Struggles have been ignored, say Asian Americans
Discrimination, violence increased in pandemic
When Pa Lee Moua heard about the tragic shooting spree in the Atlanta area March 16, she quickly began texting and calling friends and family who work in the service industry at bars, retail stores and nail salons in the Fox Valley and her sister in Oshkosh to make sure they were OK.
While she saw news of the shootings unfold hundreds of miles away, she wanted to make sure friends and family were safe in their own communities.
Eight people, six of whom were Asian women, were killed March 16 in shootings at two spas and a massage business in the Atlanta area.
The victims were identified as Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; Yong Ae Yue, 63; Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Xiaojie Tan, 49.
Moua, the diversity, equity and inclusion officer for the Appleton Area School District, also sent emails to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) staff in the district to check in with them and their students to make sure they knew they had an open space to process and grieve following the shootings.
“That’s really a key pillar right now. We are hopeful that a lot of people are just checking in with each other,” she said.
The shootings follow a wave of violence against Asian Americans in the country that jumped with the start of the pandemic, stirred by the racist and xenophobic language used by former President Donald Trump and others to tie the coronavirus to its origin in Wuhan, China.
Many Asian Americans in Wisconsin are still mourning the losses in Atlanta — and speaking out to make sure their voices and concerns about their safety are being heard.
‘People overlooked that’
Stop AAPI Hate, an advocacy group, reported nearly 3,800 incidents of harassment, discrimination and violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders from March 2020 to February 2021 nationwide, compared with around 100 incidents in previous years. Women reported hate incidents more than twice as often as men.
Advocates and residents around the country already had been speaking up about the rise in violence after reports of a series of attacks this year against Asian seniors and the killing of 84-yearold Vicha Ratanapakdee in San Francisco.
For Pam Her of Appleton, owner of 4Chi Business Solutions, the deaths drove home a fear she had since the early days of the pandemic.
Her, like many other Hmong residents in the region, had to find ways to protect herself as the number of reports of discrimination and violence grew during the pandemic.
Her family began traveling only during the day and keeping an eye on family members whenever they stepped outside.
“We did all our shopping, all the things that we need to do during the day and not go shopping at night — shopping in pairs, taking care of our families, our grandparents, our elderly parents, our elderly uncles and aunts, making sure they don’t go to a store by themselves,” Her said.
Tara Yang has noticed differences in Green Bay, too.
She saw a drop in customers at her family’s store, Main Oriental Market, when the first cases arrived in the county in March.
Through the summer months, business slowed down at their store, and some customers tried to avoid the store.
“We kind of understood and felt that people didn’t want to come to the shop as much anymore just because of the fact that we’re an Asian store,” Yang said.
In April, the market’s service vans were vandalized with a racist message related to COVID-19, Yang said.
She noticed racism in other subtle ways, too, like when someone would go out of their way to avoid being around her when she was shopping at another grocery store or when she went to the bank to help her parents apply for a business loan.
When Her heard about the shootings in Atlanta, one of her biggest fears came true.
“We did not think about our Asian businesses and safety protocols for them because they are a sitting target,” she said.
Many advocates, including Yang, said it shouldn’t have needed to come to this crisis point; people around the country were sounding the alarm much earlier.
“It’s sad that we had to wait until people died to take action. Since the start of the pandemic, we’ve been voicing, ‘Hey someone just verbally attacked us. Someone tried to spit on us.’ But people overlooked that. That’s exactly why we’re at where we’re at right now, because those little crimes were overlooked,” Yang said.
It raises a question Her has had to ask over and over: “Why can’t we be seen as Americans and be valued as Asian Americans? Why must we always be stereotyped as a foreigner?”
Sheng L. Riechers, a senior communications specialist for the city of Appleton, noted that there is a broad range of people who identify as Asian Americans,
from countries in extremely diverse regions of East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia.
“As a Hmong American woman and as a Hmong Asian, I just wish that people took the time to learn more about Hmong people and our culture and our history and the reason why we’re here in the U.S.,” Riechers said. “And just reminding them that the Hmong people, specifically, fought with U.S. soldiers during the Vietnam War and that’s why we’re here. We’re here as refugees of the Vietnam War.”
Addressing hate in the long term
People rallied at “Stop Asian hate” marches and vigils held in Madison and Milwaukee as well as other states against racism, misogyny and xenophobia in the days after the shootings, seeking justice for the victims.
Lee Her, a Hmong American who was among the 100 to 200 people at the Milwaukee vigil, said it was an opportunity for Asian Americans to make their voices heard.
“Just because we’re quiet doesn’t mean we’re not in pain,” she said. “That’s what was really important to me about coming out here and making a stand. … Sometimes quiet is not always the best route to go even though you want peace.”
At the rally, speakers called on everyone to do their part.
“Consider, ‘What don’t I know about the history of this country?’ ‘What do I need to learn?’” said Paula Phillips, who is Filipina, an outgoing member of the Milwaukee Public Schools board and senior director of race and gender equity at the YWCA Southeast Wisconsin.
Tammie Xiong, executive director of the Hmong American Women’s Association in Milwaukee, said at the rally there are a lot of organizations already doing work to help and protect Asian American people.
“If there’s anything that you can take from what has happened in the last couple of days, in the last couple of years, since the beginning of this country, it’s look within your community and support those who are doing this work on the ground,” she said.
Mai J. Lo Lee, diversity director at the University of Wisconsin-Green Bay’s Multi-Ethnic Student Affairs Office, noted people might make a social media post or correct a stranger’s hateful or rude comment on the internet, but the hard part is holding conversations daily about hate against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
“I’ve been encouraging allies who identify as non-Asian to really reflect on the deficit that they themselves have as an individual and to be there for organization,” Lo Lee said.
One way to build support and understanding would be to ensure that young students are taught accurate histories of immigrants and other marginalized groups, Xiong said.
Lo Lee suggested thinking about your excuses for lack of awareness. Take for example: “Oh, I don’t know about historical anti-Asian policies because my school never taught me,” she said. Historical policies include immigration quotas enacted in 1924 that barred many Asians from immigrating to the U.S.
“Let’s look at your current school district,” Lo Lee said. “Let’s look at curriculum and say, ‘Let’s not repeat that mistake.’ So how can I educate my child, my niece, my nephew, myself on that? You’re recognizing, ‘I’m holding myself accountable about not knowing about anti-hate history because my school never taught me.’ Well then, hold your school accountable. Hold your colleges accountable. This is where alumni voice is very important.”
That same line of thinking can be applied to other parts of your life, Lo Lee said.
If you don’t know many Asian American people in your workplace, question your workplace’s hiring practices and policies.
If you don’t know that many Asian American neighbors, ask yourself why.
Is it that there are not many grocery stores and other businesses by and for Asian Americans in your community? How supportive is your community to minority-owned small businesses?
“Something I always challenge my friends and immediate family on: It’s almost easier to correct a stranger, but how are you correcting family? How are you correcting colleagues? Your supervisor?
“The people you train? Because that’s really where the work comes in, is that day-to-day,” Lo Lee said.
Nusaiba Mizan of the Green Bay Press-Gazette and Sarah Volpenhein of the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel contributed to this report.