Increase of hate crimes against Asian American students

APAs are the fastest growing minority group in the states and as a result of certain changes and overall xenophobic to racist sentiments, Asian American students are experiencing more hatred.  Below is a good article on this dilemma:

 

HEADLINE: Asian-American students suffer beatingsacross country: Teens seen as brainy, unlikely to fight back

BYLINE: Erin Texeira, The Chicago Sun-Times

DATELINE: NEW YORK

BODY:


NEW YORK -- Eighteen-year-old Chen Tsu was waiting on a Brooklyn subway platform after school when four high school classmates approached him and demanded cash. He showed them his empty pockets, but they attacked him anyway, taking turns pummeling his face.

He was scared and injured -- bruised and swollen for several days -- but hardly surprised.

At his school, Lafayette High in Brooklyn, Chinese immigrant students like him are harassed and bullied so routinely that school officials agreed to a Department of Justice consent decree to curb alleged ''severe and pervasive harassment directed at Asian-American students by their classmates.''

Since then, the Justice Department credits Lafayette officials with addressing the problem -- but the case is far from isolated.

Nationwide, Asian students say they're often beaten, threatened and called ethnic slurs by other young people, and school safety data suggest that the problem may be worsening.

Youth advocates say these Asian teens, stereotyped as high-achieving students who rarely fight back, have for years borne the brunt of ethnic tension as Asian communities expand and neighborhoods become more racially diverse.

TEACHER HIDES CHINESE BOY

''We suspect that in areas that have rapidly growing populations of Asian-Americans, there often times is a sort of culture clashing,'' said Aimee Baldillo of the National Asian Pacific American Legal Consortium. Youth harassment is ''something we see everywhere in different pockets of the U.S. where there's a large influx.''

In the last five years, Census data show, Asians -- mostly Chinese -- have grown from 5 percent to nearly 10 percent of Brooklyn residents. In the Bensonhurst neighborhood, historically home to Italian and Jewish families, more than 20 percent of residents now are Asian. Those changes have escalated ethnic tension on campuses such as Lafayette High, according to Khin Mai Aung, staff attorney at the Asian-American Legal Defense and Education Fund, which is advocating for Lafayette students.

''The schools are the one place where everyone is forced to come together,'' Aung said.

Brooklyn's changes mirror Asian growth nationally. Between 1980 and 2000, the number of Asians and Pacific Islanders grew from 3.7 million to nearly 12 million. After Latinos, Asians are the nation's fastest-growing ethnic group.

Stories of Asian youth being bullied and worse are common. In recent years:

-A Chinese middle schooler in San Francisco was mercilessly taunted until his teacher hid him in her classroom at lunchtime.

-Three Korean-American students were beaten so badly near their Queens high school that they skipped school for weeks and begged to be transferred.

-A 16-year-old from Vietnam was killed last year in a massive brawl in Boston.

Some lawmakers have responded. The New York City Council, after hearing hours of testimony from Asian youth, last year passed a bill to track bullying and train educators on prevention. Also last year, California Assemblywoman Judy Chu won passage of a new law to allow hate crimes victims more time -- up to three years -- to file civil suits; the bill was inspired by a 2003 San Francisco incident in which five Asian teens were attacked by a mob of youths.

SCHOOL CLAIMS EXAGGERATION

In August, the Oakland-based Asian Pacific Islander Youth Violence Prevention Center organized a first-ever conference on the subject in Sacramento. Isami Arifuku, assistant director of the center, said she expected about 200 participants but nearly double that number attended.

Experts offer several broad explanations for the bullying problem.

In the broadest strokes, Baldillo said, Asian youth are sometimes small in stature and often adhere to cultural mores urging them to avoid confrontation and focus on academics. Many don't report bullying because they fear repercussions or don't want to embarrass their families, she added.

Language barriers also exacerbate the situation. ''I have to hear, '[Expletive] Chinese!' at least three times a day, and they always say it to people who look weaker and don't speak English,'' said Rita Zeng, a senior at Lafayette High.

School officials say some reports were exaggerated. But ''the problems there went back many, many years,'' said Michael Best, general counsel for New York City schools. Since signing the consent decree in June, he said, ''the situation at the school in our view is very, very different.''