Neighboring Discrimination

My wife and I are both of Chinese descent. We are both front-line critical care physicians taking care of increasing numbers of COVID-19 patients on a daily basis. Our mother-in-law has been living with us in order to provide care for our one-year-old daughter. For the past year, we have lived in a community with an HOA. Our neighbor has been on the board of directors for the past year, and he has scrutinized alleged violations of the HOA bylaws to the point of making many of us miserable. In particular, this neighbor has repeatedly harassed my wife and I regarding my mother-in-law parking in the guest/occupant parking spot. He does not want anyone to park in the guest spots in front of his house, because it "ruins his view." We ultimately decided to ignore him, but did agree to move the car to the street so as not to incite further harassment.

Recently, I overheard him making disparaging remarks about my wife to another neighbor. When I confronted him outside to ask why it was he was spreading malicious rumors about us, he became infuriated, and advanced towards me (breaking the 6-ft barrier while not wearing a mask) while carrying a large shovel. He proceeded to "chest-bump" me and told me "I will put you down, little Asian man." Out of self-defense, I shoved him back, and he seemed surprised at the reaction. This incident was shortly reported to the police, who stated this was simply a civil matter. When I reported this to the HOA manager, she was less than helpful, and proceeded to take the side of the neighbor in claiming that this was a dispute between neighbors.

Two days later, this neighbor called one of his family members to verbally accost my mother-in-law, who is elderly and barely speaks English. She felt that her life was being threatened at that time. I again reported this to the HOA manager and, once again, she refused to escalate the issue, and instead took the side of the neighbor while also blaming my mother-in-law. I find it incredibly disheartening that, while my wife and I are risking our lives to take care of others affected by this terrible disease, petty individuals like this neighbor are inciting racial hatred against us in our community, and we are unable to seek any form of remedy from the HOA management. We would like to request any possible assistance from Asian American support organizations in bringing into the limelight this and other cases of discrimination against Asian Americans. Thank you.