{"id":860,"date":"2021-05-12T20:47:23","date_gmt":"2021-05-12T20:47:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drkareneng.com\/?p=860"},"modified":"2021-05-12T20:47:28","modified_gmt":"2021-05-12T20:47:28","slug":"as-anti-asian-violence-climbs-bystander-training-is-becoming-essential","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drkareneng.com\/?p=860","title":{"rendered":"As Anti-Asian Violence Climbs, Bystander Training Is Becoming Essential"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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Three years ago at a crowded BART station in Oakland, California, educator Catherine Shieh was waiting for a train when a man approached her, asking for spare change.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When Shieh, who is Taiwanese American, told him she didn\u2019t carry cash, the man swung his fist and knocked her over. Then he started punching her.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI was knocked over to the ground,\u201d she told HuffPost. \u201cI just curled up like a little ball because I didn\u2019t want to be held liable for assault myself in case I were to defend myself.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When the flurry of punches stopped, the man shouted a message to Shieh as he ran away: \u201cIf you call the cops, I\u2019ll find you and I\u2019ll kill you.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThat\u2019s had a long-lasting effect on me and the way I move through public spaces,\u201d the San Francisco native said. \u201cI have an incredible amount of anxiety, a little bit of agoraphobia<\/a> and I struggle to take public transit, which was never really an issue for me in the past.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The incident happened on a Saturday. There were many witnesses nearby, but no one intervened or checked on Shieh. It wasn\u2019t until a week later, when Shieh called the BART police, that she found out three strangers had called and reported the incident on her behalf. (The assailant had a history of assaulting Asian women and the elderly, the police later found out.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Looking back, Shieh said that there was part of her that felt relief there had been witnesses, ready and willing to document what they had seen. Still, she wished they had come up to her directly when she was lying on the ground, curled up in a little ball and legitimately scared.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cI think there\u2019s a difference between just reporting it quietly and actually being able to go up to the person who was just harassed to see if there\u2019s a way that you can support and comfort them,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Today, Shieh teaches people to do exactly that in some increasingly popular bystander trainings<\/a> she leads over Zoom. The 28-year-old is the anti-hate training coordinator at the nonprofit organization Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago<\/a>. It\u2019s a relatively new job; up until August, Shieh had been an ethnic studies high school teacher in Los Angeles for five years.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s a job that fuses many of Shieh\u2019s passion points: politics and policy as well as teaching and facilitating learning in novel, creative ways. The classes \u2015 which are attended by Asian Americans and others just looking to help \u2015 are heavy on bystander training, but they also delve into race and the xenophobia and exclusionary laws that made Asians and Pacific Islanders the nation\u2019s first \u201cundocumented immigrants<\/a>.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For some attendees, this might be their first exposure to a history that\u2019s all too often given short shrift in history classes. Shieh relishes the chance to dig into it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cA lot of times I feel like this is the only type of job for me,\u201d Shieh said. \u201cMany people think that talking about race and identity would be difficult, but if done well, I actually find it quite liberating. I really like being a part of these conversations with people.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The classes, conveniently offered over Zoom for people across the country, are of course sorely needed right now. Since the beginning of the pandemic last March, there have been nearly 3,800 hate incidents reported against Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders<\/a>, with many of the crimes occurring in the Bay Area and New York City<\/a>, according to advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate. Because these numbers are self-reported and some victims may not speak English, community advocates say there are likely far more cases that haven\u2019t been logged.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In recent months, Shieh said her group has seen a huge uptick in attendance at its public trainings, which are put on in partnership with the Chicago chapter of the Council on American-Islamic Relations<\/a> (CAIR) and Hollaback!, a New York-based anti-harassment nonprofit.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In early February, attendance for the virtual workshops was in the teens or dozens, she said. A recent session in April was attended by 500, the max Zoom would allow. Another training that month had over 2,800 registrations. (Shieh said those who are interested in attending a free class should periodically check the Asian Americans Advancing Justice Chicago website<\/a> for new training dates.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trainings start with a quick poll asking participants if they have experienced or witnessed any anti-Asian American harassment as of late. In that recent April session, 42% said they\u2019d seen or experienced verbal harassment \u2015 slurs or being told to \u201cgo back to your country.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Sixty-two percent of people said they\u2019d personally heard someone say \u201cChinese virus\u201d or \u201cWuhan virus,\u201d the racist shorthand for COVID-19\u00a0favored by former President Donald Trump<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Then, the instructors delve into real-world scenarios and go over the \u201c5 Ds of bystander training<\/a>.\u201d The five ways they talk about intervening when you witness harassment or physical violence in public are:\u00a0distract<\/strong>\u00a0(by asking for directions, for instance);\u00a0delegate<\/strong>(ask for help);\u00a0delay<\/strong>\u00a0(check in on the harassed person after the incident is over);\u00a0direct<\/strong>(speak out directly to the attacker) and\u00a0document<\/strong>\u00a0(video or audio record). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

