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Who’s the dosa man? Behind the scenes of the first vegan dosa cart
‘Minari’ and the roots of the Asian-American experience 9 OPINION
Protect New York’s street vendors
VOLUME LVI | ISSUE 7
MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
NYU politics professor denies anti-Asian sentiment then asks for retraction
SIRUI WU
AAPI members are protesting in New York City in response to an increase in acts of hate against Asian Americans. Recent comments by a professor at the NYU Wilf Family Department of Politics have been characterized as misleading and as seemingly in conflict with the administration’s stance on anti-Asian hate.
For the second time in a year, a professor at NYU’s Politics Department expressed unsubstantiated beliefs about race in America. Now he’s requesting a retraction. By SUHAIL GHARAIBEH Staff Writer NYU politics and economics professor David Denoon was quoted in the weekly business publication Nikkei Asia earlier this month. After saying that he does not believe “widespread anti-Asian sentiment” exists in the United States, he has since claimed he was misquoted and misrepresented. “I do not believe there is widespread anti-Asian
sentiment in the U.S.,” Denoon is quoted as saying. “The competence and industriousness of many ethnic Asians is frequently admired.” “Claims of widespread anti-[Asian] sentiment in the U.S. are either misinformed or attempts to create ethnic friction,” he continued. “Just because a small minority of Americans make claims about anti-Asian sentiment, and these are repeated by senior Chinese government leaders, does not make these claims balanced or accurate statements.” In his written statement sent to WSN, Denoon confirmed he told Nikkei Asia staff writer Marrian Zhou on March 29 he did not believe in the existence of widespread anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. He claimed that Asian Americans and Asian immigrants earn more money and score higher on standardized tests than average Americans as evidence for his belief. This is important, Denoon continued, because it means that Asians in the
United States have access to high status education and high-paying jobs. Yet, Denoon has since accused Zhou, who co-wrote the article, of misquoting and misrepresenting him. “Ms. Zhou of Nikkei Asia did more than misquote me; she completely fabricated a sentence which made me appear to be inattentive to the issues you raise,” Denoon wrote to WSN in an email. Christopher Grimes, the executive editor of Nikkei Asia, claimed the quotes are entirely accurate. “The quotes are verbatim,” Grimes told WSN. “We stand by these quotes, and feel strongly that we’ve accurately reflected the professor’s sentiment here.” Denoon did not point out any specific quotes as incorrectly printed, instead focusing on paraphrasing by the reporters amid extensive quotes. In a written statement sent to WSN, Denoon said
he had asked for a retraction, but Zhou refused. “Journalists have no right to substitute their own wording and leave readers with the impression they are providing direct quotes,” Denoon wrote in a second email to WSN. Nikkei Asia has not released a copy of the interview with Denoon, and would not share a copy with WSN citing source confidentiality, but said the quotes were sent by Denoon via email on March 29 — approximately two weeks after the Atlanta shooting that killed eight people, six of them Asian women. Denoon has also not released a copy of the email and would not share a copy with WSN either. The shooting rampage by a young white man in Atlanta last month targeted women from working-class Asian immigrant backgrounds who worked in the stigmatized Asian American massage industry. CONTINUED ON PAGE 2
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NYU politics professor denies anti-Asian sentiment then asks for retraction CONTINUED FROM PAGE 1
On April 15, another young white male gunman opened fire at a FedEx warehouse in Indianapolis, Indiana, killing eight people, four of them members of the local Sikh community. A statement signed by eight local gurdwaras, Sikh houses of worship, said that “the FedEx facility he targeted was well known for having a large Sikh workforce.” The attack is considered by some to be the latest in a long line of anti-Sikh hate crimes dating back to the immediate post-9/11 period. The nonprofit Stop AAPI Hate received almost 3,800 reports of verbal attacks, online harassment, civil rights violations and physical assaults against Asian Americans between March 2020 and February 2021. The cases span all 50 U.S. states and the District of Columbia. The nearly 200-year history of Asian people in America has been marked by marginalization, internment, nativist violence and state-sanctioned racial discrimination. The number of anti-Asian hate crimes across the country increased by nearly 150% during the COVID-19 pandemic, according to an analysis of police data conducted by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University at San Bernardino. Asian Americans experience income inequality more than any other racial group — despite having the highest median household income among racial groups in the United States. From 1970 to 1998, the overall national rise in income inequality was most drastic among Asian Americans, and the income of Asians in the bottom 10% increased the least of any racial group during that same period. Additionally, while Asian American students tend to outperform other groups when it comes to standardized testing, education experts point out that Asian American students — particularly Chinese and Korean Americans — are also more likely than others to participate in test prep, are singled out for advertising and recruitment by test prep companies, and tend to have access to higher-quality education than their Black and Hispanic counterparts. In addition to being at odds with
the data on racial discrimination and violence against Asian Americans, Denoon’s disbelief in anti-Asian sentiment clashes with the stated views of the NYU administration, which has condemned the national surge in anti-Asian hate on multiple occasions. “The current trend of anti-Asian racism has deeply rooted historic legacies that also must be addressed to realize equity in our institution and global communities,” Dr. Lisa Coleman, senior vice president of Global Inclusion & Strategic Innovation at NYU, wrote in a March email to WSN. NYU faculty experts on race and ethnicity squarely denounced Denoon’s words as printed in Nikkei. “It’s unsettling … that somebody who not only is a professor at NYU, but who runs the Center on U.S.-China Relations, seems so uninformed about the politics of anti-Asian violence,” said a professor and member of Faculty of Color for an Anti-Racist NYU who preferred not to be named. “This has been discussed at the highest levels of government. Joe Biden, the president of the United States, has spoken out against the rise in anti-Asian violence.” Following the Atlanta shootings, Biden responded to the rise in anti-Asian violence with multiple speeches and executive actions. Japanese American Senator Mazie Hirono, D-Hawaii, the first Asian American woman elected to the Senate, introduced a bill last month calling for the Department of Justice to expedite its review of “reports of COVID-19 hate crimes.” On April 23, the bill passed almost unanimously, with a single “no” vote from Missouri Sen. Josh Hawley. “The retrograde quote by Professor Denoon is obviously insulting to NYU’s Asian American community, and to the Asian American community at large,” said Paula Chakravartty, an affiliated faculty member at NYU’s Asian/Pacific/American Institute. Crystal Parikh, who directs the A/P/A Institute, also expressed disagreement with the quotes. “I think it’s unfortunate that he chose to comment at all on this topic of which he has no scholarly knowledge,” Parikh said. “I’m especially saddened to read this from a colleague at NYU when
