A 76-year-old Asian woman fights off an attacker with a stick, sending him to the hospital

Originally published at: A 76-year-old Asian woman fights off an attacker with a stick, sending him to the hospital | Boing Boing

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Thank you @Carla_Sinclair for not playing up the badass-Asian trope here.

It’s great that she was able to fight back, and in effect punch a Nazi. The badass-Asian tropes that I’m seeing in response to this incident distraction from the very real problem currently at hand, Tromp-inspired white-supremacist violence.

She’s apparently speaking Cantonese on the scene while crying, and also telling a cop, “He hit me! He hit me, damn it! He slammed me with one blow here," while pointing to her eye. Her tone is more scared and bewildered that something like this could possibly have happened to her, and not like, triumphant. Overlaying a hero narrative here does not seem helpful.

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Yeah all that!

I’m really grateful that she’s okay. And I’m glad that the racist asshole got what was coming to him. I’m really sorry that she and other Asian Americans have to put up with this shit and that it’s been generally sort of ignored by the national media (though NPR has had a few stories on it on various programs recently) until the shootings this week.

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Maybe he was just having a very bad day. :roll_eyes:

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Don’t mess with grandma!

dontmess

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I’m glad that stick was there.

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i know i’m in trouble for asking that this be asked but…

On Wednesday, while a 76-year-old Asian woman was waiting to cross the street in San Francisco, she was punched in the face by a 39-year-old man.

What the hell did this moron say when asked: Why the flying f did you do such a horrible thing!!? Just replying whatever q-anon asininity like “China virus” doesn’t even come within a drooling insane light-year to punching a stranger on the street, let alone an obviously older person minding their own business! [string of obscenties trails off] (“Calm down and don’t try to understand them. It’ll only afford them existence. Better to just lock them up for a very long time.”)

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she spotted a two-foot stick nearby.

I bet she can kill a bear with half a chop stick, before breakfast. Good on you Mam, I wish I was there to witness the beat down, for scientific purposes only mind you…

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The article says he attacked an elderly Asian gentleman a half hour before he attacked this poor woman. Human garbage!

“The 39-year-old man suspected of attacking Xie has not been named, but he is under investigation for the alleged attack, as well as a previous one on an 83-year-old man that occurred in San Francisco’s UN Plaza about half an hour before the attack on Xiao Zhen Xie, SFPD’s statement said. Police said they are trying to determine the role bias played in the attacks.

Police say the alleged attacker was chased by a security guard and assaulted Xiao Zhen Xie while he was fleeing.”

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Unless I missed it, nowhere does it specify whether or not the 83 year old man was Asian. I wouldn’t be at all surprised if that’s the case, but for now it’s just an assumption. It mentions “bias”, but given the ages involved, it could be age bias rather than race bias- or maybe both? “Human garbage” seems to apply in either case.

EDIT: Nope, he was also Asian according to this article: Update: Elderly Asian Woman Who Clobbered Her Attacker Talks About Terrifying Assault In San Francisco – CBS San Francisco

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I am enraged. And my heart hurts for that poor woman.

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What is fucking wrong with people?

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For fu@ks sake. What a white violent asshole, noticed he got the ride to the hospital, but she was left it looks to fend for herself.

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Yeah, I mean randomly punching people in the face shows bias against society, decency, kindness and humanity.

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You’re right, the linked article doesn’t state that the first victim was Asian, but another report from KTVU confirms it. I should have mentioned that.

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Yeah, I’m not sure if it’s the media I consume but all the attacks like this I’ve read about have been in the Bay Area. I’m not sure if it’s just extra bad here or if people in the Bay are the only ones covering it.

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Side Note: After the 89’ quake the entire Italian North Beach Restaurant industry / area was devastated, and non functioning. The locals that helped us put the pieces back together were all Asians from the adjacent China Town, they went door to door asking if we needed assistance. This started a long and friendly food share with other industry folks for years. We were never turned away, for anything, wood, nails, ice for the bar, extra help clearing ruble, all done for the sake of community. I and the owner were sleeping in a booth every night, afraid the place would be looted, but come morning the sounds of the world being put back together, as a community, it will never leave me.

Papasan

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Weirdly, an update to the article says that he went to the hospital not because he got clobbered, but because of a “prior unrelated condition”. What?

I was just trying to avoid assumptions without evidence, but sadly, racism is a safe assumption to make in almost any white-on-POC attack in the USA these days, and sure enough…

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Yes, that’s called White Privilege, guy is a world class scumbag, no excuses for that, twice in one friggen day.

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I’m just baffled by this. Was he already on his way to the hospital, punching every elderly Asian person he saw on his route? Did the ambulance come to treat him, discover he was only slightly hurt, but then he was like, “by the way, I should really get my sciatica checked out, can you give me a lift?” It doesn’t make any fucking sense at all. Why is he anywhere but jail?

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