An unsaid truth : Why some Asian families are hesitant to discuss racism By Mansee Khurana
May 5, 2021 / 12:00 PM / CBS News
When she was growing up, Annie Tan only heard her cousin Vincent Chin s name twice. The first was when her brother, who was 22, wanted to go out to a bar with some friends one night.
My mom said, Don t go out so late and (get) killed like your cousin, said Tan, 31, who is now a special education teacher in New York City.
The second time came while watching a documentary that featured Chin, who was killed by two White men in 1982. Tan s mother acknowledged that Chin was indeed her cousin and that his mother and her great aunt, Lily Chin, helped grow Asian American activism in the wake of her son s death. Tan was shocked but unsurprised that her parents kept this from her.
Moved by security camera videos of older Asians being viciously attacked in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jacob Azevedo, a young Latino man, offered in an Instagram post to escort anyone in Oakland’s Chinatown who felt unsafe. Others saw the message and wanted to help him: Compassion in Oakland launched in February and has grown from hundreds to more than 2,000 orange-vested volunteers and is working to take the initiative to cities across the country.
“This [violence] is the worst we have ever seen, but it’s the best response I’ve ever seen myself, because when the worst came, we are seeing the best of humanity,” says Carl Chan, president of Oakland’s Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, who emigrated from Hong Kong in the 1970s.
Moved by security camera videos of older Asians being viciously attacked in the San Francisco Bay Area, Jacob Azevedo, a young Latino man, offered in an Instagram post to escort anyone in Oakland’s Chinatown who felt unsafe. Others saw the message and wanted to help him: Compassion in Oakland launched in February and has seen volunteer applications grow from hundreds to more than 2,000, and the organization is working to take the initiative to cities across the country.
“This [violence] is the worst we have ever seen, but it’s the best response I’ve ever seen myself, because when the worst came, we are seeing the best of humanity,” says Carl Chan, president of Oakland’s Chinatown Chamber of Commerce, who emigrated from Hong Kong in the 1970s.