"I want to take a gun and go down there and kill these individuals."
Last week in Philadelphia, someone sent an anonymous letter to community leaders threatening to "shoot Cambodians." The typed, one-page letter, reportedly sent last week to the office of the Cambodian Association of Greater Philadelphia, accuses Cambodian residents of setting off fireworks at all hours in Mifflin Square Park.
The letter's author claims to be a Marine suffering from traumatic stress disorder after serving tours of duty in Iraq and Afghanistan. He also claims to own several guns. "I want to take a gun and go down there and kill these individuals," the letter reads. "I am writing you to let you know when I do freak out and try to kill these people that it is your fault for not going to them and encouraging them (it is in their best interest) to stop doing this and remain alive!"
The association, which believes the letter is blatant, targeted racial intimidation, plans to address the incident during a news conference on Friday at the park. The letter has been reported to Philadelphia police and other investigative agencies.
And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.
Kamala Harris Is Biden's Choice for Vice President
And there it is. We have a Democratic ticket. Joe Biden selected Senator Kamala Harris of California as his vice-presidential running mate on Tuesday. Harris is the first Black woman and the first person of Asian descent -- her mother is Indian, did you know? -- to be nominated for national office by a major party, and only the fourth woman in history to be chosen for one of their presidential tickets. We are a big step closer to making this damn thing happen. Get it all out now, because we have one job, come November -- getting Trump the fuck out.
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"She punched me on my face"
In Philadelphia, police are looking for a suspect who attacked an Asian American woman an her daughter last week. While authorities say they're not currently pursuing the attack as a hate crime, the victim says it was racially motivated. Jing Chen and her 12-year-old daughter were walking on the street when a woman, identified as Delores Marte, "came out of nowhere" and started spraying water at them. When Chen confronted her, the woman said "You (expletive), Chinese (expletive)." When the woman got in her face, Chen asked, "What you gonna do -- I'm pregnant, are you going to hurt me?" Marte apparently looked at Chen's belly then punched her in the face. Police now have a warrant out for Marte's arrest. However, the district attorney claims there isn't enough evidence to call this an act of "ethnic intimidation." Marte is being charged with simple assault, recklessly endangering another person and harassment. Huh?
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Help! I Can’t Believe My Son’s Friend Fed Him Indian Food Without Calling Me First.
This letter to Slate's "Dear Prudence" advice column is kind of heartbreaking. Because somewhere out there, a 9-year-old's parents have been feeding him bland, terrible food his entire life. Tragic. Basically, a dad is upset because his son, Chris, went over to an Indian friend's house, and said Indian friends' parents had the audacity to feed Chris some Indian food for dinner without asking if it was okay. Because "spicy foods can be hard on small tummies." The kid is nine years old, dude. Your concern for his small tummy is rooted is some kind of racism. And by the way, it sounds like Chris really enjoyed his chicken curry and lentils and vegetables. His small tummy has corrupted by "ethnic" food! Welcome to the dark side, young Chris. You're going to love it.
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Kal Penn to Host Election Series for Freeform Aimed at Young Voters
Kal Penn is set to host and produce an unscripted election-themed series that looks to explore issues and topics relevant to Millennial and GenZ voters. Freeform has issued a series order for the untitled comedy project.
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'Lingua Franca': Isabel Sandoval Tells Timely Story Of Immigration And Civil Rights
From romance to tragedy, the first trailer for Isabel Sandoval's Lingua Franca offers a riveting glimpse of the story of Olivia, an undocumented Filipina trans woman. Ava DuVernay's ARRAY Releasing is set to virtually debut Lingua Franca in select theaters and on Netflix August 26.
And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.
"Ein altes chineseisches Sprichwort sagt..."
This greeting card, featuring a "Chinese" rat making a slant eye gesture, was recently spotted at a EDEKA supermarket in Germany. The casual give-no-fucks racism is kind of wild, but perhaps not particularly surprising. The Asian person who spotted it in the store tried to raise the issue with the store's management, who offered little more than a shrug. (By the way, whatever you do, don't look at the comments under this Facebook post.)
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Can't a guy just get a Slurpee in peace? Over the weekend, Facebook user Sungmin Kwon shared about a violent encounter he had with a racist asshole inside a 7-11 store in Queens. Sungmin said he was just getting some snacks when this guy went on a racist rant, claiming that Asians were "filthy," didn't belong in this country, and were responsible for the COVID-19 pandemic. When Sungmin called him out on his bullshit, the man called him a "gook" and assaulted him. There was a scuffle, as you can see. Luckily, Sungmin wasn't hurt, but his attacker drove off and got away -- but not before Sungmin got a photo of his license plate. Anybody recognize this asshole? [UPDATE: The NYPD's Hate Crimes Task Force is reportedly investigating this incident.]