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… I’m hearing from folks directly about how they are worried about riding the subway, or just being out during the day. It’s not just that it’s uninformed and misrepresenting the situation, but it also flies in the face of the experience of the very community at NYU of Asian/Pacific/Americans.” Last month, the A/P/A Institute released an open statement on anti-Asian violence, expressing horror at the Atlanta shooting and saying “Anti-Asian racism takes many forms, including interpersonal violence, government neglect, harassment, hate speech, insecure and underpaid labor, and mass deportations.” At press time, the A/P/A statement has been signed by 114 students and faculty. The A/P/A statement also called on NYU to join efforts calling on Biden to end the Department of Justice’s “China Initiative,” a prosecution effort aimed at what it deems “Chinese national security threats.” Denoon has served in the U.S. federal government three times — for the Department of Defense, the Export-Import Bank and the Agency for International Development. Denoon is currently the director of NYU’s Center on U.S.-China Relations. He has written books on geopolitics in China and is cited as an expert on American foreign policy in Asia. None of his published scholarship focuses on race in America or Asian American history. “People can say what they want — it’s not a free speech issue here,” Chakravartty said. “It’s about the fact that NYU is being represented by faculty who are making these … discredited, retrograde types of arguments.” Neither of Denoon’s beliefs on income and standardized exam trends apply to the entire Asian American population — a racially and ethnically diverse population, consisting of both long-established generational communities and newer immigrant communities. “Reading the statement that Professor Denoon makes leads to immediate recognition of a kind of textbook anti-Black racism, of wedging Asians as good test-takers, and the model minority, pitted against Black and Latinx communities,” Chakravartty said. Scholars of race say Asian Americans
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have long been defined by the model minority stereotype, which stereotypes Asians as uniquely hardworking, smart, assimilable and docile (particularly as a false contrast to Black Americans). However, Asian Americans have wide variation in socioeconomic status, affecting both income and education. Some Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have higher poverty rates, lower median household incomes and less access to good education than their white counterparts — in particular, Bangladeshi, Burmese, Hmong, Bhutanese, Samoan and Nepali Americans. AAPI women earn significantly less on average than their white male counterparts — especially Samoan, Burmese, Nepali, Hmong and Cambodian women, who all earn less than 61 cents to every dollar made by a white man in the United States. “The sort of model minority stereotype, the invocation of accomplishments on the part of Asian Americans … as if those somehow protect a large and heterogeneous population from various forms of racism and violence, as if test scores will protect you from that, seems absurd to me, and incredibly uninformed,” Parikh said. Denoon’s comments are the second time in less than a year that a professor at NYU’s politics department has publicly expressed misleading and unsubstantiated beliefs about race in the United States. In July 2020, Lawrence Mead published a racist screed in the journal Society titled “Poverty and Culture.” “The seriously poor [in America] are mostly blacks and Hispanics, and the main reason is cultural difference,” Mead wrote in the paper. “The great fact is that these groups did not come from Europe. Fifty years after civil rights, their main problem is no longer racial discrimination by other people but rather that they face an individualist culture that they are unprepared for. Their native stance toward life is much more passive than the American norm.” The paper was later retracted by the journal amid outrage at NYU and beyond, with hundreds of scholars joining various open letters slamming Mead’s article as “overtly racist,” “dehumanizing,” “outdated,” “odious,” “irresponsible” and “unscholarly.”
NYU published a news release from CAS faculty and Wagner leadership the same month defending Mead’s “rights to freedom of expression” while condemning “the article’s false, prejudicial, and stigmatizing assertions about the culture of communities of color in the United States.” “The fact that most students at NYU can recognize these long-discredited ideas that are still being advocated by members of NYU’s faculty speaks very urgently to the need for departments like Politics, and others at the university that have abysmal records when it comes to faculty of color from underrepresented groups, to hire faculty of color,” Chakravartty said. Last summer, an open letter drafted by Faculty of Color for an Anti-Racist NYU in response to Mead’s paper called on NYU to authorize a “cluster hire in Black politics in the Politics Department.” “Students entering the Wilf Family Department of Politics need access to a diverse faculty whose approach to the field of Black politics is characterized by depth and rigor,” the letter reads. “Our students also need and deserve spaces characterized by respect, a sense of trust and belonging so that they feel heard and respected, and can grow and thrive intellectually regardless of their background.” More than 200 scholars affiliated with NYU signed the letter. Politics professor Christine Harrington, who signed the letter, said she has long supported calls to diversify the politics department in terms of race, gender and research interests. “To be a good department, you [need] a lot of intellectual, cultural, gender, racial diversity that captures stuff going on in the discipline, in social sciences,” Harrington said. “Having faculty in a department like Politics who are making the kinds of arguments that Professor Mead or Professor Denoon are making, without a counterpoint, is really troubling,” Chakravartty said. “Troubling from a pedagogic perspective, troubling in terms of student mentorship.” Email Suhail Gharaibeh at news@nyunews.com.
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MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
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Students say punishments for violating COVID-19 guidelines are overly harsh By MEI LAMISON Staff Writer It was Dec. 23 and Liberal Studies first-year Aria Young had just finished her the last of her exams of the Fall 2020 semester. Unable to fly home to Shanghai due to the pandemic, Young planned to remain in the area for the holidays. She stayed with friends before returning to on-campus housing for the January term. But that morning, she received an email from the Office of Student Conduct informing her that she was suspended from university housing. She had two weeks to find other accommodations. “I was scared, panicked, really just in a state of disbelief,” Young said. “It was the day before Christmas Eve, so everything was shut down, and I couldn’t get in contact with anyone from NYU. As an international student from China with no relatives in the States, I had no one to rely on.” According to the Office of Student Conduct, Young violated three sections of the university’s student policy because she lent her student ID earlier that month to a friend who does not attend NYU. “I gave him my ID so that he could use the bathroom since all the public restrooms were closed due to COVID,” Young said. According to Young, her friend was in Lipton Hall for no more than five minutes. He followed New York state’s COVID-19 guidelines and tested negative prior to his arrival at NYU. Using Young’s ID, he entered Young’s residence hall. However, he was caught by a security guard when exiting the building. In addition to being suspended from university housing, Young was placed under disciplinary probation. “I realize my wrongdoing violated NYU’s community standards and deserved some kind of consequence,” Young said. “However, the punishment given to me by NYU was unnecessarily severe.” Young appealed the decision, but the office upheld the verdict. “If you are unable to locate alternative housing in the New York area, I encourage you to work with your academic adviser in Liberal Studies to identify courses that you can take remotely while studying from home this semester,” the Office of Student Conduct told Young in an email. “It is impossible to book a flight back to … China within two weeks’ notice,” Young wrote in an Instagram post. “I was told to simply go home, even though home to me was half a globe and a 10k plane ticket away.” She reached out to the office again to explain her situation and ask for an extension, but received no response. As a woman of East Asian descent, Young also worried about her safety in New York. Surges in anti-Asian sentiment and violence have accompanied the COVID-19 pandemic. In 2020, hate crimes against Asian Americans increased by 833% in New York City and by 150% nationwide. “I assumed that NYU, a school I have always looked up to and a school that prides itself on diversity and global inclusion, would show me enough sympathy to ensure my safety,” Young said. Frustrated, Young turned to the parent of a friend, Jamie Frederick, for advice. After hearing about
RYAN WALKER | WSN
Students claim they were unfairly treated after suspension from NYU housing. Those facing punitive actions are alleging a pattern of the university’s insensitivity and unnecessary severity.
