Update: Community Leader Running for City Council
Susan Lee has been a longtime advocate for the downtown community. She has committed herself to issues large and small that have affected her neighbors. So it’s no surprise that she is running to represent District 1 in the City Council race on June 27.
We wrote about Susan in December of last year where her testimony was met with a racist attack. And we wanted to re-share share the details because it shows Susan’s grace in the face of such an attack.
City Council Testimony
In December 2022, New York City Council held a hearing on a bill which ends criminal background checks on renters. Opponents, like our friend, community-leader Susan Lee, believe that a lack of transparency actually hurts victims and the vulnerable; and that facts and fairness are compatible. But unfortunately that message, communicated respectfully, was met with a racist response.
After Susan and Asian Wave president Yiatin Chu together testified, a leader of a pro-legislation group, Vocal NY (which receives city funding) spoke in a shockingly racist manner against the Asian community. And even more unbelievable — not a single City Council member spoke up against the rhetoric. Below is a repost of Susan’s letter in response.
Dear Council Member Williams,
I am writing to express my outrage at what occurred in the Council Chambers during the public hearing on Intro 632 before the Committee on Civil and Human Rights. I provided testimony at approximately 2:10 pm where I presented data from a study published in 2018 in the Journal of Labor Economics. It illustrated the unintended consequences of "Ban the Box" policies on the hiring prospects of black and Hispanic men and how I am afraid this would also happen under Intro 632. I implored the Council to draft a comprehensive bill so the needs of all parties could be addressed. At no point in my testimony did I use inflammatory or derogatory language.
However, at approximately 2:25 pm, Vocal NY Homelessness Union Leader D. Powell said the following: " … you see them Asian people that were just talking? so that garbage, they was talking up here, well that's all it was just garbage. Because that's not their neighborhood cause they from China, Hong Kong. We from New York." This was not a testimony but a racist rant directed at me and my fellow Asian New Yorker, Yiatin Chu, who was also on my panel.
During his time, you allowed him to spew hate and racism towards Yiatin and I without a word of disapproval. At the end of his hate speech, you thanked him for his testimony. This divisive, demoralizing, and disgraceful language filled with hate may trigger physical and verbal attacks on Asian New Yorkers, especially those residing in Rego Park, as Mr. Powell singled it out as "the racistest (sp) neighborhood".
This racist rhetoric cannot and should not be tolerated. Your silence at the hearing was alarming. Towards the end of the hearing, you made your displeasure known regarding: "inflammatory language used by people that opposed the bill" and you also took to Twitter to condemned "individuals testifying using inflammatory & derogatory terms to describe justice involved people.”
Ironically, you failed to condemn and even tolerated the hate speech Mr. Powell directed at two female Asian New Yorkers. If this kind of language goes unchecked at a government hearing, how can we expect Asian New Yorkers to feel safe in public?
Sincerely,
Susan Lee
CC:
Speaker Adrienne Adams