Blamed for starting the virus while working

I am a railroad conductor for the MBTA Commuter Rail in Boston, MA. I was approached by two white male passengers on the train station platform, who asked why the trains were operating two hours apart. I told them that the reduced schedule was due to the COVID-19 state of emergency.

They replied, “oh right, the virus you fucking C****S started.” I responded by telling them to leave and that the police would be called. They walked away while shouting racial slurs and death threats.

Consistently shunned and discriminated against”

I am a graduate student. I was jogging on Sunday and a woman yelled at me loudly and repeatedly "Go back to hell, go back to China. Your country is hell."

I was caught off guard and I froze for a moment. Then I tried to say something to defend myself but it came out nonsense. I choked and stuttered for a minute and I then ran away. Afterwards, I felt so angry with myself because I was so weak and completely forgot how to defend myself. I felt so powerless, I thought that I should have fire back with words since this was not the first incident that happened to me.

Over the past 5 months I have been the target of many curse words around my area. Every time, I promised myself to record the next time this happens, but every time I freeze up and fail to do anything. I was so angry and had no way to seek justice for so many times, and that day was just a tipping point for me. I couldn't take it anymore. I cried when I got home in the shower and then the whole night. It has become too difficult to handle and I barely sleep right now. I just don't know how to fight back and take back some of my dignity. I feel useless, but I want to change that and that is why I am here. I want to help every Asian faces for the right of my people, and take back what those people has taken from me -- my agency as a human being. Please tell me whatever I can do to fight back. 

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. 

Assaulted while intervening

I intervened in a transphobic attack. The attacker wasn’t wearing a mask and I asked him to put one on. He said that coronavirus was because of me and that it was my fault. He threatened to hit me, and spit in my face 

Racist singing at a store

I was looking at some items on a shelf at a store and noticed two women walk by and where one of them clearly and loudly directing an anti-Asian term at my direction, specifically sounded like "Ching. ching, chang, chong". She repeated the phrase before walking further down the aisle. 

Racist remarks while cycling

I was riding my bicycle and needed to cross over from the bike lane to the left hand turn lane. The stoplight ahead turned red and I let several cars pass me. One car was approaching but since it was slowing down for the light I looked behind me a couple times and then crossed in front of the car. I thought it was a reasonable move without inconveniencing the driver. As I crossed, the driver shouted angrily, "Go! Go! Go fucking chink!" I was so angry I flipped the driver off as I turned left. But I felt some fear for the next few blocks as I worried the driver might come after me. Luckily, he didn't. But I've been shook up ever since. 

Trying to walk in peace

My mom and I, both of Chinese descent, were walking on the sidewalk. A man walking towards us tried to shoo us away from him with his hand and shouted, “Stay away, I don’t want your coronavirus!” 

Restaurant manager’s xenophobia

My friend and I, two Asian American girls, took our moms to an arboretum and we were very excited when we found out that restaurants in our area have already started outdoor dining. We found an Italian restaurant with great reviews and called to ask if they have seats available. They told us either 5:30 or 9 pm, so we took the 5:30. It was a short drive over and when we arrived, the owner or manager seated us at a table at a corner. We didn't feel very comfortable dining in that corner so we asked if we could be switched to another table next to us. As we looked around, many tables were empty, and the table he seated us at was the only one without table cloth and it's half the size of other four people tables. A Caucasian family who came after us were seated at one of the larger tables with table cloth for four while we were shoved into the corner with a table that's half the size without a table cloth. We understand if there are seats taken for later and he cannot put us at an empty table that's set.

We asked him if we can sit somewhere else and he started to raise his voice and said, "if you don't like it, then go." OK, no problem. We shall leave. There were other diners around us at the moment and as we walked over to the car he was saying a rude things towards us. As we got to the edge of the parking lot, where the other patrons can't see or hear him, the manager caught us off guard and shouted "I DON'T NEED BUSINESS FROM PEOPLE LIKE YOU ALL!" My friend asked, "What do you mean by people like us?!" Silence. So she asked, "Do you mean that we are Asians?" Trying to give him the benefit of the doubt. Then he took off his mask, showed us that he was smiling and walked over to my friend towering over her (he's about 5"11" and my friend is 5'0”) he said "get off my property". We felt threatened and took steps back, stood on the sidewalk in shock, not sure what to do as our moms were as shocked standing a few feet from us. we were also shocked by how this manager/owner was so sweet to everyone who came in (all Caucasian) a moment ago and said this to us.

