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You’d think after nearly two years, it would subside. The virus? No, the hate AAPIs of all ethnicities still feel after being scapegoated by the disgraced and impeached former president–the one who birthed the term “China Virus” and who still retains power and influence over a vast number of Americans.

That’s why you should take Suni Lee’s announcement about her attack seriously.

After Lee won at the Olympics this summer, I declared her the most watchable Asian American on the planet. For all our demos, and ethnicities. That’s the power of Olympic gold.

So when Lee told the website PopSugar last week she was accosted by racial slurs and pepper sprayed while in Los Angeles waiting for a ride share with her AAPI girlfriends, we have to do more than take note.

If it happens to the most watchable AAPI on the planet, it can happen to us all.

And the disappointing thing, we may not be able to do more than simply speak up and tell our story.

Still, that’s novel. When have you heard about Asian Americans keeping things to themselves and not speaking up?

Don’t answer.

This is all the fallout of Trump’s anti-Asian rants. He’s out of office, but the hate persists. It doesn’t end– no matter how many times the Biden administration condemns the past president’s actions with executive orders and speech mentions.

There was also a sad tone of resignation in Lee’s interview.

“I was so mad, but there was nothing I could do or control because they skirted off,” Lee said “I didn’t do anything to them, and having the reputation, it’s so hard because I didn’t want to do anything that could get me into trouble. I just let it happen.”

Put yourself into Lee’s situation. You get accosted, do you strike back? Be mindful. If you could retaliate in some way physically, you could be sued or brought up on assault charges. You were reacting? Self-defense? Like Kyle Rittenhouse? That’s his excuse. Shall we let a mostly white jury decide?

Doing nothing turns out to be the best thing you can do. Take note. Then speak out. Shine a light and tell the story. Let people know the hate is still there.

When you’re the biggest AAPI on the planet and doing nothing is the best thing, what more for the rest of us?

There’s a kind of helplessness.

I mentioned Lee’s dilemma on my Daily Emil Amok’s Takeout Show #179 (on Facebook and YouTube. One of my listeners asked if Lee was pulling a “Jussie Smollett,” referring to the former actor who filed a false report of harassment to Chicago police.

The listener said Lee could be lying.

It caught me by surprise.

First off, Lee didn’t file a false police report, or any police report to my knowledge. She just talked to a webzine. Smollett made up the story and even collaborated with his so-called attackers. So Lee is not Smollett.

Still, where were the other girls who were with her? Why aren’t they talking?

But until there’s reason to believe otherwise, I’ll take Lee at her word. Why would she lie? For “Dancing With the Stars” ratings?

The more disturbing thing is that for most Asian Americans, the trend of AAPI hate is ongoing.

A year after Trump’s scapegoating began, the Atlanta killings that claimed six AAPI women occurred in March 2021. But all throughout the pandemic, the number of AAPI transgressions from minor to major has kept growing.

Russell Jeong, a professor at San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Department, co-founded #StopAAPIHate and began keeping the stats. When I first reported on his actions, there were just 700 cases.

That number to date has now jumped to more than 9,082 incidents targeting AAPIs around the country for all forms of physical and verbal assaults, online harassment, and other forms of hate discrimination.

For now, Suni Lee’s answer isn’t so unempowered. Keep speaking out. Tell your story. Make it official and file a police report, if you can.

If an incident happened to Suni Lee, it can happen to you and me.

THE RITTENHOUSE JUDGE
Judge Bruce Schroeder has already done enough to make us all dislike him. But he also suffers from something I call “when serious guys make a joke” disease.

Don’t do it. I know. I’m a habitual offender myself.

But I’m not the judge in a high-profile case involving race, murder, and vigilantism.

Last week, Schroeder tried to be cute during a lunch break by making a joke about Asians and whether the takeout food would arrive in time.

Schroeder said: “I hope the Asian food isn’t coming…isn’t on one of those boats from Long Beach Harbor.”

Ah, a supply chain joke! And did they include the Chinese mustard packets?

If the judge were a comedian, I’d cut him some slack and say, try some more open mics.

But this is the judge presiding in a case that could affect us all. Glad he’s eating Asian food. And I hope the help is washing their hands after using the bathroom. But clearly, Schroeder’s choice of humor comes at our expense.

Hey Judge, how about just saying, “I hope lunch isn’t late.”

We need Schroeder to be level-headed and fair. Not a yuckster.

Based on what Schroeder’s done in this case (hamstrung the prosecution versus the defense; been unclear about what videos could or couldn’t be permitted; prevented the actual victims from being referred to as “victims,” I actually would say, the judge should just pursue comedy and give up his day job. Puh-leez.

Closing arguments are on Monday, and what should have been a standard vigilante murder case– teenager, armed with a military assault weapon, whose mother drives him across state lines to protect a community he is not a part of and intentionally kills two people–is anything but.

The defense has actually made a plausible case of self-defense for Rittenhouse. Add Rittenhouse’s crying like a baby to save his life, and a vigilante who intentionally killed two people could be set free.

If Rittenhouse does go free, it will send a bad message to all the self-appointed guardians on the wrong side of the law. Keep in mind that Rittenhouse was sent into action because he objected to the community protesting a white police officer who shot and wounded Jacob Blake, a Black man now paralyzed from the waist down.

Why should Asian Americans care? Because any pro-Rittenhouse verdict could very well embolden others to “take matters into their own hands” and vent their frustrations about pandemic life–on us.

The law needs to protect the innocent and come down hard on vigilantes like Rittenhouse.