the situation, Frederick reached out to NYU himself. “It’s supposedly one of the most prestigious universities in the country, in what is probably the most liberal city in the country, and here they are, treating a minority group a specific way,” Frederick said. “It’s very contradicting to the image that they try to portray … As an advocate, I reached out to the president of the university, the head of Student Affairs and a few others.” According to Frederick, he received a response from the Office of Student Conduct that “essentially said, ‘Sorry, there’s nothing we can do.’” He also received a phone call from the attorney’s office at NYU, asking if he was Young’s lawyer. “The irony is that [Young’s friend] was allowed inside of the residence hall again to help her move out,” Frederick said. Following Frederick’s interactions with the university, Young received a response from the Office of Residential Life and Housing Services, informing her she could remain in her dorm until the end of the month. The extension gave Young enough time to secure off-campus housing. “It’s upsetting,” Young said. “As soon as a white man calls, they are suddenly scared and interested in my situation.” According to NYU spokesperson John Beckman, NYU suspended a “significant number of students” from both the university and from housing since the start of the 20202021 academic year. “The “overwhelming majority” of students suspended brought in — or attempted to bring in — someone outside of NYU’s residential community into their resi-
dence hall, Beckman said. Stern School of Business first-year Kelley Zhang experienced similar treatment to Young. Zhang brought another NYU student into her dorm room and was consequently suspended from housing and put on university probation. According to Zhang, the school failed to provide her with timely information surrounding her suspension, which made the process even more stressful. “The security guard and RA were also super aggressive towards me and made me feel very uncomfortable and attacked,” Zhang wrote to WSN. “It’s frustrating because they seem to expect you to know the student conduct policy in and out.” Another first-year student, who asked to remain anonymous, faced a situation similar to that of Young and Zhang. The student, along with their two suitemates, was suspended from university housing and placed under academic probation for having three other NYU residential students inside of their suite. “The RAs … totally undermined the situation,” the student wrote to WSN. “They said that we might just get a couple of essays to write, nothing too big of a punishment.” According to the student, punishments varied between those involved in the incident. The three residing in the suite were suspended. The three visiting were only placed on university probation. “For some odd reason, they decided to split up the group of six people and have 3 people talk to one student conduct [officer] and the other three with a different student conduct [officer],” the student wrote. “I feel like because of that, our punishments were
not the same. Our [officer] seemed like … she already knew what she was going to do with us before she even heard our case.” The six students were caught in early November. The students’ suspensions lasted the remainder of the fall semester and continue through the Spring 2021 semester. “It’s also worth mentioning that 3 of us were black and the other 3 were Asian,” the student wrote, noting that the three Black students were suspended and the three Asian students were not. “I don’t think our punishment had a lot to do with race … but race shouldn’t go unnoticed in this case. NYU has not always been fair or equal with certain things when it pertains to race.” Young also believes the handling of her case was racially insensitive. A few weeks following her initial suspension, Young shared her experience on social media. “NYU’s decision to kick me out of housing directly pushed me towards housing instability and potential deportation,” Young wrote in an Instagram post. “NYU failed to recognize my individual circumstances that are different from a domestic white student’s … jeopardizing my safety in a global pandemic and national racial crisis against Asians.” As of press time, Young’s post has over 11,000 likes and more than 800 comments. “As an Asian American woman who is now living an hour away from campus without the protection of NYU security because of this decision, I am … fearful of my safety on my long commute to campus every day,” Young wrote. “I emailed president Andy Hamilton’s office about my ex-
perience and the improvements NYU needs to protect marginalized students like me, but have got no response.” Young also started a petition calling for NYU to issue a public statement acknowledging negligence in handling her case, reexamine the procedures for managing student conduct, and further enhance security measures to protect and support Asian students. The petition currently has over 300 signatures. Beckman responded to Young’s efforts in an email statement to WSN. “It is untrue to assert that NYU suspends students from housing capriciously or without cause, and it is fictitious to suggest that we take action abruptly or without regard to a student’s circumstances,” Beckman said. “Students have been commendable about observing the safety and health rule; however, since the start of the year, some students have not.” “In each case, when sanctions have been imposed, it is because of a clear violation of a clear rule,” he continued. Young, however, disagreed with Beckman’s claims. “I agree that students deserve sanctions when they violate university policy; however, the severity of NYU’s sanctions are countereducational and punitive,” Young said. “The negligence of the university is astounding. The Office of Student Conduct directly harmed me, and a number of other students, by threatening our safety and wellbeing in the middle pandemic. It is a shame that such a prestigious and progressive college refuses to recognize its harsh treatment of students.” Email Mei Lamison at news@nyunews.com.
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MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
CULTURE
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Edited by DANA SUN
Who’s the dosa man? Behind the scenes of the first vegan dosa cart
MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN
Thiru Kumar, also known as the Dosa Man, gets ready to plate a “Special Pondicherry” dosa for a customer.
MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN
Thiru Kumar, also known as the Dosa Man, has a popular food cart in Washington Square Park, where he serves fresh dosas and other vegan South Asian foods. One of his signature dishes is the “Special Pondicherry,” which features a dosa filled with spiced potatoes and a mixture of fresh vegetables.
