PHILADELPHIA — Philadelphia's Asian community has been on edge over the past few weeks after two recent attacks — one that left a Chinese American takeout owner dead, and the other in which a high school student was randomly punched while out walking with his grandmother.
In May, Wei Lin, 28, the takeout owner, went to help a delivery driver who didn't speak English after the driver got into a minor car accident. As they were waiting for police to arrive, the female driver of the other vehicle called relatives to the scene, and authorities say a man punched Lin in the head. Lin, a father of two young daughters, died three days later. A suspect, Jose Figueroa, 30, of Hunting Park, was arrested and charged with involuntary manslaughter.
And last week, a 17-year-old Chinese American student was randomly punched by two teens in Mayfair. A female friend of the attackers then started laughing, the victim and his grandmother said.
Mingchu Pearl Huynh, president of the Northeast Philadelphia Chinese Association and a friend of the boy's grandmother, said she's afraid to walk in the city. "It can happen to anyone of us. ... We are all scared."
In both cases, community advocates say they believe the victims were targeted because they are of Asian descent. No racist words were said by the attackers, and authorities haven't raised the prospect of ethnic intimidation charges in either case. But the attacks come at a time of rising violence against people of Asian descent.
Huynh, asked why she thinks people of Asian descent may be targeted, said: "I think in people's mind, Asians are weak."
Elijah Anderson, a Yale University sociology professor, who studies urban communities like Philadelphia, said he disagreed that Asians are targeted because they are perceived as weak.
"It's complicated," he said. Attacks on any group of people can come from another group who feel their "race is better than other people" or who "feel their own group is under threat," he said.
Lin's wife, who asked not to be identified by name because she feared for her safety, said Monday that she thinks her husband was punched because of his Asian face. "They think Asian people is weak," she said at her husband's Kensington takeout, which closed after he was attacked.
She showed pictures and videos of her husband playing with their daughters, now 19 months and 3 months old. Her husband, who immigrated to the U.S. from China's Fujian province then became a citizen here, often helped people, she said.
Police last week arrested Figueroa, of the 4000 block of North Sixth Street, in the fatal attack on Lin. He posted bail and has been released as he awaits a preliminary hearing.
His attorney, Geoffrey Seay, said Tuesday that Figueroa was called to the accident scene at L and Luzerne Streets by his mother, the driver of the other vehicle. He declined to comment on the case, except to say, "This isn't a hate crime."
On Monday, Huynh walked with Yue Xian Wu, the grandmother of the 17-year-old boy who was punched, to the scene of the teen's attack. Wu, speaking in Mandarin Chinese, described how she and her grandson were walking about 7 p.m. Friday on Hawthorne Street near Friendship, next to Mayfair Elementary School, when two teens, about 17 or 18 years old, ran toward her grandson and punched him in the face, ear, and back.
A girl around the same age came over and started laughing, then left with the two assailants, Wu said.
"She feel like they treat us like a toy, like an entertainment ... and hit us for fun, for a game," Huynh said, interpreting for Wu. "She feel like Asians don't report to the police and don't speak English," making them an "easy target."
Wu's grandson, Yuheng Chen, suffered a bloody nose, bruises on his right ear, temporary dizziness, and various cuts. But he didn't seek medical treatment. Speaking at the home he shares with his grandmother, he brushed off the incident. Although he initially reported the attack, he expressed reluctance about following up with police about it. "I don't want other people to feel I'm sad," he said.
"This is not normal," Huynh told Chen. "This is not right. That's why I'm fighting. ... If we don't stand up for ourselves, the police cannot help. They can only do so much. ... You'll only be a victim if you continue to be like, 'Oh, they hit me, that's OK.' If anyone hit me like that, I will yell. I will make the whole town know about it and I'd say, 'Stop it.'"
