Sunnyside community rallies against
recent uptick of anti-Asian hate crimes
BY GABRIELE HOLTERMANN
About 100 protesters gathered
in Bliss Plaza in Sunnyside,
on Saturday, March 6, to
rally against the increase of
violence and hate crimes toward
Asian American Pacific
Islanders.
The rally was organized
by City Council candidates
Julie Won and Steven Ragga,
who are running for the City
Council District 26 seat. Both
candidates attended the Rise
against Hate rally in downtown
Manhattan last weekend.
They agree that the rise
in hate crimes on Asian-Americans
impacts all communities
in New York City.
“It’s not just downtown
where the racism and xenophobia
are cared about in the
community. It’s not just downtown
where racism and xenophobia
are fought against in
the community. So we want to
bring it here, starting in Sunnyside,”
Ragga said.
Hate crimes against Asian
Americans have always existed,
but since the beginning
of the COVID-19 pandemic,
the number of incidents has
sharply increased in New
York City and across the United
States. There have been 28
coronavirus-related attacks
against Asians in New York
City since the beginning of the
pandemic. The latest attack
occurred on Mar. 2, when an
Asian man was knocked to the
ground and punched in an unprovoked
attack on the Lower
East Side.
Jesse Laymon, who is
also looking to replace termlimited
Councilman Jimmy
Van Bramer in District 26, acknowledged
that while he and
the other candidates are in a
race against each other, they
wanted to stand united against
hate. He called on white people
to join the fight against racism
and stand up against bigotry,
even if they feel it doesn’t concern
them.
“Bigotry is itself an epidemic
disease that is constantly
mutating with new variants,
and what is targeting one community
today will target another
community tomorrow and
targeted others years before
that. This is all one disease,
and we must fight it together,
or we will not succeed against
any of it,” Laymon said.
Sunnyside residents hold a rally against anti-Asian hate crimes on March 6, 2021. Photo by Gabriele Holtermann
Father Julian Jagudilla, director
of the Migrant Center at
St. Francis of Assisi Church in
Manhattan, shared that Noel
Quintana, the man who was
slashed across the face with
a box cutter on the subway in
February, is not only a volunteer
at the Migrant Center but
also his friend. He said many
Asian American and Pacific
Islander community members
are afraid to take public transportation
to work. Still, he
urged them not to allow fear to
rule their daily lives.
“If we allow fear to dominate
our lives, then the perpetrators
have won. We are
here to stand up against Asian
hate,” Jagudilla said.
He also pointed out that the
older generation might feel
that they are voiceless because
of language barriers. He reminded
the AAPI community
that they could not be intimidated
as long as they stand together
as one voice.
“Together, we have a voice,
and we want to visit the ears
of our perpetrators, law enforcers
TIMESLEDGER | QNS.16 COM | MARCH 12-MARCH 18, 2021
and elected officials
to hear us out. Because we are
here to stand a stand against
Asian hate. The Asian American
and Pacific Islander community
should not tolerate being
diminished or treated like
we are invisible,” he stressed.
Sharon Lee, who served as
acting Queens borough president
after Melinda Katz was
elected as Queens district attorney,
opened by joking that
she was not a candidate for
City Council nor any other office.
She reminded the crowd
that hate crimes towards the
Asian American community
are nothing new and that most
incidents go unreported.
“This is not just in the last
couple of weeks. This is not
just a year ago when I would
walk around and wonder, I
don’t know what’s going to kill
me first, COVID or racism?
This is not new; it is underreported,”
Lee said before calling
on the community to speak
up and report hate crimes.
She also made it clear that
anti-Asian racism was not an
excuse for anti-Black racism
in the AAPI community.
“We have a lot of work to
do. So don’t get it twisted that
we’re just the victims; there
is a lot to do. And it’s on us as
well,” Lee emphasized.
Van Bramer said that, as a
gay man, he’s seen and experienced
violence. He told the
crowd that violence is used as
an attempt to silence, intimidate
and isolate but underlined
that showing unity and
solidarity is the best counterargument.
“We will protect each other,
and we will never ever allow
anyone in our community to
feel isolated, to be afraid, and
to be alone. And we will never
ever accept the notion that the
hatred directed at the Asian
community will allow anyone
to feel powerless because there
is nothing, nothing worse than
being made to feel powerless.
And that is not going to happen,”
Van Bramer said.
Won said that she is concerned
about her mother’s
safety and calls her every
morning to remind her to be
careful when she takes the
train or walks by herself at
night.
“Why is it that in my very
own city, I have to ask my mom
if she is safe? And if she does
not text me back in 15 minutes,
I start to have anxiety worrying
if my mom is safe,” she
said.Won made it clear that she’s
not calling for more policing,
and she doesn’t want to be part
of a conversation that could
lead to more racial profiling
and incarceration of people of
color. She wants to get to the
root of why hatred and bigotry
exist and believes that compassion
and understanding
are more effective.
“That’s why we are calling
the way that we did today, for
more community building, for
mutual trust, for us to really
stand in solidarity because it
is not about one race attacking
the other — but recognizing as
a society as a whole about anti-
Asian sentiment and scapegoating,”
Won said.