PHILADELPHIA (KYW Newsradio) — Some people in Philadelphia's Asian community are still processing last week's murders in Atlanta and how police there characterized the attack.
John Chin with the Philadelphia Chinatown Development Corporation said while their community surveys indicate acts of hate are seemingly on the rise, not all incidents are characterized as hate crimes.
"The hate crime laws have a threshold and if you don't meet the threshold or if the act itself doesn't meet the threshold then police aren't going to investigate it have a hate crime," he said.
But Kayla Chen of Wilmington said an action doesn't need to rise to the level or a hate crime to be hurtful or racist.
"There are definitely a lot of microaggressions that come with being Asian American," she said, "Even something as simple as, 'Where are you really from?' ... I'm from here!"
Kahn Vuong of Chinatown said when people are not reprimanded for bad behavior or a law enforcement officer characterizes a person murdering eight people as having a bad day, it emboldens others.
"Before, it's more hidden," said Vuong. "People were polite to your face or at least it was hidden. Now it's more apparent."
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Chin added that is why the entire community is watching to see what happens to Robert Aaron Long, the Atlanta shooting suspect. He also pointed out America's long history of Asian racism.
"It's been going on since the 1870s when Chinese laborers who came here to make a living were accused of stealing jobs, murdered, lynched."
"I think it's been an ongoing thing," said Chen, "but especially because of COVID."
And Vuong said there seem to be parallels between the experience of the Asian community now and the experience of the Black community this past summer.
"I feel like in America, different ethnicities just take turns being targeted. That's my experience," she said. "I've been here since I was young and I feel like first it was Black people, and then people in the Middle East, and then Jewish people, and then Asian people. It's tough."
She said experiencing incidents such as people hurling slurs at her from their cars impacts the way she moves in the world.
"It's scary. I mean, I feel afraid," confessed Vuong. "I'm always alert. Just being a female in general, I'm always afraid. But now being an Asian female, I'm even more alert."