We weren't sure if we were over reacting or being too sensitive, but we just knew something isn't right here. Should we let it go? Should we report it? We weren't sure anymore. We went back to the car in shock, and thought, we need to let others know about what he just did so went back to the parking lot where the incident took place. The manager marched up to my car and took a photo of my license plate (for what reason, I do not know). He said to me: "I called the police so you better run." No, we are not running anywhere; as a matter of fact, my friend was calling the police at the same time he said that to me. I told him, "We are not going anywhere until the police comes". It occurred to us later that he told us to run because he thinks we are [undocumented] immigrants? I'm an elementary school teacher and my friend is an economist in the city.

The cops arrived within five minutes and we spoke to three officers who made us feel heard. When you encounter injustice and racism, we just want to be heard. The officers were incredibly decent and said "unfortunately I can't write up a ticket for someone being a jerk. My advice is don't support a place like this." We are proud to be Asian Americans, we love this country and this city. Unfortunately, racism is only growing. 

“I know we are not supposed to like anything Chinese, but...”

On private Facebook group called “Vegetarian and Vegan recipes,
[someone posted] about Asian cuisine with the disclaimer “I know we are not supposed to like anything Chinese, but...”

Some comments were questioning whether that disclaimer was made by Chinese folks in the group. What followed were a large slew of numbers of other Asians laughing and mocking the questioning and loving the disclaimer, hate speeches of long strands of justified reasons of the hate for China and Chinese people, and when we tried to ask others to stick to the recipes, more hate speech followed to justify the hate. 

Long term effects of xenophobia

My young son was scootering next to me as I walked the dog around our local high school. We saw a white woman around the corner walking, so we paused to see if she was going straight or was going to turn towards us. She saw us waiting on the sidewalk from around the corner, put her white cloth face mask on her face, and started screaming at us: "Why can't you move?! Get out of the way!!!"

She screamed over and over again. I am shocked and moved to the side while she came right at us. My son was scared, so he remained in the middle of the sidewalk on his scooter. I yelled at him to move away from her. She then screamed at him, looming over him inches from his face, "Get out of my way! You people need to move!! Get out of my way! Why can't you get out of my way!!"

I was scared and shocked and tried to make sure she wouldn’t touch him. He moved towards me, and we quickly turned around the corner. She followed us back around the corner and continued to scream and yell at us. I wanted to pull out my phone to video tape her, but was afraid she would attack me.

She yelled at us at the top of her lungs, inches away from us, in the middle of a pandemic. She unleashed all her anger on my son. He was terrified and crying, saying he was trying to get away from her.

It's been 6 weeks now, and I still have PTSD that I am seeking therapy and anxiety medicine for this as a result. For a while, I was scared to leave my house without my husband at my side. This was racially motivated... her thinking that "us people should MOVE.”

Racism at an Anti-Racism Protest

As we were nearing the end of a Anti-Black racism rally, a white teenage boy rolled down his passenger seat car window and yelled, "This is not Chicago! If you don't like our country, go back to where you came from! Get out! Go back to where you came from!". 

My spouse and I (both of Asian descent) were the only two people on that side of the street at the time since folks attending were practice social distancing. 

Discrimination via Email

The tax accountant I was working with at the time sent out a blanket email in late March to all his clients saying he was advising doing tele-conferences rather than meetings in person due to the “Chinese Virus Epidemic”. At best, this is unprofessional and insensitive, and at worst, it’s in-your-face racism (to use his business as a platform from which to project his racial biases). He later sent out a second similar blanket email where he referred to the "Wuhan Virus". This behavior encourages racist people to openly express their racism towards Asian-Americans, as it serves no other purpose. 

Acts of hate in a Pizzeria

I work at a pizzeria. A customer refused to come up her food because I was working. The customer asked if there is an Asian girl working at the counter and refused to come. She then said that she will come the next time the girl isn’t working.  

Racism at protests

My roommates and I were helping our protesters in peace. I am an Asian woman and my roommates are Caucasian and Multiracial. Out of nowhere, an older white male driving a truck stopped in front of us and started harassing the protesters. He started using some harsh and negative words and got into a confrontation with one of the protesters. They were arguing for a good minute and then the guy in the truck threw a bag of trash at the protester and drove away. And to be honest, there were multiple incidents where I was personally attacked by older white women in line to the grocery store. It will not go unnoticed. It will stop. 

Assaulted while Hiking

I was hiking with my girlfriend and her roommates in a regional park. At the beginning of our hike, a woman walking the opposite direction to us approached our group and punched both my girlfriend and I in the face and said, "f** you coronavirus." Our group did not escalate the matter further, and the woman walked away from us without a single look back.