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K-pop Fans Spam Tucker Carlson Hashtag with Fancams
As Tucker Carlson continues to face backlash for his views on Black Lives Matter, the Fox News host has been targeted by an unlikely online fandom -- K-pop fans. The hashtag #IStandWithTucker, started by his loyal fans, began trending on Twitter yesterday after a number of major advertisers deserted the Tucker Carlson Tonight show. However, the hashtag is now diluted with K-pop and other unrelated tweets intended to drown out the message of Carlson's supporters. Like I've said before, don't fuck with K-pop fans.
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Men Throw Explosives Inside Chinese Restaurant
In Philadelphia, several men threw explosives at two employees at a Chinese take-out restaurant and attempted to blow up an ATM early Sunday. The attack, which kind of sounds like an attempted robbery, happened at New Century restaurant. According to police, the men first threw an explosive at an ATM located inside the restaurant. They then reportedly threw a second explosive at two employees through a plexiglass opening at the counter. Nobody got hurt, and the suspects weren't able to retrieve any money from the ATM. This has to be the dumbest attempt to rob a Chinese restaurant.
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APIAVote's 2020 Presidential Town Hall
APIAVote has opened registration for its fourth Presidential Town Hall on June 27th. The event will feature the Biden and Trump campaigns and will center around how these candidates will address important issues such as healthcare, education, the economy, and gun control, to the Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander community. This year, the event will be held virtually due to the coronavirus pandemic. To register, visit apiavote.org/townhall.
And Other Things to Know From Angry Asian America.
Girl Charged with Making Racial Slurs, Punching Asian Woman
In Edison, New Jersey, a teen girl has been arrested in the coronavirus-related hate crime attack on a 55-year-old Asian woman. According to police, the girl and a group of others surrounded the victim and yelled racial slurs regarding the origins of the coronavirus, then punched the woman on the back of the head. The teen was charged with bias intimidation, riot, simple assault, harassment and disorderly conduct, as well as one count of violation of an emergency order because her presence outdoors during the stay-at-home order was not authorized or deemed essential.
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Philly Lawyer Sues for Defamation Over Instagram Post
Last month in Philadelphia, Tess Wei got into an altercation with Josiah Knapp while she was jogging. Wei alleges that Knapp told her to "go back where you came from" and then coughed in her face. She posted a photo of Knapp on Instagram, saying "PHILLY! This man yelled at me and then came right up to me and coughed in my face. who tf is he?" Wei's cousin, Peter Chau, re-posted the photo, asking, "Anybody recognize this piece of shit?" Now Knapp, an attorney, is suing Wei and Chau for defamation.
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Crisis Text Line Sees Spike in Activity from Asian Americans
The mental-health support Crisis Text Line received a fairly regular number of texts this year from people identifying as Asian -- until the week that Donald Trump called the coronavirus the "Chinese virus." The line also saw a large increase in crisis counselor applications from Asian Americans in the latter half of March.
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Irene Hirano Inouye, champion of Japanese American causes, dies at 71
Irene Hirano Inouye, a prodigious fundraiser who led the nation’s premier Japanese American museum in Los Angeles and built bridges across cultures with groundbreaking projects, has died after a battle with with leiomyosarcoma, a rare form of cancer. She was 71.
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'Green Hornet and Kato' Movie Project Lands at Universal Pictures
Universal Pictures and Amasia Entertainment are partnering on The Green Hornet and Kato, which is currently in feature development. The Green Hornet which originated as a radio show during the 1930s, follows the adventures of publisher Britt Reid, who moonlights as the titular masked vigilante. The 1966 TV series is probably best known as the show that introduced U.S. audiences to Bruce Lee, who played The Green Hornet's intrepid, capable sidekick Kato. So... the most important question, as I always ask when talk about a new Green Hornet starts up: who's going to play Kato?
Philadelphia restaurateur Han Chieng suffers broken ankle in sidewalk fight with drunken racists.
A Philadelphia restaurateur suffered a broken ankle after getting into a sidewalk fight with several drunk individuals -- a fight that he says started when one of them shouted "ching chong wong" at him.
Han Chiang, owner of Han Dynasty in Old City, says he and several employees were outside on a cigarette break Thursday night when they encountered a group that had apparently just been kicked out of 2nd Story Brewing, the pub next door. Chiang and his colleagues were about to go back inside when one of the group yelled something to the effect of "ching chong wong" at them. Chiang called him on it.
