By Emmy Ribero
At 2:00am, three beloved Asian-owed restaurants were broken into and looted on Friday, February 12, at the Columbia Mall. These included Kung Fu tea, Bonchon, and Urban Hotspot.
The Corner Bakery and Coal Fire Pizza were also broken into, but neither reported anything stolen. More restaurants in Ellicott City, East Moon and Asian Bistro were also broken into and looted that night. These attacks occurred at the beginning of Lunar New year, a much celebrated holiday in the Asian community. The timings of these burglaries felt like an attack targeted to the store owners, and the police have decided not to investigate them as racially motivated, due to how not only the Asian owned stores were harmed, even though they were the only ones robbed.
These attacks took the internet by storm, particularly instagram, where many students at River Hill voiced their outrage of these attacks. Many reposting pictures of the damage, to put them on a platform, allowing many to see that racially charged crimes exist in our community. Students felt this event hit close to home, as these locations, particularly the ones at the Columbia mall, were loved and often visited by many in the River Hill community. Melody Shang, a popular advocate, who went to the scenes that Friday, comments “I’d say in general, it’s shocking, since it happened so close to a place that I go very often. It made me mad, disappointed, and frustrated all at once. After a bit of time, I started to feel hopeless as I know how Asian hate crimes (and even general racism against them) goes. It’s brushed off and pushed to the side because of some reason or another. I’m just so tired.” These attacks being close to home and targeted made many feel very hurt by them which made them need to be talked about, not brushed aside like most crimes against Asian Americans. This could be the beginning of a much needed spread of awareness of this injustice, so that action can be taken to prevent them from happening again.
Kung Fu Tea and Bonchon have launched a GoFundMe, which profits will go to stopaapihate.org, an organization that works towards spreading awareness of racism against Asian Americans. This organization’s purpose is to provide resources for those affected by racism, serve as an advocate and aggregator of Anti-American hate incidents, and support community-based safety measures. In addition to the GoFundMe, both establishments are donating 10% of their sales in February, so making a purchase at either one will be contributing to the cause. Kung Fu Tea and Bonchon have used the spotlight given to them because of these unfortunate events to raise much needed awareness.
As a community, spreading awareness about these crimes is crucial. Use your voice and make it known that crimes against Asian Americans still occur globally, let alone in your community. You can help by spreading awareness or visiting any of the stores affected to make a donation that way or through the GoFundMe. Changes need to be made to the way crimes against Asians are viewed, it all starts with amplifying them. Spreading awareness is very important right now, so don’t be afraid to use your platform and voice your opinions.