April 6, 2020
U.S.A.
THE ASIAN REPORTER n Page 11
Asian Americans use social media to mobilize against attacks
By Terry Tang
The Associated Press
yle Navarro was kneeling down to
unlock his bicycle when he noticed
an older white man staring at
him. Navarro, who is Filipino, tried to
ignore him, but that soon became
impossible.
The man walked by, looked back, and
called Navarro a racial slur. He “spat in my
direction, and kept walking,” Navarro
said.
Navarro, a school nurse in San
Francisco, already had anxiety about
racism related to the coronavirus, which
emerged in China and has Asian people
facing unfounded blame and attacks as it
has spread worldwide. Now, he was
outraged.
“My first instinct was to yell back at him
in anger. But, after taking a breath, I
realized that would have put me in
danger,” Navarro said.
Instead, he took to Twitter to turn the
ugly moment into an opportunity for a
conversation about racism, generating
thousands of sympathetic comments.
Asian Americans are using social media
to organize and fight back against racially
motivated attacks during the pandemic,
which the FBI predicts will increase as
infections grow. A string of racist run-ins
in the last two weeks has given rise to
hashtags
—
#WashTheHate,
#RacismIsAVirus, #IAmNotCOVID19 —
and online forums to report incidents.
Critics say President Donald Trump made
things worse by calling COVID-19 the
“Chinese virus.”
For a group with a history of being
scapegoated — from Japanese Americans
detained during World War II to a
Chinese-American
man
killed
by
autoworkers angry about Japanese
competition in the ’80s — there’s urgency
to drown out both bigotry and apathy.
To that end, the California-based groups
Chinese for Affirmative Action and the
Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council
set up a hate reporting center last month.
New York’s attorney general also launched
a hotline.
“We kind of just knew from history this
was going to snowball,” said Cynthia Choi,
co-executive director of Chinese for
Affirmative Action. “With the rising stress
and anxiety, we knew we’d see a rise in
hate incidents.”
The center has fielded more than 1,000
reports from across the U.S., ranging from
people spitting to throwing bottles from
K
cars. An FBI report distributed to local law
enforcement predicts the attacks will
surge and pointed to the stabbing of an
Asian-American man and his two children
at a Sam’s Club in Texas last month, ABC
News reported. According to the report,
the 19-year-old suspect said he thought
they were “infecting people.” The victims
have recovered.
Amid the explosive climate, former
Democratic
presidential
candidate
Andrew Yang drew backlash for urging
fellow Asian Americans to display more
“American-ness.” In a Washington Post
editorial, he called on them to avoid
confrontation and do acts of goodwill like
volunteering and helping neighbors.
“Being ‘the good Asian’ has not fared
well for Asian Americans,” Choi said. “We
don’t have to prove our worth and that we
belong, that we’re exceptional. And we
certainly don’t have to believe that this is
something that we should ignore.”
Yang’s spokesman declined to comment.
Meanwhile, Trump has walked back on
calling COVID-19 the Chinese virus,
saying at a media briefing and on Twitter
last week that Asian Americans should not
be blamed “in any way, shape, or form.”
Democrats in the U.S. Senate and House
worry the damage has been done and have
introduced resolutions to condemn
anti-Asian racism.
“His followers continue to double-down
on that term,” said U.S. representative
Judy Chu of California, chairwoman of the
Congressional Asian Pacific American
Caucus.
Some of the reports received by the
advocacy groups describe harassment that
appears to parrot Trump, Choi said.
A White House spokesman declined to
comment and referred to Trump’s remarks
at the March 23 briefing.
The president’s words also drew some
Asian Americans in entertainment and
fashion to the #WashTheHate social-
media campaign. Celia Au, star of the
Netflix show “Wu Assassins,” and others
posted videos showing them washing their
hands and talking about the effect of
racism.
“It comes from the top down at the end of
the day,” Au said. “Our top leader is not
doing the job, so it’s time for us to step up.”
People turning against Asian Americans
in an uncertain time and sputtering
economy echoes the climate in 1982, when
Vincent Chin was killed in Detroit as
laid-off autoworkers blamed a recession on
Japanese competition.
“At that time, I knew I had to watch out
and be careful — who I was around, how
they looked at me,” said Helen Zia, a
Chinese-American author and journalist
from Oakland, California, who lived in
Detroit at the time. “I think we’re in that
MOBILIZING MEDIA. Kyle Navarro poses for a
photo in San Francisco. The school nurse was recently
unlocking his bicycle when an older white man called
him a racial slur and spat at him. Asian Americans are
using social media to organize and fight back against
racially motivated attacks during the coronavirus pan-
demic, which the FBI predicts will increase as infec-
tions grow. (AP Photo/Jeff Chiu)
stage now.”
Two white autoworkers beat Chin to
death with a bat outside a strip club during
his bachelor party simply because they
thought he was Japanese. The 27-year-
old’s attackers were convicted of
manslaughter and received only three
years of probation.
Zia said she and others contacted
advocacy groups, churches, and Chinese-
language media about protesting the
sentence. Relying only on mail and
telephones, they found allies in the
NAACP and Anti-Defamation League and
launched demonstrations nationwide.
