Yet another act of aggressive racism toward Asian people has occurred and been shared across the internet. This time, the intolerant hatred took the form of a handwritten note from one retirement home neighbor to another.
Claudia Choi, of Los Angeles, told CBS Los Angeles about the hate-filled message her mother received after the death of her husband, Choi's father, Byong.
The letter, which was postmarked on the very same day as Byong's funeral, included the following message:
"Now that Byong is gone it makes it one less Asian to put up with in Leisure World. You fricken Asians are taking over our American community! It is not resting well with all and everybody who lives here--true statement!!
Leisure World is the name of the retirement community Byong lived in, along with Choi's mother, until his recent death.
The note closed with a threat.
"Watch out! Pack your bags and go back to your country."
When speaking to CBS Los Angeles, Choi expressed her wide-ranging emotions following the incident.
"To target a grieving widow, it's disgusting. They postmarked it on the day of my father's funeral. How cruel could you be? Shame on them."
"Racism and hatred and cruelty needs to be denounced at every turn."
Choi expanded, describing how insidious this issue is—and called for advocacy.
"It's not just when somebody gets beaten up, although that's terrible or when women get murdered, that's awful, but when your neighbor says something like they need to go home or makes an Asian joke, you need to speak up and say that is not okay because these little things that we allow to pass lead to bigger things."
As for the formal response from Leisure World, a spokesperson confirmed the community's complete intolerance for hatred like this.
"This malicious and egregious act of hate speech threatens our core values of racial equity and social justice… We condemn in the strongest possible terms such action and that all actions will be taken to locate and prosecute the individual."
Leisure World also went on to ensure that the writer of the letter, if discovered, would be expelled from the community.
As for the likelihood of a suspect being identified, CBS Los Angeles went on to report that the Seal Beach Police Department will investigate using DNA and handwriting analysis.
The FBI will also be involved, as the letter was sent by mail, thus placing it in the federal agency's jurisdiction.
When another member of the Choi family posted the letter to their Facebook, people came in droves to express their outrage.
Mike Vo/Facebook
Katie Buckley Stevens/Facebook
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Kari Peyton/Facebook
Jules Bruff/Facebook
Joe Catone/Facebook
This, of course, was by no means an isolated incident.
CBS Los Angeles reported that Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that encourages people to report such hate incidents, has had 360 reports just in Los Angeles in the past year.
That figure reflects an alarming uptick nationwide, with 3,800 reports made in 2020, a 149% spike from the prior year.
Rest in power, Byong.
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