It happened again.
After it was initially documented. After it was initially reported on. The hatred sprang again unseen from the shadows: cowardly, demoralizing, devoid of any utility or reason…
On two separate occasions now, some sick soul has spray-painted the words “No Asians!” in bright red paint on Milpitas City Council candidate Bill Chuan’s campaign signs.
Mayoral candidate Hon Lien has been targeted, also. Last time, the vandal(s) sprayed “No No” over one of her signs. This time, they did the same thing, but also crossed out her name and added a third “No.” And they took the time to hit one of her smaller signs, as well.
It’s like deja vu. It all just happened a week ago. The police came then; they took the ruined banners down. The candidates put fresh ones up, only to see those then defaced (they found their new signs vandalized this afternoon).
You may vote for Chuan and Lien; you may not. You may like Chuan and Lien; you may not. This is all immaterial to the matter at hand. No community, let alone an Asian-majority one such as Milpitas, should remain passive in the face of such malicious intolerance.
After Donald Trump was shot this past summer, many voices rose up in protest of political violence. With these voices, I agreed entirely. But I took some slight issue with their language, for there cannot be, logically, such a thing as “political violence.”
Politics is by its very nature and design the antithesis of violence. Therefore, when one brings violence near the political sphere, one is violating the central principle of the sphere.
Yes: Politics is flawed. Politics is divisive. Politics arouses great, untidy emotions.
But: Politics exists so we don’t resort to violence. Politics is a flawed yet tireless pursuit of human reason. Politics entrusts in the human animal’s propensity for civil communication and negotiation. Politics, in other words, places all its chips on our species’ ability to solve important problems without resorting to behavior that is more befitting of animals. (Which is why political extremists can feel so alienating and difficult to the rest of us.)
That shrill red spray paint is not violence. But it is hatred. It is ugliness. It reduces two people of sincerity and character to a race, a type, a category — all while fervently disapproving of and disgracing that category.
Disappointingly, our elected leaders have not spoken out publicly to decry these crimes. It is, however, not too late for them to do so. On that note, may all of us in Milpitas let this pattern of hatred be a call to remember our city’s higher potential — to recall our collective capacity for intellect and reason. To unite, always, rather than stand apart. And to reach out to our neighbors of other races, other ethnicities, and other faiths and let them know that in them, we see our own humanity. We are not, after all, living here in tribes.
Milpitas is one tribe. To be a member, one must be a human. May this be our pact and indeed our strength.
And may any who violate the pact be met with exclusion, and be moved to relent, and reflect.