By GABBY LOZANO Dining Editor “Have you ever heard of the Dosa Man?” my friend Daniel Cieneva texted me during our 11 a.m. Food Studies lecture last February. Dosa Man? I had hardly heard of dosa, a type of thin flatbread made from a lentil and rice batter from South India and Sri Lanka. How was I supposed to know about the Dosa Man? My laptop buzzed, another text. This time, it was a link to the Dosa Man’s Twitter page, filled with images of his fans and food, with the question, “Want to check him out after class?” Hungry to learn more about the Dosa Man, I agreed. Before I knew it, Daniel and I made our way over from Waverly Place to the Dosa Man’s cart in Washington Square Park South where we waited in line, a good sign for any restaurant and something I didn’t yet realize was standard for the Dosa Man. The smell of fresh vegetables and smoked potatoes lingered in the air. I stood on my tiptoes to get a better glimpse of the Dosa Man and his one-man operation, which amassed a line longer than NYU Palladium’s Sunday brunches (remember those?). As he cooked, he would answer the phone
in a friendly voice: “Hello, NY Dosa.” The Dosa Man stood gracefully pouring the dosa mixture onto the griddle, then cooking potatoes. He would then flip the dosas and top them with the potatoes, fresh vegetables and other aromatic ingredients I couldn’t identify. He finished by grabbing a tray and filling it with the freshly made dosa, along with a cup of lentil soup and coconut chutney. “Next,” he would say, and within a few seconds would begin his process all over again. Beyond the incredible aroma of his food was a sight even more remarkable. In between ladling the dosa mixture, answering the phone and taking orders, the Dosa Man was conversing with his customers, even going as far as taking selfies with them. I started to understand Daniel’s excitement over the Dosa Man, and I found myself completely mesmerized by this image of the Dosa Man and his cart. Soon, it was our turn. I took Daniel’s recommendation and ordered the number two, Pondicherry, a dosa filled with potatoes and fresh vegetables. After we got our food, we headed to the commuter lounge in Lipton Hall to eat our lunch there. After witnessing the Dosa Man’s oper-
Regular park goers and tourists stand in line waiting to try NY Dosas.
ations, I was eager to taste the dosa. I took one bite and was hooked. If you haven’t had a dosa, it’s time you try one. My advice is to eat slowly to maximize your experience — you’re never going to taste your first dosa again. Tangy, crispy, yet surprisingly chewy all in one. Flavors of the coconut chutney, potatoes and fresh vegetables danced on my tongue. It was a symphony of flavors that brought me (ode to) joy, as each bite presented a new layer of texture, flavor, spice and crunch. From that day on, Daniel and I had our ritual: Tuesdays afternoons were spent waiting in line for the legendary dosas. This tradition became quintessential to my NYU college experience, but was put on pause due to COVID-19. While I haven’t returned to the park, I continue to follow the Dosa Man or Thiru Kumar on Twitter to stay updated on his business, NY Dosas, which thankfully survived the pandemic. Kumar immigrated to the United States from Sri Lanka in 1995 and opened his pushcart in 2001. Since then, he rose to celebrity status through word of mouth, social media and features by an array of magazines. He’s popular with foodies
MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN
worldwide, as his pushcart is listed in guidebooks in 42 countries and hasv fan clubs in Japan. In 2007, Kumar won the Vendy Award for the best street food cart vendor in New York City. It’s been over a year now since I’ve tasted the famous dosas. Curious to see how the Dosa Man adapted during the pandemic, I talked with him over the phone. He told me more about his story and goal to serve the NYU community with affordable and healthy vegan food. Gabby: What inspired you to start a food cart and open it in Washington Square Park? Dosa Man: I wanted to start something different like nobody [has ever done]. That’s why I started the first vegan dosa cart in the NYU area because of all the international students. When I started this in 2001, there were a lot of health-conscious people and it was very difficult to find vegan food over there. A lot of my friends went to NYU and I used to hang out in Washington Square Park. My friends said ‘Hey Thiru, there is no place to get good vegan food around,” so I said, “Why don’t I start a vegan pushcart?” Gabby: How do you make the dosas? Dosa Man: We make the ingredients in a small restaurant like a commissary. We make those ingredients fresh over there but then make [the dosas] at the cart. My pushcart is a small processing cart, so I have the grill and the fire and everything right there. I make it in front of the people, freshly made. That’s why you see a huge line all the time. Gabby: I always see the line but it’s definitely worth the wait. What is your relationship with the NYU community? Dosa Man: NYU brings a lot of my business whenever they can. A lot of professors recommend the students to try [my cart] and they do stories on me and then other students try it out. NYU professors [and]
clubs have a catering order with me, so that pushes more for my business. I depend on NYU for a little bit of my business to run all the time. Gabby: How has the pandemic affected your business? Dosa Man: When the pandemic happened and NYU closed down their campus, I closed down too for three or four months. I reopened in July and NYU slowly opened too. I don’t have much business from NYU because … most of [the students] are at home doing online classes. I have a fan club from all around the world, so 45 countries. The pandemic has affected me a lot [because there] is no tourism and no students, so that brings down 50% of the business. Gabby: What is the most popular item on the menu? Dosa Man: The special pondicherry, it’s a dosa made on the crepe [batter] made out of rice and lentil with fresh veggies and a salad and potato, served with a lentil soup and coconut chutney. I highly recommend it for vegan people, so they get their protein and vitamins all in one lunch. Samosas are famous too because some people don’t have time to wait in line, so they grab a quick lunch and run. Gabby: What is your favorite part of the business? Dosa Man: I’m very proud and happy that I’m serving vegan food [and doing] something good for the world and good for the people. New York City is a busy city [and many people] don’t have time to make good food at home because they’re rushing on the subway to class. A lot of students at NYU love me because they get really healthy food for $9 and can go to class and study. Students even come and tell me, your food made me really healthy on campus. Email Gabby Lozano at glozano@nyunews.com.
MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN
NY Dosas’ menu features vegan South Asian foods that are both filling and nutritious.
MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
Washington Square News | Culture
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Asian students “terrified” by surge in New York City hate crimes By SABRINA CHOUDHARY Deputy Culture Editor Hate toward Asian, Asian-American and Pacif ic Islander people in the United States is by no means new, but it has surged since the start of the pandemic. Though its roots and expressions are complex, the spike in hate incidents and crimes against Asians over the past year prompted the creation of the Stop AAPI Hate coalition and corresponding activist movement. The Stop AAPI Hate organization reported roughly 3,800 hate incidents between March 2020 and February 2021, over 2,000 of which occurred in California and New York. The problem has become so great that the U.S. Senate passed a bill with a 94-1 vote on April 22 to streamline the review of pandemic-related hate crime reports. I spoke with 12 NYU students of Asian and Pacif ic Islander descent about their experiences with racism in New York City before and since the pandemic. Their stories are as diverse as their ethnicities, nationalities, appearances and identities. Asya Almukhamet is a Steinhardt junior from Kazakhstan and is Central Asian. Unfortunately, she has many anecdotes about the racism she has faced during the pandemic. “On the subway, people would be like, ‘Oh, Asians, don’t bring COVID to me,’ like, ‘Don’t bring COVID near me,’ or like, ‘Leave this country,’” she said. “A lot of people, they just watch it, you know. They just watch it. They don’t say anything, which, I don’t know, which hurts even more.” Almukhamet’s East Asian friends also faced harassment from strangers in the city. “When corona just started — it was like, March, okay, it had just started — and you know how they all started saying, ‘Oh, this is a Chinese virus?’ And a couple of my friends, they were walking with drinks, and this like man came to them, he took their drinks, he just started pouring it at them, and then he wanted to f ight them or something. I don’t know, it was a lot,” she recalled. “I was really shocked.” These incidents were enough to make Almukhamet rethink her post-graduation plan to live in New York. “I had my doubts. I was thinking about Canada,” she laughed. “I don’t know. This was my dream.” For Almukhamet, the prospect of harassment is even scarier because she’s an international student. She fears that if the situation escalates and she tries to defend herself, she could end up getting deported. “A lot of my [Asian] friends started talking about getting pepper sprays just to be, you know, protected,” she said. “And I was like, ‘Oh, I can’t.’ Like, imagine if I use it and then I get deported because they will probably side with an American, I am sure. They will not take me to the court, they will just like throw me from this country, probably.” Instead of carrying pepper spray, she now walks with an alarm to alert bystanders if she’s in trouble. Like Almukhamet, Tisch junior Grace Santos was also harassed by
SIRUI WU
Hate towards Asian, Asian-American, and Pacific Islander people increased during the COVID-19 pandemic. NYU students of Asian and Pacific Islander descent are sharing their experiences with racism in New York City during the pandemic.
