Prosecutors Pursue "Restorative Justice" in Assault Case

Things to Know From Angry Asian America



Charges Withdrawn Against Defendant in Attack on Asian Man
The San Francisco district attorney's office said Monday it is withdrawing charges and pursuing a "restorative justice" model against a 20-year-old man arrested in the robbery of an elderly Asian man in his 70s that was captured on a video that went viral. The DA reportedly pulled back the charges after having a conversation with the victim, who expressed "who expressed interest in a restorative justice outcome in this case."

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'Free Solo' Filmmakers Are Directing a Cave Rescue Movie
Jimmy Chin and Chai Vasarhelyi, the filmmakers behind the Oscar-winning documentary Free Solo, are reportedly attached to direct Universal and Cavalry Media's feature film about the 2018 Tham Luang cave rescue in Thailand. (This is one of at least seven movies adapting the real-life inspirational story of the international rescue mission to save a soccer team trapped in a flooded cave for two weeks.)

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Image Movers: UCLA Asian American Studies Center 50th Anniversary Film Festival, March 6-21
Asian American film fans in Los Angeles, mark your calendars. This year marks the UCLA Asian American Studies Center's 50th anniversary. As part of the celebration, check out Image Movers, a three-weekend film festival featuring powerful imagery and poignant commentary about some of the most meaningful issues facing our AAPI communities. Each program features films organized around central themes. After each screening, audiences will hear from filmmakers and actors speaking to their creative journeys, as well as from scholars, artists, and community leaders on the meaning of these themes in today's world. For more information, go here.

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Chinatown Fire Relief Fundraiser, March 7
This Saturday in New York City's Chinatown, community organizers, artists, performers, and more, come together for an evening to benefit the five community organizations affected by the recent fire at 70 Mulberry St. The program represents melding of younger, Millennial voices, such as Juicy Liu, who will be doing a special drag performance, and organizations like Asian Womxn in the Arts with older, established pillars of the community that were housed at 70 Mulberry, such as the Chinatown Manpower Project and the Chinese-American Planning Council. Assemblywomen Yuh Line Niou will deliver remarks.

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Go Back to China
The feature film Go Back to China, written and directed by Emily Ting, will be available in select theaters and on VOD on March 6. Anna Akana stars as Sasha Li, a spoiled rich girl who blows through half of her trust fund. Cut off by her father, she is forced to go back to China and work for the family toy business. What begins simply as a way to regain financial support soon develops into a life-altering journey of self discovery, as Sasha not only learns the business from the ground up, but also reconnects with her estranged family in the process. Also starring Lynn Chen, Richard Ng, Kelly Hu and Kendy Cheung.

Woman tells supermarket employees to "Go back to China"

Racist rant, erroneous claims about the law caught on video in Toronto-area Chinese supermarket.



This one comes to us from our neighbors to the north... A woman in a Toronto-area Chinese supermarket was caught on camera scolding employees for not speaking English and telling them to "Go back to China!"

'Go back to China': Outrage over racist rant caught on video

The video, recorded last Friday at the Foody Mart in Scarborough, Ontario, shows a white woman in a motorized wheelchair shouting at several Chinese employees at a -- heh heh -- Chinese food counter, after realizing they couldn't speak fluent English. That's when she told them to, you know, go back to China.

"They should go back to China," the woman tells one man, who was attempting to translate and mediate the situation. "Go back to China! This is Canada. If you're going to work here, it is the law to know English."

No, lady. This is indeed Canada, but it is not the law to know English. According to Canada's Official Languages Act, workers at private businesses don't need to speak English. Only employees at federal institutions are required to provide service in French or English.

So yeah, nobody's going back to China.

Racist graffiti found etched on sidewalk in Flushing

Sometimes, you can encounter hate while just going for walk. Just look down.



Sometimes, you can encounter hate while just going for walk. You don't even to see or talk to anyone. Just look down at the ground and there it is. Like this week in New York, where anti-Asian graffiti was found scratched into sidewalk cement outside a Queens apartment building.

The message read, "ALL YOU CHINK GO BACK TO CHINA!!!"

Racist Remark Found Etched In Sidewalk Outside Flushing Apartment Building

The vandalism, which was carved into wet cement on the sidewalk outside of the Cherry Manor Condos in Flushing, made local news when it was brought to the attention of City Councilman Peter Koo via social media.

The councilman's office contacted the building owner and the city's Department of Transportation, which dispatched a crew to buff out the sidewalk on Tuesday morning, removing the vandalism

Ice cream customer told to "go back to China"

Ruining ice cream with racism. Not cool, Scoop Coop.



I love ice cream. I shake my fist at anyone who ruins ice cream. In the case of this particular incident, the ice cream was ruined by racism. How dare you ruin ice cream with racism?

Earlier this month at a New Jersey ice cream counter, the mother of a teenage employee told an Asian American customer to "go back to China." The racially charged incident, and subsequent attempts to address and resolve the issue, resulted in a blowup on Facebook and in the local newspaper.

Mother of Scoop Coop employee tells patron to 'go back to China'

Laura Lim, who is Korean American, was at the Scoop Coop ice cream window in East Hanover on July 12 when the employee at the counter gave her "attitude." The mother of the teenage employee, who was seated near the window, heard the conversation and told Lim to "go back to China." Classy, yo.

"Maybe you should go back to China where you belong."

Video captures an encounter with a racist dog walker.



Some more everyday racism, this time from Canada... A woman is out walking her dogs when a neighbor politely asks her to put her dogs on a leash. No big deal, right? That's when things get real racist, real fast: Calgary dog walker prompts social media backlash with 'Go back to China' comment.

In this video, shot last month in the northwest Calgary community of Sage Meadows, the neighbor, who happens to be Chinese Canadian, approaches the woman and asks her to leash up her dogs. He had apparently made the same request to her a month prior, and was recording video to file a complaint.

After establishing that they both live "right close," the dog walker tells him, "Yeah, well, maybe you should go back to China where you belong." Here's the video: