Asian American Students Experience Harassment, Racism

Interviews conducted before March 13th, 2020

Before school let out two weeks ago, I was walking on the subway train to school and counted the amount of Asians I saw in the car. Just one. Our shifting eyes locked on each other in stranger solidarity before turning away to mind our own business. Talking with other Asians at Masterman, I felt the same solidarity. I recognized their stories in my own story. All of those I spoke with wanted to remain anonymous for the article (Editors’ note: All interviewees’ identities have been confirmed). While this has become a worldwide pandemic affecting everyone, Asian Americans have been deeply affected by the coronavirus crisis since it made the news in December. Here are the stories of some students at Masterman and Central High Schools.

From a 12th grade Masterman student (condensed and edited):

“ My sister always travels [to school] with this group of Chinese kids that all live in the same area [and go to the] same church. The kids are in 5th through 7th grade, and they are really cute. [One day] a group of high school (big kids), a lot taller and a lot bigger, were yelling words at us that sounded Chinese, but they weren’t Chinese. One of [the kids] was really scared and asked to get off at an earlier stop. [Others were] angry because they wanted to say something back. Instead, they walked to the other side. All of the other people around heard them, and they didn’t do anything to help my sister and her friends. I was really shocked and upset when I heard about it. I wanted them to just walk away. After that, my mom would try to pick us up sometimes.

The next day, I was walking with my sister and this group, and a high school girl yelled at us: “Do you have the coronavirus?” She kept yelling at us. One 7th grader yelled back “No, do you?” The girl and her friends laughed and said, “We’re not scared of you, Asians.”

I’ve noticed it more. I noticed that when I got on the trolley a week later, there were two ladies sitting in the seat, and [when I started standing in front of them ]they pulled their clothes to their nose. This was from 15th to 46th street. I stood there for a good 20 minutes. It must have been really difficult for them.

I know one Masterman student who saw another Chinese kid get beat up by this gang and the police had to come, on Oregon Street. I am more scared than I ever have been.

From an 11th grade Masterman student:

I was volunteering over the weekend at a center that offers free tax preparation for people. There was this one lady who came in, she was dressed in full gear, with the face mask and everything. She was really paranoid, and she was assigned to these two Asian girls, and she wouldn’t let them touch the pen. She brought her own pen. The girls touched the paper and she wouldn’t even take the papers back, even though they were her own taxes.

From a 12th grade Masterman student:

I was eating a Cheezit on the El and choked on it and coughed, but these girls sitting next to me immediately said, “Hell naw chinky corona b***,” and moved away. I had empty seats [around me for the rest of the ride]. It really is a terrible time because my experience isn't even close to being one of the worst. All I got was public embarrassment and a lot of extra room on the train, whereas my mother has had retail workers refuse to help her and (as we've seen in the news) people have been beat up and physically harassed.

From a 12th grade Central student:

It breaks my heart because I see these old Asian women constantly checking their surroundings. [The women I saw] were too scared to get close to people and to the platform because they were scared something bad was going to happen to them.

I was walking down to Penn’s Landing and a group of people said something about corona directed at us. They were high schoolers. Before they made the comment, they tried to hit us. One of them tried to catcall them but then one of his friends was like “Oh, they have corona”.

While I understand the concern, I am not any more likely to have corona [than others who are not Asian and have travelled to other hot spots, like Italy or Iran].

From an 11th grade Masterman student:

My mom and her friend went to go eat out, and the restaurant they were in wasn’t fully packed, but they were seated all the way in the corner of the place. They asked to get a different table, and were again moved away from other customers.