Remember all the outrage over anti-Asian violence? It feels like little changed for victims

Justice is an illusion for the vast majority of victims of racial and ethnic hatred.

Take a recent case in Sacramento. There was no legal action, no charges filed — nothing — after a hate crime investigation into a man who left a mutilated cat in the parking lot of Mad Butcher Meat Company one year ago, shaking the family-owned business and its staff to their core.

Owner Kelly Shum described the outcome as “one of the most disappointing experiences of my entire life.” She did everything authorities say you’re supposed to do when you’re targeted by a racist. She called the police, worked with the the county District Attorney’s Office and sounded the alarm, fed up with the relentless bigotry her business has endured over the years. Shum made national news appearances, spoke at press conferences and met with politicians.

Yet the bar for prosecuting ethnic hatred is so high that even a modicum of accountability was denied. Since the pandemic started, anti-China rhetoric has made Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders targets of xenophobia. It required violence — sometimes fatal — for the media, corporate America and the public to pay attention.

“We’ve just become another news cycle to help newspapers and shows and networks sell narratives to get people to watch,” Shum said. “All our stories go on news cycles to feel like they’re more aware, but what real change have politicians or the people with money and power (made) — what has it done?”

Honestly, nothing. Last week, a 42-year-old Yonkers, N.Y., man was charged with attempted murder and assault, both as hate crimes, after striking a 67-year-old woman over 125 times as she entered her apartment building.

All she was doing was existing. It’s a miracle she survived.

The latest report by the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate documented roughly 11,000 hate incidents nationwide since stay-at-home pandemic orders were issued two years ago. The majority of victims were women, and it’s likely an undercount given the reluctance of many in the communities to report crimes.

Last week marked a year since a man murdered eight women — six of them Asian American — at massage parlors across the metro Atlanta area. It was the peak of national awareness of the problem and inspired public condemnations and decrees that disavowed such hatred. The Sacramento City Council passed a resolution that bolstered reporting and improved hate crime data collection, and state leaders authorized $156 million to help combat violence against California’s AAPI communities.

But with awareness and greater documentation of violence eventually comes apathy and ambivalence. Despite all the political statements and impassioned pleas from victims, there was little meaningful change in how the justice system holds perpetrators accountable. Nor does it seem to have changed the hearts and minds of bigots and xenophobes who hate people because of their ethnicity. The elderly woman savagely beaten in New York learned that in the most horrific way imaginable.

I don’t blame Shum for feeling jaded. She stood up for herself, for her employees and for everyone else in Sacramento who was sick of being targeted. In the end, there was no justice — just the emotional toll of trying to get it.

Asian Americans are still looking over their shoulders. They still have private security in ethnic enclaves and organize self-defense classes to better prepare themselves if and when that fateful day arrives.

All I’ve learned from the so-called racial awakenings over the past few years is that the public only has so much guilt and attention to offer. Some performative policies are passed, and people express sympathy and show solidarity. Without sweeping changes in how our laws are applied, there is no real accountability.

Hate endures because, as a society, we can’t even agree that it exists at a level that justifies change. Awareness means nothing unless it’s followed with action.