The arrival, expansion and disappearance of these bilingual street signs have traced the ebb and flow of Chinese immigration in New York’s oldest Chinatown.
When I moved to a white neighborhood, my life became a series of incidents like the one in Central Park.
Like many once-upon-a-time New Yorkers, I followed this story closely:
In Central Park on Monday morning, a white woman named Amy Cooper was filmed by a black man who was there bird-watching. He asked her to leash her dog, and she responded by calling 911 and lying to the operator that she was being threatened by “an African American male.” She emphasized his race many times. There’s no doubt that she was aware how many NYPD officers handle encounters with black men. Cooper was pleading to the police to show up guns blazing because she didn’t like that a black man told her to put her dog on a leash.
And like many other once-upon-a-time New Yorkers, I was not the least bit surprised that she turned to the black man who was there bird-watching and told him in no uncertain terms that not only was she going to call 911, but that she was going to tell the police that she was being threatened by “an African American male.”
Because yeah, she knew exactly what she doing.
I too left New York to never look back, albeit many decades before Aymann Ismail. Largely due to moving at age 10 to the Canarsie neighborhood of Brooklyn, in the 1970s. Largely due to starting a new school in 1972, to a school boycott driven by white families terrified of kids from neighboring Brownsville. Largely due to witnessing almost every weekend, the harassment of African-American families as they viewed houses for purchase. Largely due to the blatant contempt anyone could see and feel, for the working class Caribbean immigrants who slowly purchased the small duplexes and tri-plexes from the fleeing white families. Largely due to the fact that although I lived in a very different neighborhood until I turned 10, Canarsie became the only eyes through which I ultimately came to understand New York City. Why this became the case, I am not certain.
I remain an accidental Californian; my life is here and I have never been starry eyed about it. So does this surprise me?
But when a woman named Lisa Alexander and her husband accused Juanillo of a crime for stenciling the words Black Lives Matter with chalk on the retaining wall outside his own home in San Francisco’s Pacific Heights, he was ready with his cellphone.
“Respectfully,” Alexander can be seen telling Juanillo in his video, “absolutely your [Black Lives Matter] signs and everything, that’s good, but this is not the way to do it. It’s private property.”
Yes it was: Juanillo’s property. But, he maintains, being a man of color, Alexander likely assumed he did not live in the expensive home they were standing in front of. She called the police.
Because yeah, they knew exactly what they were doing.
Today:
After nooses were found hanging from trees around Oakland’s Lake Merritt, Mayor Libby Schaaf responded in a forceful statement Wednesday and announced that the incidents will be investigated as hate crimes.
Sightings of the rope nooses, a symbol associated with racial terrorism and invoking lynchings, spread on social media yesterday.
On Wednesday, the mayor tweeted out a response. The full statement reads:
“Symbols of racial violence have no place in Oakland and will not be tolerated.
“Several nooses found on trees around Lake Merritt were removed and will be investigated as hate crimes. Reports that these were part of exercise equipment do not remove or excuse their torturous and terrifying effects.
"We are all responsible for knowing the history and present day reality of lynchings, hate crimes and racial violence. Objects that invoke such terror will not be tolerated in Oakland’s public spaces.”
I pray Libby Schaaf, Mayor, City of Oakland – knows exactly what she is doing.
When your better half surprises you with an early anniversary present. His and hers. Way better than the traditional-20th-porcelain. (at Richmond, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B-gMxDRJhMKJAMpEyf3VaINjGTME4DzFTYdtbQ0/?igshid=1h38lfytnndze
“"Mr. President, Seattle police have reported a surge in calls about domestic violence. A number of groups have raised concern—" Trump: "—About Mexican violence?" "Uh, domestic violence." WHAT??? https://t.co/E8mEzpXAwc”
For no good reason, except Berkeley High School math finals. (at Chinatown) https://www.instagram.com/p/B7WfZvGJCJ0ZkiIl8UihldURxHTfhmFmejXI_Y0/?igshid=y4j18n5tej7z
When you send your better half to Safeway. (at Richmond, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5Q4h38JEEiA8fNM88FEYI59a1lVnZjc4IpFV80/?igshid=5zhlezde709r
Seriously thinking I need to re-learn how to cross the street. (at Downtown Berkeley) https://www.instagram.com/p/B5OVuwEpBJbNoM4oCe2eK5Zh4en4cy5mQH4Rlw0/?igshid=jivlc0f5akyq
That rare day when a trip to Target bests Grocery Outlet. #cubancoffee (at Richmond, California) https://www.instagram.com/p/B3kbdAsn1GAIsAXFriluiwjPpt_KbUOBIYZ1gI0/?igshid=1pb8ipqw9yrn6
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