fear, it’s the overwhelming disappointment that even after the blood, sweat, and tears that we contributed to our nation —like many of our fellow Americans—, we are still being treated like outsiders in the home that we’ve helped build,” Vo said.
Azra Siddiqi, who founded the organization Wise Up Texas to inform the Asian community about politics, said she is also reaching out to others in the Asian community.
“This (the killings in Atlanta and other hate crimes) shook up the AAPI community as a whole and it brings back those PTSD memories. We know what it’s like to be pointed to, looked at and pointed at. After 9/11 I was told to go back to where you came from,” she said.
She also blamed former President Donald Trump and his rhetoric referring to the coronavirus as the “China virus” for contributing to the rising tension and hate crimes.
“It’s awful that these issues keep repeating themselves,” Siddiqi said.
An Truong, the mayor of Haltom City, was a fighter pilot in the South Vietnamese Air Force before coming to the United States when Saigon (now Ho Chi Minh City) fell.
Truong also does a weekly radio talk show which is broadcast in Vietnamese on 1600/KRVA AM. He said he was saddened by the deaths of the six women in Atlanta and said when he talks to people who experienced hate and prejudice, he tells them not to get angry.
“I tell the Vietnamese people, to stay calm, stay away from confrontation. Go home and take care of your family,” he said.
Meanwhile, Boyter said it is time for leaders in the Asian community to come forward to help women and businesses that have been targeted.