Just as I was sitting down to write about some of the new books we’ve added to the library in the last two months, I heard a story about an attack on an Asian person by someone who told her she didn’t belong here. Which incident? The fact that the question needs to be asked is the first horrifying thing about it. The second is that I can add “the attack on the elderly Asian woman” and you still won’t be able to pin down which incident. The one I am referencing is Monday, March 29th’s, attack on a 65-year-old woman in New York City. It was a sunny late morning outside an apartment building when a very large man hit, kicked, and stomped a fairly small woman several times. From the video, it looks like she barely sees it coming. The surveillance camera inside the building catches it all. After a few kicks and stomps, the large man walks away. Then, a guard inside the building walks to the door. “Great,” I thought, “at least now he’ll render some aid until they can call police.” I am destined to disappointed fuming, though, as all he does is close the door. Horrifying thing number three.
I realize that video, though damning, doesn’t tell the whole story. The saddest part is that the whole story may actually be worse. There are two security employees and a delivery man, all fairly young, large, fit, guys, inside the lobby. Maybe they can be excused for being as taken aback as I was by the suddenness of the attack. Maybe they were shocked by the words and the violence. Even in New York City, I can’t imagine this is the norm. Maybe they were afraid the attacker had a gun and would shoot them for interfering. Maybe they did pick up a phone I couldn’t see and call the police. However, I have a hard time excusing them when they seem to ignore the injured woman on the sidewalk and just shut the door. How many times in our lifetimes has the story of the Good Samaritan come around in our Sunday morning readings? I would say I have heard the story dozens of times. We all like to cast ourselves as the Samaritan, too, I would venture. There was no Samaritan in New York City, at least not in the video clip I saw. Had these men never heard the story? Did they think it only applied to olden times? Did they, too, feel that the Asian woman doesn’t belong here? We don’t know any of that. From articles about the attack, I have found out that the company employing the apartment guards is investigating and has suspended the guard in the meantime. It also seems like his job description limited him to be inside the building. They are also trying to identify the delivery man who was there. The police are looking for the attacker (and have fairly good pictures) and Mayor DeBlasio condemned that attack, as well as another against an Asian man in the subway the same day. The woman is hospitalized with serious injuries. It is reported that the woman was walking to church. According to the organization Stop AAPI [Asian American Pacific Islander] Hate, roughly 3,800 hate crimes against Asian Americans have been reported in the U.S. from March 2020 to April 2021.The steep rise in violence seems to be tied to the COVID virus potentially originating in China. The other well-publicized attack on an elderly Asian woman has gone a bit differently. She hit her attacker with a stick she found nearby. People nearby said she was screaming at the man in Chinese, “You bum, why did you hit me?” Police arrived quickly. The attacker was taken to the hospital. It is thought he had also attacked an 83-year-old Asian man earlier. The woman also received treatment and is still recovering, though she has PTSD and lingering bruises. She has received nearly $1 million in donations from around the world which she is donating to fight racism against the Asian-American community. So, what can we do? Buzzfeed contributor and Chinese-American Clara Wang writes (full article here):
I would like to add a few more, with some book recommendations of those aforementioned new additions to the library. Learn to pronounce people’s names. Just this one simple act can make a huge difference. One culture’s names can be tricky for people of other cultures, so don’t be afraid to ask how to pronounce a name properly. Ask again if you need to! Most people with tricky-for-Americans names would probably prefer to answer this a thousand times rather than have you give them an “easier” nickname. Read The Name Jar by Yangsook Choi. In addition to supporting your favorite Asian restaurant, learn to cook a regional dish yourself! We have several books that explain a favorite national dish and some even include a recipe. Read about Chinese food in Dim Sum for Everyone by Grace Lin, Filipino food in Cora Cooks Pancit by Dorina K. Lazo Gilmore, or Indian food in Bilal Cooks Daal by Aisha Saeed. Find out about some of the famous people from Asian or Asian-American communities. One new biography we have is Queen of Physics: How Wu Chien Shiung Helped Unlock the Secrets of the Atom by Teresa Robeson. Review your history, as Wang writes in #6 above. Learn about the American experience of Japanese-American communities during World War II in I am an American: A True Story of Japanese Internment by Jerry Stanley. Look at the other side of the American dream with America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States by Erika Lee. See how a Hmong girl helps her neighborhood in A Map Into the World by Kao Kalia Yang.
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AuthorMichelle Dettmann is the volunteer head librarian for the ABCDLibrary project. Michelle graduated from Concordia College, Moorhead, MN, with a degree in Elementary Education and a passion for children's literature and literacy. A lifelong member of the United Church of Christ, she is dedicated to their principles of justice, accessibility, and embrace of diversity. Archives
June 2021
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