“It was a watershed moment,” Zia said.
“We were drowning, and we had to
organize to change what we saw going on
around us.”
Thanks to social media, younger
generations of Asian Americans and
Pacific Islanders are speaking up during
what could be another seminal moment.
Choi hopes they will rally non-Asians to
see the wave of racist attacks in the
COVID-19 era as their issue, too. Groups
like the NAACP and Council on American-
Islamic Relations have condemned
anti-Asian rhetoric.
With attacks escalating, Zia can’t help
but fear the pandemic could result in
another tragedy like Chin’s death.
“The level of anger ... it’s already here,”
Zia said. “For Asian Americans, there’s the
virus of COVID-19 and there’s the virus of
hate. The hate virus is also going to get
much worse.”
Tang reported from Phoenix and is a member of
The Associated Press’ Race and Ethnicity team.
How to clean the bundle of germs that is your phone
By Tali Arbel
The Associated Press
EW YORK — You’re washing
your hands countless times a day
to try to ward off the coronavirus.
You should also wash that extension of
your hand and breeding ground for germs
— your phone. Tests done by scientists
show that the virus can live for two to three
days on plastic and stainless steel. The
Centers for Disease Control and
Prevention recommends cleaning all
“high-touch” surfaces daily, including
N
phones, keyboards, and tablet computers.
But cleaning your phone improperly can
damage it. You want to avoid getting
moisture inside it or scratching the
surface. Don’t spray cleaners directly on
the phone, don’t dunk it in cleaning
solutions,
don’t
spray
it
with
compressed-air devices used to clean
keyboards, and avoid rubbing it with
abrasive materials.
Instead, start by turning off the phone
and unplugging all cables. Your phone
shouldn’t be charging as you clean.
Continued on page 14
Chef Floyd Cardoz dies at age 59 of coronavirus complications
By Leanne Italie
The Associated Press
EW YORK — Chef Floyd Cardoz,
who competed on “Top Chef,” won
“Top Chef Masters,” and operated
successful restaurants in both India and
New York, died March 25, 2020 of compli-
cations from the coronavirus, his company
said in a statement. He was 59 years old.
Cardoz had travelled from Mumbai to
New York through Frankfurt, Germany,
on March 8. He was admitted to
Mountainside
Medical
Center
in
Montclair, New Jersey, with a fever and
subsequently
tested
positive
for
COVID-19, the statement said.
The committed advocate of making the
food industry more sustainable began his
hospitality training in his native Mumbai,
formerly known as Bombay. He later
moved to Switzerland, where he honed his
skills in French, Italian, and Indian
cuisine before moving on to the kitchens of
New York City.
He was a partner in Bombay Sweet
Shop, O Pedro, and The Bombay Canteen
in India at the time of his death.
N
An Indian American, he partnered with
famed restaurateur Danny Meyer’s Union
Square Hospitality Group to open Tabla in
1997. The Manhattan spot was praised by
critics. It closed in 2010.
Cardoz’s death was mourned by famous
friends in both the restaurant and
television industries.
“Love you so much @floydcardoz,” Meyer
tweeted, calling him a “beautiful human
being.”
The two worked together for 17 years. At
Tabla, they celebrated Cardoz’s new
Indian cuisine that melded the sensual
flavors and spices of his homeland with
western techniques.
Padma Lakshmi, host of the Bravo cook-
ing competition series “Top Chef,” praised
the success of Tabla and offered condo-
lences to Cardoz’s loved ones, including his
wife and business partner, Barkha.
“He had an impish smile, an innate need
to make those around him happy, and a
delicious touch,” Lakshmi tweeted.
The Twitter account for “Top Chef”
offered condolences and called Cardoz an
“inspiration to chefs around the world.”
In 2011, Cardoz competed in and won
CHEF SUCCUMBS. Chef Floyd Cardoz is seen
at The Hundred-Foot Journey premiere in New York,
in this August 4, 2014 file photo. Cardoz, who com-
peted on “Top Chef,” won “Top Chef Masters,” and
operated successful restaurants in both India and New
York, has died of complications from the coronavirus,
according to his company. He was 59 years old.
(Photo by Charles Sykes/Invision/AP, File)
Season 3 of “Top Chef Masters.” He used
his $110,000 in winnings to support the
Young Scientist Cancer Research Fund at
New York’s Mount Sinai School of
Medicine.
The
now-independent
foundation,
referred to as the Young Scientist
Foundation, enables high school and
college students to work alongside
accomplished researchers to develop new
treatments for diseases, according to a
spokesperson for Cardoz’s company. It was
a central focus of his charity work.
In addition to Tabla, Cardoz and Meyer
partnered in 2012 on North End Grill, a
Battery Park City staple that was a
downtown Manhattan favorite until its
closing in 2018. In addition to his work
with Meyer, Cardoz partnered with
Sameer Seth and Yash Bhanage in Hunger
Inc. Hospitality starting in 2015.
Cardoz was a four-time James Beard
Award nominee. He was the author of two
cookbooks, Once Spice, Two Spice and
Flavorwalla. In 2008, he launched a line of
ready-to-cook entrees in collaboration
with the online grocer Fresh Direct.