The \u201c5 Ds\u201d are important, but mostly, Shieh tries to impress on attendees that doing something \u2015 almost anything<\/em> \u2015 is better than doing nothing. (That kind of inaction was on full display in April, when two security guards at a hotel near New York City\u2019s Times Square watched and did nothing<\/a> to help a 65-year-old Asian woman who was being beaten in broad daylight by a man because of her race.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The trainings offer actionable advice for real-world scenarios <\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cIn most moments, you don\u2019t always have to be direct in your interventions or interaction. Get creative: Make a loud sound or drive your car up to where the incident is happening,\u201d Shieh said. \u201cYou don\u2019t necessarily have to [be] direct [with] the person who is doing the harassing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Karen Eng, the CEO of an engineering firm in Chicago, attended a training in February. She\u2019s read about the attacks against Asian Americans and also has a cousin who was racially profiled early in the pandemic. (While waiting to board a plane at John F. Kennedy International Airport, Eng\u2019s cousin, who is Asian American, was asked to move farther away by three men who said they were concerned about getting the coronavirus from her.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What Eng most appreciated about the bystander training was that it gave people options as to how to respond in these high-tension situations.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThere\u2019s not one answer for the solution; you can act based on the circumstance or how you feel,\u201d she said. \u201cBut you have choices. The more you are presented with them, the easier it will be to handle.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, Shieh and her team hope to expand the program so it\u2019s taught in different languages. They also want to offer more age-appropriate workshops for kids. (One poll in September found that 1 in 4 Asian American youths<\/a> have experienced racist bullying since the coronavirus pandemic began.) And given that so many of these attacks are against older Asians<\/a>, she\u2019d also like to get more seniors in attendance.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Jorge Arteaga, the deputy director of Hollaback!, told HuffPost he admires the way Shieh has pushed to make the trainings more accessible and relevant to different audiences and communities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cCat is insightful and thoughtful with this,\u201d he said. \u201cShe\u2019s able to be vulnerable and uses her own experiences in order to invite others to connect to the work. Her dedication and commitment to the work and the community are instrumental in the anti-hate work she\u2019s doing.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now that people are more aware of anti-Asian hate, Shieh hopes they won\u2019t stop learning about the history and long-standing issues existing in the AAPI community:\u00a0gentrification<\/a>,\u00a0voting rights<\/a>,\u00a0housing<\/a>,\u00a0unemployment<\/a>.\u201c <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I obviously want everyone to take a bystander intervention training, but I don\u2019t want that to flatten the Asian American experience,\u201d she said. \u201cWe are more than just an issue. There\u2019s a string of other issues that we\u2019re all fighting for \u2015 other systemic racial injustices. I think this is only the start of a longer fight.\u201d<\/p>\n

<\/p>

<\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Three years ago at a crowded BART station in Oakland, California, educator Catherine Shieh was waiting for a train when a man approached her, asking for spare change. When Shieh, who is Taiwanese American, told him she didn\u2019t carry cash, the man swung his fist and knocked her over. Then he started punching her. \u201cI<\/p>\n

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