by: Colin Flaherty
The San Francisco Examiner calls it a “dirty secret:” Groups of black people targeting Asians for violence, robbery and even murder.
“In 85 percent of (300) physical assault crimes, the victims were
Asian and the perpetrators were African American,” the newspaper said
recently, citing a police study.
In Philadelphia, secrets may be even more violent and widespread. Over
the last three years, the Philadelphia Daily News found “at least 15
home invasions or other attacks on Asian business owners outside their
businesses in Philadelphia, Delaware and Montgomery counties in 2008,
followed by another spike of at least 19 actual or attempted home
invasions or burglaries in those three counties plus Chester County in
2010.”
The report continued, “Two Asian business owners were killed in 2009 – Robert Chae in his North Wales home, and Joseph Ha, a half-block from his dry-cleaning business in Olney. (In 2012) at least six robberies or attempted burglaries of Asian business owners were reported at a home or bank in Montgomery, Delaware and Philadelphia counties. And this year, in addition to the family in Haverford Township, a couple was robbed during a home invasion in Oxford Circle.”
But that news is almost a month old. Since then, at least two other Asian families have become victims. In all the cases, all of those suspected, arrested or convicted, are black.
“The victims were targeted as part of the recent trend in which thugs have attacked Asian business owners,” said the Inquirer. The latest crime was June 7, when a group of armed black men “terrorized and robbed an Asian-American business owner and his family. The masked thugs forced him to lie facedown in the kitchen, Cheng said. They isolated his wife and daughter in other rooms.”
The report continued, “They pointed guns at him, asked where money was and threatened to kill him if he didn’t obey, Cheng said. He told them where to find money. The thugs tied the family’s hands behind their backs and stuffed their mouths with socks, Cheng said. After about an hour, they forced Cheng, his wife and daughter into the basement before they fled with cash and jewelry, he said ”
In April, 12 Asians in Southwest Philadelphia were enjoying a night of karaoke when four black men with guns broke in and robbed the group.
Also in April, four black men broke into the home of an elderly Asian couple and their handicapped son, bound, threatened and robbed them. Their entrance and exit was captured on a security video.
In March, seven hooded black men with weapons surprised an Asian couple returning to their suburban Philadelphia home after a day at their beer-distribution company. After threatening the couple with pistols, they escaped with cash and valuables.
Their entrance and exit was also captured. The criminals were not.
“Many of the victims live close to their business,” said Taleeb Starks, a Philadelphia resident and producer of the noted documentary on black violence, Mothers of No Tomorrow. “So a lot of these crimes directed at Asians involve planning and stalking. Which make them extra dangerous. And of course the police never hear about many of them.”
These crimes are in addition to a Justice Department investigation in 2009 that found black students were systematically beating and abusing Asian students over a several year period at South Philadelphia High School.
The principal at first denied the attacks, then blamed the violence on Asians, and even gave the Asian students a pamphlet instructing them how to avoid antagonizing the black students with their racism and thus avoid getting beat up.
The principal was eventually removed after the federal investigation substantiated claims of racial violence against Asians.
Philadelphia has gained national attention for dozens of episodes of large scale racial violence and crime over the last three years. So much so, the black mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, went to a Baptist Church last August and admonished black people to stop the violence, saying they were “hurting their own race.”
The epidemic of black on Asian robbery and crime is not restricted to San Francisco and Philadelphia.
In Manhattan, videos show five black people targetting elderly Asian women for violence, reported Asian journalist Ying Ma. Those episodes, combined with similar violent and more lethal actions in San Jose and Oakland, did not seem to get much attention, she said.
“Local officials and the local media have bent over backward to deny or ignore the issue of race,” said Ma. “Many African-Americans in crowded and unsafe urban centers often view every Asian – Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino or Korean – as a ‘Chinaman’ who is unworthy of basic human decency or respect. In one city after another, black teenagers and adults frequently hurl racial slurs at the ‘Chinamen’ among them, at the grocery store, on the bus, on the subway and in the streets. If the ‘Chinamen’ are lucky, no violence will ensue.”
Asian victims are often reluctant to report the crimes, say Asian leaders and police officials.Victims also find the violence hard to understand. Amanza Emineke and others do not.
“The reason Asian kids are getting robbed is because there is an assumption that young Chinese kids on Third Street are filthy rich and have an iPod or laptop on them,” he told the African section of the New American Media news service website. “To a young, broke black male, the appeal of nabbing a few hundred dollars from some Asian kid’s pocket is even greater during this recession.”
“This isn’t to say that the inter-ethnic tension between Blacks and Asians is a one-way street. Asians (as Asians will tell you) can be particularly racist against the African American community.”
Emineke was charged with assault and a hate crime after robbing a Chinese student. The assault charge stuck, but not the hate crime: “I was glad when the charge was dropped because a hate crime shines a whole different light on you.”
Another black person with self-confessed first-hand experience committing violence against Asians told the Inquirer: “They had a term, ‘clocking wigs,’ that meant hitting someone in the head … They preyed on women, whites, and Asians.”
In case anyone was thinking this epidemic of violence against Asians had racial overtones, Yale University sociologist Elijah Anderson would like to set you straight: Talking about black on Asian crime in Philadelphia Weekly, the magazine that broke the story of the racial attacks at South Philadelphia High School, he said:
“It’s a human thing. It could be Asians who get jumped. It could be blacks. It could be white, Italian, Jewish, whatever, if you know what I mean. This is not unique to blacks and Asians.”
An email to Anderson asking him for evidence about groups of Asians targeting blacks for violence went unanswered.
