A 74-year-old Filipina woman was shoved to her death in front of an oncoming BART train in San Francisco last week, rekindling fear in a community of Bay Area Asian seniors who have been spat upon, harassed and assaulted.
“My heart just sank,” said Dr. Lingsheng Li, a geriatrician and research fellow at the University of California, San Francisco.
Regardless of whether it was racially motivated, “whenever something like this happens to a member of the community, it resurfaces trauma for a lot of people, especially older Asian immigrants,” she said.
One in three Asians over age 50 in the Bay Area say they have experienced hate since the pandemic began, according to a report Li and her team released in May.
“There is talk about the number of anti-Asian hate crimes going down, but I’m a little bit skeptical, to be honest,” Li said. “Maybe people are not reporting it anymore, because it’s not gaining enough social media attention, unlike the beginning of COVID or the height of the pandemic.”
Li’s team interviewed over 250 Asian American Pacific Islander seniors, almost all of whom expressed concern about hate acts. Those acts could include physical attacks as well as spitting or coughing on someone, verbal harassment or denying someone service.
A fear of race-based crime stops some older AAPI residents of the Bay Area from leaving their homes, according to Li’s report. Almost half of participants said they changed their daily lives out of concern for their safety.
Isolation and worry can carry heavy consequences for their health, escalating dementia, depression, anxiety and accompanying physical effects like high blood pressure, Li reported.
One respondent said fear caused her to miss doctor’s appointments for two years. Some skipped important medical treatments. Others expressed that their mind feels less quick because they leave their home less.
“I was a very social person. I no longer go out due to fear that I will become a victim,” one anonymous participant said in Li’s study, “I have lost the joy of old age.”
AAPI seniors told Li that they began avoiding public transit. Almost one out of three hateful acts counted by Li occurred on public transit.
“I’m Chinese myself, I certainly have been harassed while riding transit,” said Janice Li, a BART board member and leader of the Coalition for Community Safety and Justice, which fights AAPI hate and violence with community programs. (She is not related to Lingsheng Li.)
“Those fears are real for a lot of folks and that changes the way they move around,” Janice Li said. “That changes the way they socialize, and it’s not good. Transit should be a place where everyone is welcome.”
“I was a very social person. I no longer go out due to fear that I will become a victim. … I have lost the joy of old age.” Anonymous participant said in Li’s study
The motivation for pushing the BART station victim, Corazon Dandan, has yet to be determined. Immediately following her death, Janice Li said transit authorities and police connected with her organization.
The CCSJ also serves as a conduit between social services, prosecutors and survivors or victims’ loved ones. Janice Li said they help about 200 people a year. She also pointed to a GoFundMe campaign launched by Dandan’s employer, which says it raises money for the family to return her remains to the Philippines and other expenses.
They are assisting the Dandan family in navigating the legal process. Dandan’s relatives have chosen to attend court proceedings as the criminal case of her death progresses.
“We always center the victim, and we provide direct service for the victim,” said Janice Li, who added that they remain focused on coordinating with authorities and helping the community heal.
BART police did not make crime victim demographics immediately available.
Hate crime numbers: Underreported and isolated
Stop AAPI Hate, a nonprofit organization, began gathering self-reported acts of hate during the pandemic. The Golden State saw more than any other – over half of these acts occurred in California.
The organization and experts like Dr. Lingsheng Li say the data probably undercounts the real number. Of the seniors who told Li’s team that they experienced a hateful act, only 7% said that they reported it to police.
“They may not know how to turn to others for help,” said Lingsheng Li. She said Asian elders can be vulnerable to all kinds of crime “because they look different. They don’t speak the language that most people around them speak. They’re already socially isolated.”
A recent law requires BART and Muni to gather comprehensive information about crime and harassment against vulnerable populations on transit, according to Janice Li. The agencies must publish that data by the end of 2024. Janice Li said the law was inspired in part by BART’s gender based “Not One More Girl” safety campaign, which counted some incidents of harassment.
Most of the Asian immigrants who spoke with Dr. Lingsheng Li have lived in the United States for over a decade. For many, these transit-related fears are new. One anonymized Bay Area health care provider said in Li’s report that their patients use the phrase, “It hurts my spirit.”