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Christine Kim: We are not a monolith, but we need the protection of a pan-Asian movement.
In the first days after a gunman killed six Asian women in Atlanta, Christine Kim was afraid to take her children out in public.
Then Kim and friend Jennifer Heikkila Diaz decided to start the change they wanted to see — with a new coalition for Asian New Haveners.
“We are not a monolith. We are immigrants from the largest continent in the world. We speak different languages. We are young and old, wealthy, middle class and poor,” Kim said. “Those differences do not protect us.”
The organization is so new it does not have a name yet. The goal is to organize Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) in New Haven to amplify their voices and increase their power as a community. The specific form the organization will take and the issues it will focus on are undecided. Kim hopes that young activists and elderly New Haveners will set that direction.
Kim announced the new organization at a press conference she organized Thursday afternoon with Mayor Justin Elicker in response to the shootings in Atlanta that left eight dead.
The killings, alongside recent attacks against Asian elders, have highlighted a 150 percent rise in reported anti-Asian violence in the last year.
Black, Hispanic, Jewish, Muslim and white faith leaders spoke at the press conference to denounce hate. All echoed the sentiment that no one is free until all are free.
State Attorney General William Tong: Stereotypes have dangerous consequences.
Connecticut Attorney General William Tong spoke about the oversexualization of Asian women, and the stereotype of Asian Americans as meek.
“One of the most damaging things about stereotypes about Asian Americans is how unsafe they make us,” Tong said.
Ketkeo Rajachack: I want my restaurant to build bridges.
The press conference took place outside the Laotian restaurant Pho Ketkeo, the site of vandalism a year ago that left owner Ketkeo Rajachack afraid of anti-Asian violence. Three months later, she was mugged and beaten up in the Temple Street Garage.
Neither of the cases has been resolved. There was no video evidence of who vandalized the cars. Police are still working on identifying who beat up Rajachack in the garage, based on camera footage, according to downtown top cop Lt. Sean Maher.
Rajachack didn’t want to talk about any of that on Thursday. She is afraid that talking about the incidents too much might prompt her to be targeted again.
The restaurant’s former manager, Samson Sou, translated Rajachack’s Lao into English at the press conference.
“She started this restaurant to bridge communities. We are not so different,” Sou said. “She hopes you continue to support us and get to know us.”
Audience gathers to listen to the press conference, some with signs.
Education is one intervention that does seem to work, according to Steve Ginsburg, regional director of the Anti-Defamation League (ADL).
It helps for children to learn as early as possible to appreciate difference. Jewish Federation of Greater New Haven CEO Judith Alperin lauded recent requirements to teach African-American and Latinx history statewide, along with lessons about the Holocaust and genocide. The next step would be to back those efforts with state dollars, she said.
Ginsburg also sees social media as a key place for change, to prevent people from getting sucked into false information and conspiracy theories. ADL is also working on making online harassment and stalking crimes. AAPIs have seen the largest rise in reported online harassment, alongside an increase in incidents against LGBTQ and African-American people.
The rhetoric from elected leaders make a difference too, Ginsburg said. Xenophobic language that former President Donald Trump and others used to connect Asians to Covid-19 seems to be one of the causes of the rise.
“We knew as soon as he uttered ‘China virus’ that the violence was going to come,” Alperin said.
Earlier this week, Caroline Tanbee Smith and Margaret Lee of Collab discussed the response to Asian-American violence, in an interview on WNHH FM. Click on the above video to watch it.
Really wonder why it's taken the politicos so long to acknowledge the hate against the Asian-American community. Why weren't last years attacks in New Haven dealt with more forcefully?