The Internet is full of video news accounts of black on Asian crime. The television drama Law and Order even based an episode in its trademark ‘ripped from the headlines’ style featuring a black gang kidnapping, torturing and killing an Asian restaurant worker in New York.
The San Francisco Examiner calls it a “dirty secret:” Groups of black people targeting Asians for violence, robbery and even murder.
The report continued, “Two Asian business owners were killed in 2009 – Robert Chae in his North Wales home, and Joseph Ha, a half-block from his dry-cleaning business in Olney. (In 2012) at least six robberies or attempted burglaries of Asian business owners were reported at a home or bank in Montgomery, Delaware and Philadelphia counties. And this year, in addition to the family in Haverford Township, a couple was robbed during a home invasion in Oxford Circle.”
But that news is almost a month old. Since then, at least two other Asian families have become victims. In all the cases, all of those suspected, arrested or convicted, are black.
“The victims were targeted as part of the recent trend in which thugs have attacked Asian business owners,” said the Inquirer. The latest crime was June 7, when a group of armed black men “terrorized and robbed an Asian-American business owner and his family. The masked thugs forced him to lie facedown in the kitchen, Cheng said. They isolated his wife and daughter in other rooms.”
The report continued, “They pointed guns at him, asked where money was and threatened to kill him if he didn’t obey, Cheng said. He told them where to find money. The thugs tied the family’s hands behind their backs and stuffed their mouths with socks, Cheng said. After about an hour, they forced Cheng, his wife and daughter into the basement before they fled with cash and jewelry, he said ”
In April, 12 Asians in Southwest Philadelphia were enjoying a night of karaoke when four black men with guns broke in and robbed the group.
Also in April, four black men broke into the home of an elderly Asian couple and their handicapped son, bound, threatened and robbed them. Their entrance and exit was captured on a security video.
In March, seven hooded black men with weapons surprised an Asian couple returning to their suburban Philadelphia home after a day at their beer-distribution company. After threatening the couple with pistols, they escaped with cash and valuables.
Their entrance and exit was also captured. The criminals were not.
“Many of the victims live close to their business,” said Taleeb Starks, a Philadelphia resident and producer of the noted documentary on black violence, Mothers of No Tomorrow. “So a lot of these crimes directed at Asians involve planning and stalking. Which make them extra dangerous. And of course the police never hear about many of them.”
These crimes are in addition to a Justice Department investigation in 2009 that found black students were systematically beating and abusing Asian students over a several year period at South Philadelphia High School.
The principal at first denied the attacks, then blamed the violence on Asians, and even gave the Asian students a pamphlet instructing them how to avoid antagonizing the black students with their racism and thus avoid getting beat up.
The principal was eventually removed after the federal investigation substantiated claims of racial violence against Asians.
Philadelphia has gained national attention for dozens of episodes of large scale racial violence and crime over the last three years. So much so, the black mayor of Philadelphia, Michael Nutter, went to a Baptist Church last August and admonished black people to stop the violence, saying they were “hurting their own race.”
The epidemic of black on Asian robbery and crime is not restricted to San Francisco and Philadelphia.
In Manhattan, videos show five black people targetting elderly Asian women for violence, reported Asian journalist Ying Ma. Those episodes, combined with similar violent and more lethal actions in San Jose and Oakland, did not seem to get much attention, she said.
“Local officials and the local media have bent over backward to deny or ignore the issue of race,” said Ma. “Many African-Americans in crowded and unsafe urban centers often view every Asian – Chinese, Vietnamese, Filipino or Korean – as a ‘Chinaman’ who is unworthy of basic human decency or respect. In one city after another, black teenagers and adults frequently hurl racial slurs at the ‘Chinamen’ among them, at the grocery store, on the bus, on the subway and in the streets. If the ‘Chinamen’ are lucky, no violence will ensue.”
Asian victims are often reluctant to report the crimes, say Asian leaders and police officials.Victims also find the violence hard to understand. Amanza Emineke and others do not.
“The reason Asian kids are getting robbed is because there is an assumption that young Chinese kids on Third Street are filthy rich and have an iPod or laptop on them,” he told the African section of the New American Media news service website. “To a young, broke black male, the appeal of nabbing a few hundred dollars from some Asian kid’s pocket is even greater during this recession.”
“This isn’t to say that the inter-ethnic tension between Blacks and Asians is a one-way street. Asians (as Asians will tell you) can be particularly racist against the African American community.”
Emineke was charged with assault and a hate crime after robbing a Chinese student. The assault charge stuck, but not the hate crime: “I was glad when the charge was dropped because a hate crime shines a whole different light on you.”
Another black person with self-confessed first-hand experience committing violence against Asians told the Inquirer: “They had a term, ‘clocking wigs,’ that meant hitting someone in the head … They preyed on women, whites, and Asians.”
In case anyone was thinking this epidemic of violence against Asians had racial overtones, Yale University sociologist Elijah Anderson would like to set you straight: Talking about black on Asian crime in Philadelphia Weekly, the magazine that broke the story of the racial attacks at South Philadelphia High School, he said:
“It’s a human thing. It could be Asians who get jumped. It could be blacks. It could be white, Italian, Jewish, whatever, if you know what I mean. This is not unique to blacks and Asians.”
An email to Anderson asking him for evidence about groups of Asians targeting blacks for violence went unanswered.
The Internet is full of video news accounts of black on Asian crime. The television drama Law and Order even based an episode in its trademark ‘ripped from the headlines’ style featuring a black gang kidnapping, torturing and killing an Asian restaurant worker in New York.
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