a stranger for being Asian, but her experience stirred different feelings. Santos is a biracial American; her mom is Japanese and her dad is Brazillian. For her, the surge in anti-Asian hate prompted her to think differently about her identity. “In the very beginning of COVID when we were still in person, my mom was receiving comments in the subway and things. And she told me about it and I felt bad, but I didn’t connect that to me,” Santos explained. “And then when it did happen to me — that was well into COVID, the end of last year maybe — it happened, like someone yelled at me in the streets, and then I was like, ‘Oh sh-t, that’s affecting me,’ and that’s when I started getting scared, I think, but mildly scared. And then when the crime started happening recently? Now I’m terrif ied.” Santos told me that growing up, she was always discouraged from identifying as Asian, so becoming a target of anti-Asian hate this year was surprising. “I’m biracial, so like my whole life has been like, which one am I? I don’t know,” she said. She explained that as a child, her family in Japan and her Japanese community at home gave her special treatment because she was mixed. “When I would go to Japan, ev-
eryone would treat me like a foreigner, and my grandparents were always praising me that I wasn’t fully Japanese, and they introduced me as like, ‘Oh, this is my American granddaughter and she’s Brazilian,’” Santos explained. This made her reluctant to consider herself Asian until the pandemic. “Japanese people don’t see me as fully Japanese and don’t accept me exactly into their culture, so I’ve never seen myself as fully Asian until I guess this whole thing happened, and I do feel scared in the city, and I have been yelled at in the city.” After being harrassed, Santos feels like the Stop AAPI Hate movement represents her as well. “This movement happening, and me being a victim of [the harassment] and feeling unsafe has forced me to identify as Asian, and it felt like when I wasn’t ready to do so,” she said. Other Asian students shared that although they have not been harassed, hearing about the surge in hate crimes has made them cautious about going out in the city, especially at night. Stern junior Alisha Huang is a New Zealander of Chinese descent. She was in the city at the beginning of the pandemic before going home, and hearing about the rise in hate crimes put her on guard, espe-
cially at night. “I would always take the subway … at like 10 o’clock, 11 o’clock. That’s like a normal-ish hour to be out in New York, and you probably wouldn’t give it much thought,” she said. “But then, obviously, after all the hate crimes now, like recently one of the cases of the woman’s backpack being set on f ire, that was at Herald Square. That’s the station I go to and get off at on a daily basis, and so it’s kind of just … a wake-up call, and also kind of like a challenge. I mean, it’s made me almost consider myself very privileged that all those times I did take the subway that late that, you know, I was safe.” CAS junior Johnnie Yu, who is Chinese American, feels similarly uneasy. “I still don’t know how to properly grasp the level of threat because it’s like, you don’t really know until you experience something. So I guess it’s just like, I’m not sure how safe / dangerous America is or New York is.” Santos and Almukhamet also fear going out at night, something they never used to worry about. Santos is currently at home in New Jersey, but she often visits the city during the day. “With the hate crimes, I don’t want to be out when it’s dark, so I always plan everything to be while the sun is out. And so daylight savings
time was such a big deal, like I have one more hour that I feel safe to be outside,” she said. Almukhamet told me that her friends who aren’t directly impacted by the hate crimes don’t seem to understand how they affect her. “I tell them all, I don’t even go outside right now at night because I’m really scared. And they’re like, ‘Oh, why?’” she said. If there’s any positive side to this pattern, it’s that these students now feel able to share their experiences in a way they didn’t a year ago. CAS senior Elaine Yue, who is Chinese American, told me that they hadn’t heard widespread discussion of anti-Asian racism since “Crazy Rich Asians” came out in 2018. The Stop AAPI Hate movement is changing the conversation. “Even when the pandemic started, and East Asian mostly and especially Chinese people were facing a lot of hate and violence for being ‘virus spreaders’ and the ‘cause of COVID,’ there wasn’t much [media] coverage on that, it was completely overwhelmed by just the virus itself,” they said. “I feel like this is the f irst time I get to have a voice to speak out on this kind of thing.” Email Sabrina Choudhary at schoudhary@nyunews.com.
