Rally vs. attacks on Asians
Harlem cake biz stays true to family & recipe
A crowd of about 200 New Yorkers gathered Saturday in Foley Square to denounce a wave of anti-Asian violence that they say is fueled by racism and ignorance about the COVID-19 pandemic.
The throng heard community leaders and a parade of top political leaders vow to end the shocking spat of attacks and seemingly unending torment of slurs that have dramatically worsened during the pandemic.
“We are fighting a global pandemic but we are also fighting racism . ... We are getting spat on, shoved, punched, slashed, stabbed,” said Jo-Ann Yoo of the Asian American Federation. “Right now Asian-Americans are scared, we are outraged, and we are devastated.”
Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang, one of the nation’s bestknown Asian politicians, attended the rally but was not given a speaking spot and left without speaking to reporters.
The crowd gave a rousing reception to Noel Quintana, 61, a Filipino-American who was slashed in the face on the L train last week. “A lot of Asian-Americans [are] being attacked everywhere so I just want [people] to know that this is happening to us,” he said. “Almost every day there are attacks and I don’t understand why.”
Many New Yorkers were stunned to see a viral video of an Asian-American woman being slammed to the sidewalk last week in an unprovoked attack in Flushing, Queens.
Rep. Grace Meng (D-Queens) said the attacks are the tip of an iceberg of hate crimes, many of which go unreported.
She vowed that Asian-Americans would no longer settle for being “invisible” victims.
“Too many people who are afraid to leave their homes,” said Meng, whose district includes
Flushing, “not just because of the virus, but because of bigotry.”
Asian-American leaders say they are regularly targeted for verbal and physical abuse by people who blame them for the pandemic.
Many blame the racist violence in part on former President Donald Trump, who often called COVID-19 the “China virus” or other racist terms because it was first identified in China.
Mayor de Blasio, Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and state Attorney General Letitia James all vowed to crack down on anti-Asian violence in New York, saying the city needs to protect people targeted by hatred.
The recipe is under wraps, but Harlem’s new carrot cake king says there’s no secret to his company’s success.
“The product is everything,” said Brandon Adams, who, along with his sister, Lilka, runs the family-owned Lloyd’s Carrot Cake in East Harlem and the Bronx. “We can’t sacrifice that just for the sake of moving units. At the end of the day our brand is so important. That something that my mom and dad worked hard for.”
Living up to those high standards is more important now than it ever was. Adams’ mother, Betty Campbell-Adams, 65, died in December, just before Christmas, and it’s on him and his sister to hold up the legacy.
It’s a birthright with roots in the Virgin Islands, where Adams’ great-grandmother perfected a carrot cake recipe that she passed on to her family.
While others absorbed the sweet, decadence of the velvety cream cheese frosting, Lloyd Adams tasted profit, and, in 1986, used the recipe as the foundation to launch one of the few Blackowned businesses in Riverdale, the Bronx.
Instead of panicking when Lloyd quit his day job as a hospital social worker, Betty embraced her husband’s dream.
What Lloyd was to batter and frosting, Betty was to marketing, and, with her business savvy, the operation soon became a piece of cake.
“I’ve always had the social-science view that I could change the world,” Lloyd said of his vision years ago. “To walk into a restaurant where a customer is eating a slice of cake and hear, ‘Wow, who made this carrot cake?’ that’s what turns me on.”
The bakery flourished, first as a wholesale business before adding retail customers. And when Lloyd, 58, died from a heart attack in 2007, Betty knew what she had to do. She quit her successful marketing job to run Lloyd’s full time.
What came next was an East Harlem satellite shop with a juice bar next door, Joosed by Lloyd’s. That was followed by an expansion of the Riverdale location.
Before she died, Betty got to see Lloyd’s cakes travel as far as China and the Philippines.
“The demand has become so strong for the product. We want to be able to satisfy it,” said Brandon, who’s torn between grieving and growing.
“We’re in a mom-and-pop kind of setup. We don’t have a factory or anything. It would be great to be able to produce more, but there are certain parts of the process that are secret that we need to keep internal. That’s a balance, too. We don’t want too many cooks in the kitchen giving away the recipe.”
Brandon said Lloyd’s received a ton of support after his mother died, with cards, letters and text messages from community members and elected officials.
“It’s really a testament to who she was as a Black woman and Black business owner,” Brandon said.
Lloyd’s has enjoyed similar support over the last 12 months. While other merchants have had to close or change their business model to stay open, the carrot cake company has managed to prosper through the pandemic.
“All of these communities have rallied behind us and rallied around us,” Brandon said. “We were blessed enough to never have to close our doors. We didn’t take much of a loss.”