Christina Yuna Lee-AAPI Hate Crimes
- Wolfpak Press
- Mar 11, 2022
- 4 min read
Updated: Mar 14, 2022
By: Phoebe Hong
*Trigger warning: violence, assault, murder*
On Sunday, February 13th, Christina Yuna Lee, a 35 year old Korean-American in New York City, was stalked and followed into her Chinatown apartment where she was stabbed 40 times to her death. Surveillance video systems in Lee's apartment show Lee being trailed to her building by a man later identified by police as Assamad Nash.
Neighbors were startled by the terrifying screams emerging from Lee's apartment room at 4:30AM, in which they proceeded to notify the police. By the time police arrived at the scene, Nash had barricaded the doors and was attempting an escape through the back door before he was arrested and taken into custody. Christina Yuna Lee was found dead in her bathtub.
What makes this story even more heartbreaking is the fact that just hours before her death, Lee had decided to take an Uber home despite living next to a public subway station--- a proactive effort to put her safety first. It is heartbreaking to see that Lee's smart, proactive choices were made in vain, and her efforts-- the efforts of many minority women-- were not enough. Christina Yuna Lee did everything right, yet that still wasn't enough to ensure her safety in her own home.
While Christina Yuna Lee's tragic murder reignites conversations around the heartwrenching realities endured by many minorities in the United States, we can honor and respect Christina Yuna Lee as the person she was, as well as the influential life she lived, leading up to her tragic death. Christina Yuna Lee graduated from Rutgers University and was working as a senior creative producer at Splice, an online platform for digital music. All of her
acquaintances-- friends, coworkers, family-- recount Lee as "bright, creative, and an overall amazing, authentic person" (NBC New York). Dani DiCiaccio, Lee's manager at Splice, remembered her as the coworker who would compliment the shade of your lipstick, or sit with a new random group at lunch everyday (CNN). She touched many people with her bright smile, now relived only through photographs.
What takes this tragic act of hate even further is that the vigil set up outside Lee's Chinatown apartment was vandalized and destroyed. A vigil is a special time and space for families and communities to gather together to honor and respect the death of a loved-one. A sacred, honorable place meant for healing was desecrated with acts of hate. “This morning, the candles that we have all lit as a community for her during the vigil and we all left out here were smashed. The ‘Stop Asian Hate’ sign was torn. One sign was ripped up,” Brian Chin, the landlord of the Chrystie Street building where Lee was found dead, reported. "They try to desecrate her as much as they could and we as a community are beyond fed up, we are beyond angry and we are tired of being attacked. We are tired of seeing this hatred and we are not going to stand for it anymore” (New York Post).
We as a community have failed to honor and respect the late Christina Yuna Lee and her family, and all those who were impacted by her murder. The destruction of the "Stop Asian Hate" signs specifically, confronts the sad indubitable reality that Lee's Asian-American identity had a reason to do with the acts of vandalism.
The level of disrespect and indecency to vandalize a vigil of a murdered woman calls for a serious confrontation of the hatred towards minorities even in light of death and oppression. “You don’t desecrate a memorial like this … on top of this horrific event, that’s the last thing we need,” said Wellington Chen, the director of Chinatown Business Improvement District.
“It means a lot to us Asian people and it should mean a lot to all New Yorkers, too.” (Chen)
Though the police have refused to identify the killing Christina Yuna Lee as a hate crime, the truth of the matter is that attacks against Asian-Americans have been on the rise since the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. Since the outbreak of Covid-19, many Asian-American families have subconsciously begun to refrain from daily activities as simple as going to the local park, grocery shopping, or taking daily strolls around the neighborhood, due to an underlying fear and constant anxiety about possible hate crimes or threatening encounters.
Recent NYPD data shows a 361% rise in anti-Asian hate crimes from 2020 to 2021 and San Francisco's chief of police is reporting a 567% spike during the same time period (CNN). In April, 61-year-old Chinese Immigrant, Yao Pan Ma, was brutally attacked in a racially motivated hate crime in East Harlem- - months later, he passed away from his injuries. Just this January, Michelle Alyssa Go, a 40-year-old Asian American woman, was pushed to her death while waiting for a southbound R train at Times Square (New York Times).
“This has happened so many times, and we have attended too many vigils,” Assemblywoman Yuh-Line Niou says in regard to the recent rise in hate crimes against the AAPI community.
As a society, we have begun to normalize and desensitize to the acts of violence and hate we see in the media every day.
We must stop becoming numb to the pain and crises of our community.
We must stop accepting the fate of minorities at the hands of offenders.
We must tell more Asian American stories, raise awareness and tackle the dangerous stereotypes that label Asian Americans as "easy targets" or submissive.
We must all stand together to support our AAPI friends and neighbors, and the security and prosperity of ALL marginalized communities.
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