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MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
ARTS
ARTS@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by SASHA COHEN and NICOLAS PEDRERO-SETZER
‘Minari’ and the roots of the Asian-American experience By JP PAK Film Editor My life changed the day I, a scrawny, Asian-American 11-year-old, watched Korean American actor Steven Yeun fall in love with Lauren Cohan, a white woman, on AMC’s “The Walking Dead.” As they grew close and, in an upside-down world, found life in one another, I was overcome with a peculiar sense of hope. It was the first time I saw an Asian man kiss a girl on television — spare for my parents’ occasional pecks, it was the first time I had seen it anywhere. I was not transformed by the loveliness of their relationship, nor by its sexual implications (again, I was 11 at the time). In fact, I remember being confused by the scenes in which they took their shirts off and, to my puzzlement, rolled around on the floor. It was the seeming normalcy of their relationship — one between an Asian man and a white woman — that
struck me. In the show’s depiction of America, albeit a post-apocalyptic, zombie-infested America, Yeun seemed to belong. He was something of a leader within his community; he protected his loved ones; he fought to improve his country — his home. Yeun was not white. But he was American in every sense of the word. As the son of a Korean father and an Irish mother, both of whom were born outside of the United States, it is rare to truly see myself in a character I observe onscreen. I seek to explain how I see my identity: narrow, and a little ill-defined. From Asian Americans, and multiracial people at large, there is a big difference between watching somebody who looks like you and watching somebody who shares your experience. When A24 announced their production of Lee Isaac Chung’s “Minari” in early 2019, the sense of hope that I felt at 11 resurfaced. Of course, I was thrilled that Steven Yeun would,
once again, portray an Asian American man in front of a massive audience. But I was far more excited by what the story offered me: that rare chance to see my experience depicted on the big screen. “Minari’’ finds the Yi family arriving at a new place in life: specifically, a big green field in rural Arkansas. Parents Jacob (Steven Yeun) and Monica (Han Ye-ri) have left California in search of, you guessed it, a better life. Already uneasy about leaving their old life behind, Monica is shocked at the sight of their new mobile home — a good tradeoff, in Jacob’s eyes, for the plot of land on which it rests. To the chagrin of Monica, he’s determined to use what little money they have to grow Korean produce. Despite his American-dream ambitions, Jacob is an altruist at heart. His business plan seems both profitable and openhanded: every year, tens of thousands of Koreans arrive in America in search of better lives. He wants
to provide his fellow Koreans with something to remind them of home. From seeing Jacob’s master plan, I was reminded of my own grandfather — a Methodist minister who, hoping to touch the life of his family as well as his fellow immigrants, uprooted his family to start a Korean church. He planted it in Georgia, surely somewhere that Jacob’s fruits and vegetables would have been sold. The Yi children, David (Alan Kim) and Anne (Noel Cho), are less upset by the move than their parents’ constant quarreling over it. Their new home is more fascinating to them than anything — a house on wheels! But their adventure comes to an abrupt halt when, hoping to appease his wife, Jacob offers to move Monica’s mother into the house. Soonja, played by legendary, Korean actress Youn Yuh-jung, who won Best Supporting Actress at last night’s Oscars, is the character in “Minari” that I could relate to the most. I grew
COURTESY OF A24
“Minari” is an Oscar-nominated semi-autobiographical American drama film written and directed by Lee Isaac Chung. It follows a family of South Korean immigrants as they try to navigate their way in the 1980s rural United States.
up with parents that spoke perfect English, whose sensibilities were primarily more American than Korean. My grandmother has always been a vastly different source of Eastern discipline from my parents who, even as I exit adolescence, whips me into shape. One’s halmoni (Korean for grandmother), for many first generation Asian Americans like myself, is the great enforcer of Korean heritage that provides balance to our Western influences. Youn Yuh-jung tenderly and hilariously demonstrates the difference between a grandmother and a halmoni. David, longing for a grandmother like those he sees on TV, sees her more as a nuisance than the soft, caring, cookie-baking grandmother he expected. She curses, beats him at his own card games, watches TV too loud and talks to herself. The dramatic elements of “Minari” make it a powerful film. The tension between Jacob’s dreams and Monica’s pragmatic worries, between Soonja’s discreet wisdom and the childrens’ rejection of it — these elements of plot and story make for a gripping and engaging movie. But “Minari” finds its greatest strengths in its sincerity. It reads like an immigrant tale, but the Yi family never crosses any borders — their struggles are entirely American. The trials and tribulations of their journey are not unique to them. But the moments of authenticity that come as byproducts of this shared experience are. Like the film’s namesake of a Korean plant, the Yi family grows under great distress. The ways in which the convention of the American dream collides with the family’s Korean roots makes “Minari” truly special. And everybody — even those of us without Asian roots — seems to agree. The film is up for six Academy Awards this weekend, most notably making Steven Yeun the first Asian American to be nominated in the lead actor category. It’s evidence that we’ve come to acknowledge a dichotomy that, in my opinion, defines the cause for Asian American cinema: the line between our actual experience as people living in America, and our perceived experience as people who simply look Asian. I remember how this distinction became excruciatingly clear on the night of last year’s Academy Awards ceremony. As Bong Joon-Ho accepted award after award for his sensational film “Parasite,” I received texts from friends that read as oddly congratulatory. “Those are your people! You guys are doing it! This is gonna be huge!” Nothing has made me prouder of my Korean blood than “Parasite” and its incredible success. I was overjoyed that it won. But I didn’t feel like I qualified for my friends’ congratulations. Bong’s is a story of the Korean experience, set halfway around the globe from my home. I love the film with all my heart. But I was born in America — and, contrary to my friends’ innocent belief, only a fraction of who I am was represented that night. With Youn Yuh-jung winning Best Supporting Actress last night, I can take comfort in the fact that the Oscars will be moving in a different direction. Email JP Pak at jpak@nyunews.com.
MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
Washington Square News | Arts
7
‘Nomadland’s’ contemporary vision of the American dream By ALEXANDRA BENTZIEN Staff Writer “I’m not homeless, I’m just houseless. Not the same thing, right? Don’t worry about me; I’m okay,” Fern says to Makenzie in “Nomadland.” The distinction between what it means to be homeless and houseless is reiterated multiple times in Jessica Bruder’s “Nomadland,” a work of nonfiction literature that follows the lives of those traversing the United States in vans. They are mostly senior citizens in search of employment, seeking the fulfillment of dreams they were unable to realize in a middle age of nineto-five jobs and raising families. The self-made map of temporary dwellings and permanent wandering, wherein the road itself has become a home, defies the typical, reliable structure of a middle-class American dream. The geographer-scholar Doreen Massey described “place as a process,” a philosophy that perfectly frames the adaptation of Bruder’s book into recent writer-director Chloé Zhao’s latest film, featuring Frances McDormand, who took home an Academy Award for Best Actress, as the itinerant Fern. Fern is immediately compelling under Zhao’s direction, transcending the Tisch graduate’s celebrity to observe the breathtaking strength and solitude residing in the American West’s fabled landscapes. The idea that Fern could be anyone is matched by the possibility of place being anywhere, as Zhao’s arrestingly beautiful shots (brought to life by frequent collaborator and cinematographer Joshua James Richards) build on the freedom that is resonant in both of her previous feature films, “Songs My Brothers Taught Me” (2015) and “The Rider” (2017). The land is its own character, guiding Fern to face personal tragedy and immerse herself in the superficial impressions of non-places. Anonymity abounds in a one-car-population highway, in the valleys of a national
park where gray rock folds in on itself over and over with a meditative simplicity. The places Fern traverses — a gas station on a frigid winter evening, a lone patch of gravel dotted by cacti — may be sparsely inhabited, may be untouched, may be nameless, but these are the qualities which begin to shape Fern. Fern may be houseless, but she builds a new home with the friends she meets on the road. There’s spry and funny Linda May, stubborn and loyal Swankie, and young and goodhearted Derek, who seems to arrive just when Fern most needs a cigarette. Their times together are brief yet full through their shared learning and understanding of each other. All supporting characters are played by real-life nomads, most of whose stories are featured in Bruder’s book. All of them are nomads, but none of them are placeless. Places change as imprints of the past rewrite its history over and over again. These nomads, travelers and vandwellers leave behind traces of themselves in each place: a piece of their spirit which is awoken in the person who takes their place in a cyclical journey of discovery. Fern carries the dreams, stories and lessons of her wandering kin with her. They provide the compass Fern uses to orient her captivating restlessness on the still surface of the land in all its captivating restlessness. Home requires a journey of return, though the construction of home is a forward-looking process of imagination and transformation. The dividing line between future and past remains entirely flexible — one inhabits a space somewhere between what once was and what still might be.. Even when Fern leaves behind a patch of land in South Dakota or Nevada or Nebraska or Arizona, the feeling of home remains within the viewer. She can return to it again and again, and it is precisely this process of revisiting that proves she is far from done growing, even though her age would sug-
MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN
Nomadland is a drama film written, edited, produced, and directed by Chloé Zhao. This best picture winner film follows a woman who leaves her hometown, after her husband dies and she loses her job, to be “houseless” and travel around the United States.
