TRANSCRIPT:
INTRO – EMMA CILLEKENS, HOST:
When Michelle Go was pushed to her death in front of an oncoming subway train, New Yorkers were left on edge. Just a few weeks later, Christina Yuna Lee would be stabbed to death in her Chinatown home. Between 2020 and 2021, there has been a 361 percent increase in anti-Asian hate incidents in New York City, and with the surge in attacks on their community, many Asian Americans continue to fear that they may be next.
Michael Tamsuriyamit sat down with Hunter College student Joie-Ting Jing Ng to discuss how she is coping with the trauma.
MICHAEL TAMSURIYAMIT, REPORTER:
I’m hurting. I’m hurting for every boxcutter-slashed, hammer-beaten, subway-pushed Asian American in New York City.
Recently, I was taking the N train from 34th Street Herald Square, when I noticed a distressed man walking up and down the platform.
He was sort of like mumbling to himself, then he started yelling.
Long story short, he seemed like he needed some help, but at the same time, he was endangering everyone, including me, on that platform.
And it got to the point where he came so close to me that I remember feeling goosebumps on my forearms.
And then I remember asking myself, “Oh, my goodness, am I going to be the next Michelle Go?”
JOIE-TING JING NG, INTERVIEWEE:
With Michelle Go’s case, I remember at first just feeling numb and empty.
One time where I felt like I could have became a statistic was on the subway.
I was with my friend, I was going home from class, and there was this man, you know, he was just talking like, really, really loudly, and he had these like really erratic movements, and he was slowly becoming more and more violent.
Me and my friend were just like, you know what, don't make eye contact, stuff like this happens all the time in the train, but the moment he looked at me, my life just flashed before my eyes, like this is it, this is how I die.
It's hard to not feel like something terrible could happen to me at any moment with all these Asian women around me dying these terrible and violent deaths.
During the pandemic. I just thought to myself that, hey, you're in Chinatown, who's going to be racist to you in Chinatown, but then Christina Yuna Lee's case happened.
I live very near to where she lives, she lived, and now I don't feel safe anywhere.
For me, therapy works the best, but honestly, the most important thing to me is to have more lawmakers who are Asian American representing us because we are the ones that know what is best for our own community.
We, as Asians, we can’t keep on portraying this image of being silent and submissive on these issues, because if we don't speak up on these issues, no one else will.
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