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Sunday, February 9, 2025
OpinionIt happened again: More anti-Asian hate in Milpitas

It happened again: More anti-Asian hate in Milpitas

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.

Chuan and Lien had put up new banners to replace the ones that were spray-painted with anti-Asian hate messaging last week. This week, their banners were vandalized yet again.

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.

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Eric Shapiro
Eric Shapiro
Eric Shapiro is a writer & filmmaker. As a screenwriter, he’s won a Fade In Award and written numerous feature films in development by companies including WWE, Mandalay Sports Media, Game1, and Select Films. He is also the resident script doctor for Rebel Six Films (producers of A&E’s “Hoarders”). As a journalist, Eric’s won a California Journalism Award and is co-owner and editor of The Milpitas Beat, a Silicon Valley newspaper with tens of thousands of monthly readers that has won the Golden Quill Award as well as the John Swett Award for Media Excellence. As a filmmaker, Eric’s directed award-winning feature films that have premiered at the Fantasia Film Festival, Fantastic Fest, and Shriekfest, and been endorsed by PETA (People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals). Eric’s apocalyptic novella “It’s Only Temporary” appears next to Mary Shelley’s “Frankenstein” on Nightmare Magazine’s list of the 100 Best Horror Novels of All Time. He lives in Northern California with his wife, Rhoda, and their two sons.

1 COMMENT

  1. I agree with the author that in our neighbors of other races, other ethnicities, and other faiths, we see our own humanity. As Kamala Harris pointed out in her Ellipse speech on Oct. 29 that DonOLD “fans the fuel of hate and division”. We’ve had nearly 10 years of his efforts to divide us, culminating in his fascist Madison Square Garden speech. Perhaps, after he is trounced in this election, and starts to pay for his many crimes (not just his recorded 34 felony convictions), only then will we see a return to more tolerance and compassion.
    .
    I do have one quibble with the author’s statement that “Donald Trump was shot this past summer”. There is no medical record that he was actually wounded, and we certainly can’t take his word for anything after over 30,000 lies as President.

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