gest otherwise. McDormand transcribes an unwavering honesty into every part of her face. The twitch of her smile betrays an inner aching. In the creases of the corners of her eyes resides a sense of bittersweet longing. Its acute intensity lies in her power to express an emotion that is too big for words yet still universally understood. The use of poetic cinema techniques grants the film an air of myth, colored by the vast stretches of a lavender-and rose-tinged dusk suspended above a desert that expands to the edge of the horizon. The sight and sounds of nature assume a pure magic that would seem too good to be true if it weren’t unraveled by the sharp, documentar-
ian cinematography that roots the story in pristine down-to-earth clarity. There’s nothing frivolous in the camerawork, no movement that is unfounded: each frame houses an essential feeling, of resilience, of patience, and most of all of hope. Zhao’s genius work on “Nomadland” garnered her an Academy Award for best director, making Zhao the first woman of color to receive a nomination for this award. Zhao’s film is a masterpiece of unrestrained freedom, one made of and by the roads sprawling across the impressive American landscape. The timeless beauty of the storied environment itself, though, contrasts with what an American dream reinvented for the contempo-
rary age could look like. With economic crises and crises of confidence affecting all generations, the search for serenity, purity and happiness increasingly comes into conflict with a culture of materialism, distrust and uncertainty. Built on unbridled hope and a sense of longing that rings crystal clear, “Nomadland” negotiates the complexities of sacrificing tradition for a nomadic lifestyle. Zhao’s latest film is a story that proves coming of age is not limited to our youth, that shows home as a concept liberated from physical limits while place itself is limitless. Email Alexandra Bentzien at arts@nyunews.com.
We are telling big stories — the Bling Ring, Venmo fraud, drug donkeys — ones that expanded past our print-standard 500 words, ones that paint pictures with words. This magazine aims to be a platform where undergraduate and graduate students alike can mutter on about their love of the blue-seated MTA trains or put into words the flavor of their love of grandma’s dumplings.
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Washington Square News
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MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
OPINION
OPINION@NYUNEWS.COM
Edited by EMILY DAI and KEVIN KURIAN
UNIVERSITY LIFE
CITY
Mandatory vaccine policy for Fall 2021 overlooks international students
Brooklyn’s fracked gas pipeline endangers vulnerable communities
By SRISHTI BUNGLE Staff Writer On April 19, senior NYU administrators sent out an email notifying the student body that NYU students returning to the city must be vaccinated for the fall semester. NYU leadership is also expecting that this requirement will “extend to students who are planning on studying away this fall.” With NYU Abu Dhabi and NYU Shanghai expected to follow suit, it is likely that most, if not all, students will have to be vaccinated to attend in-person classes, be eligible for on-campus housing, and participate in any campus-based activities. Fortunately, the university is accommodating those who are unable to get the vaccine due to religious and medical reasons. However, there are many unanswered questions about the new policy — most glaringly, how will this mandate accommodate students who are not from affluent Global North countries? In the email, the extent of NYU’s concern for international students is just that they are unsure of “which vaccinations received abroad will be recognized.” NYU fails to address those international students who do not have access to COVID-19 vaccines in their respective countries, and the university offers no solution. According to NYU’s Office of Global Services 2019-2020 report, roughly 24% of the university’s international students are from countries considered to be in the Global South — Latin America, the Middle East, Central and South Asia, and Africa. For context, that’s more than 5,000 NYU students. Including
other nations in Oceania, East Asia and Southeast Asia, there is a significant portion of NYU students who reside in nations with limited or no access to COVID-19 vaccines. Among the three most represented countries in the international student body is India — a country that is suffering through not only a nationwide vaccine shortage but a brutal second wave of COVID-19. Considering India alone, over 3,000 students might not have equitable access to vaccinations. NYU administrators announced through an email in February that the fall semester is expected to be in-person, which is another problem for international students. Since classes and other operations are expected to be largely in person, remote learning will become increasingly diff icult due to various global time zone differences, recording liabilities and unaccommodating professors. Ultimately, vaccine inequality also means that international students will not have equitable access to the education for which they are paying thousands of U.S. dollars. Thus, NYU must offer its international students the opportunity to get vaccinated through the university come fall semester. Similar to the protocol for the previous fall semester, they should allow international students to arrive two weeks early to campus to quarantine. During that time, international students should receive testing and have guaranteed access to vaccinations through university health centers at no additional cost. Not only will this course of action ensure that NYU’s international students have equal access to their education, it will also permit NYU to actively take a stance against global vaccine inequality. NYU repeatedly prides itself on its commitment to the university’s global community. This is one way that the university could prove that this commitment is more than words. Email Srishti Bungle at opinion@nyunews.com.