"I turned around and said, 'Fuck you, you racist motherfucker,'" Chiang said in a phone interview with Billy Penn. "The guy denied saying it, then his friend Ian jumped in and hit me with a skateboard." Then it was on.
The fight escalated, with multiple people joining in, and Chiang getting his ankle broken in the fracas. At some point, the fight was broken up, and Chiang was hospitalized. But not before skateboard guy and the gang yelled "Fuck you, you Chinese faggots!" as they made their getaway.
Later, Ian Carroll, the guy who apparently hit Chiang with the skateboard, posted a note to Han Dynasty's Facebook page, preemptively recounting his version of the altercation, alleging that it was the Han Dynasty employees who started the fight when they tried to jump him and his friends.
57-year-old councilman stabbed with a knife, expected to make a full recovery.
Philadelphia councilman at-large David Oh was hospitalized after he was stabbed outside his home during an attempted robbery on Wednesday night. Thankfully, he is expected to make a full recovery.
Oh was returning home from work, unloading his car when a man approached him and demanded his keys.
"[David Oh] gets out of his car, he's taking his bags out of his car and other things. He gets approached by a black male in his 20s and the male is saying something to him, he can't understand what he's saying," said Lt. John Walker, with the Philadelphia Police Department.
According to police, Oh tried to engage in conversation with the man. That's when the man pulled out a knife, stabbed the councilman once in the left side, then fled the scene.
Shongchai Hang was assaulted by two suspects in broad daylight.
In North Philadelphia, surveillance cameras caught the brutal assault of an elderly man who was beaten and robbed last week by two men on the street in broad daylight. The suspects are still at large.
67-year-old Shongchai Hang was walking in Fern Rock when two men ran towards him and chased him, demanding his wallet and cell phone. Hang tried to run away, but they caught up to him and punched him the face. When he fell on the ground they punched and kicked him until he fell unconscious.
Hang, a Lutheran minister, says one of the men sprayed mace in his face, and then hit him in the forehead with the empty mace can. They took his cell phone and wallet before running off.
61-year-old victim fights robber who snatched his wallet.
In Philadelphia, a man was caught on surveillance video robbing of Buddhist monk of his wallet while he was at a gas station. The monk, not ready to lose his money like that, is seen chasing and grabbing at the assailant.
Unfortunately, the robber got away. The 61-year-old victim, dressed in the orange robe of a Buddhist monk, was at a lottery machine -- I guess monks gotta play Powerball too -- inside of a Sunoco gas station in South Philadelphia, when the robber came up to him and snatched his wallet out of his hand.
But the monk wasn't ready to part with his money that easily. He chased after the robber and struggled with him outside the store, but the suspect pushed him to the ground before getting in his car and driving away.
The incident was caught on the gas station's security cameras:
Saturday, December 5 at the Asian Arts Initiative in Philadelphia
Philadelphia! The Asian Arts Initiative to the first ever Asian American Holiday Maker Fair, a holiday arts and craft fair featuring Asian American artists and crafters from Philadelphia and beyond. There will be original artwork, clothing, accessories and other great gifty goodness, plus live entertainment. It's happening Saturday, December 5 at the Asian Arts Initiative's Gallery space.
Showcasing 23 features and over 30 shorts from 17 countries, November 12-22
It's film festival season, you guys. And I am sucker for film festivals. Philadelphia, this one's for you. The 8th Annual Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival is going down next week, November 12-22, showcasing a slate 23 features and over 30 shorts from 17 countries. The festival promises to be the biggest one yet, kicking off with the Opening Night presentation of Benson Lee's teen comedy Seoul Searching.
Helen Gym is the first Asian American woman elected to office in Philadelphia.
The votes are in! Now it's official. On Tuesday in Philadelphia, public schools activist (and friend to this blog) Helen Gym won the general election for City Council At-Large, after kicking some serious ass at the polls.
With over 142,000 votes, Gym was the leading vote-getter among Council at-large candidates. She is the first Asian American woman and the first Asian American Democrat ever elected to office in Philadelphia.
Gym rode to the Council on the strength of her education activism, building a grassroots campaign and raising more in small dollar contributions in the primary than any other candidate, including the mayor's race.
In her election night statement, Gym thanked community supporters and reiterated her commitment to public education, stressing that "Our work has only just begun."
Education activist unseats incumbents in Democratic primary for at-large council seats.
Some big upsets out of Philadelphia's primary elections this week, as two City Council incumbents lost Democratic nominations for "at-large" seats to three relative newcomers -- including school activist Helen Gym.
