San Francisco's Chinatown reckons with Atlanta attacks: 'I don't feel safe anywhere'

Vivian Ho in San Francisco
·5 min read
<span>Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images</span>
Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

The morning after the Atlanta spa shootings, a man struck an elderly Asian woman on San Francisco’s Market Street in a seemingly unprovoked attack.

Over the past few months, the Asian American community in the San Francisco Bay Area has been inundated with reports of attacks like these – from robberies to burglaries to deadly assaults.

So when eight people, six of whom were Asian women, were killed after a shooter sought out three Asian-owned businesses in the Atlanta area, many in the Bay Area Asian American community were all too familiar with the pain and fear that followed.

“It’s so stupid,” Betty Louie, the adviser to the San Francisco Chinatown Merchants Association, said. “I’m able-bodied. I’m OK, I’m safe. But I’m afraid to go and do my afternoon walk. I don’t feel safe anywhere at this point.”

Officers patrol in San Francisco&#x002019;s Chinatown.
‘We knew it was only going to get worse and it was only a matter of time before something like this happened,’ said Max Leung, a local organizer. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Police investigators have warned that it was too early to determine if the shooting was racially motivated. But for many, the shooting in Georgia was tragically unsurprising, the expected culmination of unchecked anti-Asian hate throughout the country that is only now making its way into public awareness. “We knew it was only going to get worse and it was only a matter of time before something like this happened,” said Max Leung, a local community organizer.

The shooting took place the same day that Stop AAPI Hate, a not-for-profit coalition, released a report documenting nearly 3,800 anti-Asian incidents of hate during the pandemic, a number that experts believe to be just a fraction of the true total. California, the state with the biggest Asian population, had the largest percentage of reported incidents, with 1,691.

Related: ‘That hit home for me’: Atlanta reeling after spa shootings of Asian Americans

In San Francisco’s Chinatown, where foot traffic is slowly beginning to return after a year of shelter-in-place and pandemic-related economic downturn, the local merchants have a WeChat channel where they warn each other of perceived dangers and imminent robberies and assaults.

To Jennifer, a Chinatown shop owner who asked not to disclose her last name out of fear for her safety, that was really all they could do to keep each other safe. Her own shop has been burgled several times in snatch-and-grab attacks: a group of kids would enter and overwhelm her and then run out with items before she could stop them. When she’d call the police, there were never any repercussions.

“I got so scared,” she said. “I feel hopeless. Even when you call the cops, it doesn’t work out. How do you feel? Nobody can help you. I’m trying to go get a gun license. I need something here. I don’t know what I will do.”

officers in chinatown near sign that says Chinatown&#39;s generations of love and care will continue
‘You just have to defend yourself. All Chinese people, they just have to get together and do something,’ said Jennifer. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

For many in the community, the frustrating part is that crimes like these burglaries aren’t being defined as hate crimes, even though the community has seen the same individuals returning to Chinatown to rob the same stores, ultimately targeting a certain population. In Oakland, prosecutors recently charged a man in connection with the killing of a 75-year-old man from Hong Kong who police said “has a history of victimizing elderly Asian people”. “They know Chinese people, they know on Stockton Street, the old senior citizens, they know they can’t fight back,” Jennifer said.

“Right now, I’ve started to realize this: nothing is fair,” Jennifer said. “You just have to defend yourself. All Chinese people, they just have to get together and do something.”

At the beginning of the pandemic, Leung started the SF Peace Collective to patrol Chinatown and protect the older people and women who were getting attacked. Though many talk about the hate in terms of the pandemic and the anti-Asian rhetoric of “kung flu” and “China virus”, Leung said the violence had begun well before March 2020.

After the shooting, he just felt numb, he said.

“I don’t have any tears left to cry any more,” Leung said. “I’m just crying on the inside now. One of my friends said it best yesterday: she said she feels alone. Even at these Asian solidarity rallies and marches, it’s just us. The community feels so alone and so vulnerable.”

police patrol chinatown
The shooting occurred the same day that Stop AAPI Hate released a report documenting nearly 3,800 anti-Asian incidents of hate during the pandemic. Photograph: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Leung is sick of the mental gymnastics people go through to not acknowledge when Asians experience hate. “The fact that he claimed to have a sex addiction, and yet targeted only Asian sex workers, tells me he fetishized Asian women,” Leung said of the Atlanta shooting. “All of that is racist.”

A few weeks ago, Leung had a gun pulled on him while he was patrolling Chinatown. He’s getting death threats. He’s afraid to leave his house, but he knows he has to, so when he does, he does it with heightened anxiety.

“I’m just tired,” Leung said. “I’m tired of having to prove that we face discrimination. I’m tired of having to prove that we belong. I’m tired of having to prove that we’re allies. I’m tired of having to apologize for speaking up. I’m tired of being gaslighted. I’m tired of the victim-blaming, of the oppression Olympics. I’m tired of thinking of others while nobody else is thinking about us. I’m tired of having to have to internalize the pain. I’m just so tired.”

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