By ASHA RAMACHANDRAN Deputy Opinion Editor A 7-mile natural gas pipeline is under construction in northern Brooklyn. The multinational utility company National Grid wants to build the pipeline to pump natural gas from Pennsylvania to Brooklyn. Despite fierce local and grassroots opposition to the National Grid project, including pushback from notable figures like New York City Mayor Bill de Blasio, the project continues unabated. Opponents to this project maintain that the pipeline will negatively impact the surrounding community’s public health and quality of life. Since the pipeline will run through predominantly Black and brown neighborhoods such as Brownsville, Bedford-Stuyvesant and Bushwick, this is a clear example of environmental racism. In the case of an explosion, the pipeline is estimated to impact 153,000 New Yorkers who live in the 1,275 foot blast zone. Within this zone, 81 daycare facilities, 55 public schools, and three nursing homes will be affected. Low-income communities and communities of color are disproportionately affected. For example, in neighborhoods like Brownsville, which is both 70% Black and has the highest asthma rates in the city, residents are particularly vulnerable to the health and environmental risks associated with fracked gas pipelines. Gas leaks, ruptures and explosions endanger the well-being of Brooklyn residents, particularly those from marginalized communities suffering from health issues. The larger picture shows the severe consequences that fracked gas pipelines have for the environment. This includes the release of methane gas, which is a powerful greenhouse gas that contributes to climate destruction. Environmental racism is a chronic issue that threatens the safety of marginalized people across
the United States, particularly Black and Latine communities. This concept describes the many ways communities of color are disproportionately burdened by environmental hazards. According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s environmental justice mapping tool, areas like Greenpoint have some of the highest proximities to hazardous waste and environmental pollution in the country, as well as the highest rates of cancer risk due to toxic air quality and pollutants like diesel. Given these potent risks to the health and safety of local communities, a transition toward green energy sources is more urgent than gas storage. It would be a grand-scale project that requires retrofitting the city’s aging infrastructure and electrifying heat and energy sources. A switch away from natural gas would be a major breakthrough, if renewable energy sources took priority over the construction of pipelines. A just transition towards renewable energy and a more environmentally sustainable New York City must be holistic. This process must involve both greening the power grid and converting energy and heat sources. Despite challenges in updating urban infrastructure, this is necessary to ensure the well-being of New Yorkers. Even partial steps toward reducing the city’s reliance on fossil fuels — such as restricting fossil fuel usage to only the peak of the winter — would allow for 97% of heating to be powered by electricity. Initial steps towards building a green New York City must begin now, and replacing pipeline construction projects and other fossil-fuel-driven infrastructure is the first step. For local communities in Brooklyn, the construction of a fracked gas pipeline is an issue of health risks, injustice and environmental racism. Community members report feeling deceived as the National Grid failed to communicate with them about the construction taking place, let alone the risks that would accompany it. New York City communities deserve to be heard in their opposition to fracked gas and their advocacy for green energy. A just transition would eliminate the danger posed by fossil fuels and allow the city to build a brighter, greener future for all. Email Asha Ramachandran at aramachandran@nyunews.com.
MANASA GUDAVALLI | WSN
NYU Senior Leadership has announced mandatory vaccinations for all students returning in-person for the Fall 2021 semester. This is expected to most negatively impact international students, who may come from countries with low vaccine availability.
The National Grid is constructing a fracked gas-line that runs through many marginalized communities in Brooklyn. This unsustainable energy method presents a real danger to the communities in which this main runs through.
Washington Square News | Opinion
MONDAY, APRIL 26, 2021
9
STAFF EDITORIAL
Protect New York’s street vendors A recent tweet from mayoral candidate Andrew Yang recently made headlines, declaring “You know what I hear over and over again that NYC is not enforcing rules against unlicensed street vendors.” He implied that, if elected, his administration would crack down on the city’s thousands of street vendors. While he later apologized for the tweet, his comment is indicative of the negative perception that people have about street vendors, most of whom are immigrants. Many unlicensed street vendors rely heavily on a steady stream of business from New Yorkers because they are ineligible for loans from the federal government. New York’s street vendors deserve our respect, not scorn. New York State Senator Jessica Ramos proposed a bill that would remove arbitrary caps on the amount of food licenses that can be issued, solving the problem without cracking down on the city’s immigrant community. Bill S6817A would decriminalize and legalize every street vendor, which in turn would allow the Department of Health to inspect food vendors. During the next legislative session, the bill ought to be passed. The city government has only increased the cap for vendor licenses twice in recent history — this January, and in the early 1980s. It’s no wonder, then, that there is a thriving black market for food cart permits. The resale value for a two-year license that ordinarily costs $200 dollars can reach heights of $25,000. As long as the licenses are scarce, the black market will continue to cut into the profits of unlicensed street vendors. There are currently 2,500
vendors who are on a waiting list for full-time permits — is it any wonder that there are so many unlicensed vendors? This problem is wholly a creation of the City Council, and now a man who seeks to lead the city government wants to double down on the errors of the past. This system has to end. In his original tweet, Yang stated, “We should do more for the retailers who are paying rent and trying to survive.” Yang’s claim that there is somehow a tradeoff between supporting the unlicensed street vendor community and New York restaurants has no basis in reality. When street vendors were banned in the Lower East Side, stores claimed that the policy negatively impacted their business. Unfortunately, he is not alone in this incorrect line of thinking. A group of restaurant owners in Houston asked their city council to repeal or reform laws that make it difficult to establish street vendors, as they found that food trucks helped attract people to their neighborhood and significantly drove up business. Restaurant owners in Los Angeles experienced a similar situation, with food trucks in no way diminishing LA’s vibrant restaurant scene. Functionally, vendors and actual restaurants serve different purposes in the city. Students know that they can count on the Mr. Softee truck around Washington Square Park, or one of the many hot dog carts, for a quick bite to eat between classes. Nobody is going to spend their fifteen minutes between classes sitting down in a restaurant and ordering a meal. The same can be said for people eating between work shifts Street vendors support local businesses by
SUHAIL GHARAIBEH
Mayoral candidate Andrew Yang’s vow to crackdown on unlicensed food vendors in NYC was widely met with pushback across the board.
drawing customers to given neighborhoods, boosting foot traffic near brick-and-mortar stores. Let’s not forget that people have been detained for selling churros in our city. While Mayor de Blasio stripped the New York City Police Department of its vendor enforcement responsibilities in January, the newly empowered Department of Consumer and Worker Protections still has the power to shut down unlicensed street vendors. For many such vendors, food cart revenue is their only source of income. There are, understandably, concerns about the public health risks of unlicensed street vendor fare. If the city or state legislators eliminate the cap on licenses, then street vendors will be included in the city’s public health infrastructure. Beyond economics, overaggressive policing is rooted in misguided ideas on what strengthens order in a community. Suggesting that the city ought to crack down on the unlicensed food vendor population
is a classic example of broken-windows policing, harkening back to the days of Mayor Bloomberg. When it’s the government’s fault that not enough people can legally bring in their monthly income, it does not make any sense to penalize vendors for skirting the law. The unlicensed street vendor community is made up of entrepreneurs who want nothing more than to feed the city and, in doing so, their families. During a pandemic, when undocumented people have received little help from the federal government, we should not take away anyone’s main source of income. Politicians and residents of New York who claim to care about the city’s undocumented immigrant community ought to care about this issue. At a certain point, some of these unlicensed street vendors may have fed you. By supporting the passage of Bill S6817A and ending the criminalization of street vendors in the city, it shows that we respect the dignity and value of their work.
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We are telling big stories — the Bling Ring, Venmo fraud, drug donkeys — ones that expanded past our printstandard 500 words, ones that paint pictures with words. This magazine aims to be a platform where undergraduate and graduate students alike can mutter on about their love of the blue-seated MTA trains or put into words the flavor of their love of grandma’s dumplings.
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