Incumbents Ed Neilson and Wilson Goode Jr. were ousted by Helen Gym, real estate investor Alan Domb, and attorney Derek Green in the Democratic battle for City Council at-large seats.
Helen, a vocal public education proponent (and longtime friend and supporter to this blog), was among the top five Democratic vote-getters in the race for a citywide council seat, narrowly beating her nearest competitor, Isaiah Thomas, who came in sixth by about 1,100 votes.
A group of Vietnamese American students at the University of Pennsylvania say they are the victims of a hate crime after being the target of death threats and racial slurs in an altercation with another group of students.
According to The Daily Pennsylvanian, members of the Vietnamese Students' Association were hosting a barbecue at a house earlier this month, during the school's "Spring Fling," when several groups of people walking by made racial gestures or rude comments directed toward them.
The incident apparently started when a student walking by approached the barbecue and asked for a burger. When he was told it was a members-only event, and was asked to leave, attendees say he became combative, saying "Is it because I don't look like you? I eat rice and watch anime, too."
Things escalated when the student left and returned with a larger group of other students.
18-year-old Rebecca Kim slipped and fell from an eighth-floor ledge, critically injuring a pedestrian.
Terrible news out of Philadelphia, where an 18-year-old college student fell to her death from an eighth-floor apartment in Center City. She had apparently climbed onto a ledge to take photos when she slipped and fell.
Rebecca Kim, a freshman at Temple University, was visiting friends at an Art Institute of Philadelphia dorm room on Thursday evening when she climbed out of a window onto a two foot wide ledge, possibly taking some pictures on her cell phone. It's believed Kim may have slipped as she was going back inside.
Kim fell to the sidewalk, and was pronounced dead at the hospital. As she fell, she struck a 44-year-old woman who suffered multiple spine and rib fractures, and had some teeth knocked out.
Film lovers of Philadelphia! I would be remiss if I did not help spread the word about this year's edition of the Philadelphia Asian American Film Festival, running November 12-22 at the International House of Philadelphia in University City and Asian Arts Initiative in Chinatown North. The 7th annual PAAFF includes 16 features, 5 free shorts programs and a host of new peripheral programming.
A Play by Christopher Chen, October 24 - November 16
Hey, Philly. InterAct Theatre Company is kicking off its year of World Premieres with the debut of Caught by Christopher Chen. When artist Lin Bo's story of imprisonment in a Chinese detention center gains traction, an American publisher begins to question the authenticity of Bo's story. The play explores truth, art, social justice, and cultural appropriation, and runs now through November 16:
If you're involved in theater, this one's for you. The fourth annual National Asian American Theater Conference and Festival will be held in Philadelphia this October 8-12. This year's theme is "Home: Here? There? Where?" and explores the Asian American experience of migration and the search for a sense of place and equity on personal, community, and global levels. Here's more info:
Philadelphia Public Record issues apology for printing racial slurs
In case you missed it, last week's edition of the Philadelphia Public Record ran a photo of Asian American community members with a caption that included racist made-up names, including "Chinky Winky" and "Dinky Doo." The paper has since issued an apology, and the editor responsible for the slurs has been fired.
Oh hell no. If you happen to peruse the pages of this week's Philadelphia Public Record, then you'll see some racist copyeditor's idea of a joke. Please note that "Chinky Winky" and "Dinky Doo" are not real names.
In the August 21 print edition of the free weekly tabloid, Philadelphia City Councilman Mark Squilla is pictured at a Chinatown fundraising event with several Asian American supporters. The photo's caption includes, among several other made up names, "Me Too," "Chinky Winky" and "Dinky Doo." I see what you did there. Asshole.
The best part about this bullshit is that the publisher is defending the caption as a "proofreading error":
Some "friendly unsolicited pointers" for the Lantern Theater Company's production of 'Julius Caesar'
In Philadelphia, the Lantern Theater Company is currently wrapping up the run of its annual Shakespearean offering, The Tragedy of Julius Caesar. This time, they've put a twist on the great tragedy by changing up the Roman Republic and setting the play in medieval Japan. That's great, except there isn't a whole lot in this production that's legitimately Japanese -- most notably, a glaring lack of Japanese actors.
Dance theater artist (and actual Japanese person) Makoto Hirano saw the play, and it did not sit well with him. So he drafted a letter to the Lantern Theater Company outlining some "friendly unsolicited pointers" on How to Stage Your Show Without Being Super Racist. PROTIP: "DON'T say you were inspired by feudal Japan and then not cast any Japanese actors." Seems like that should have been a big one.
Here's Hirano's full letter, hand-delivered to the Lantern staff last week:
