![]() “The networking that had begun with these local and smaller groups … you just need to insert a new issue and there’s a lot of folks ready to go,” Ursula said. They may take a different side on issues than progressive Asian American groups do, but the fact that they are now increasingly engaged in NYC politics is a net positive, Ursula said. These groups have lent their muscle to other causes important to Chinese immigrants, such as academic testing requirements at specialized high schools and confronting pandemic-related violence toward Asian Americans. ![]() Specifically, the Peter Liang case sparked the formation of multiple immigrant-centric civil rights organizations. It’s not always for the right reasons,” she said, but it fuels change anyway. “Every once in a while something happens that captures people’s attention. But Ursula zooms out from the case’s result and focuses on the movements that sprang up around it. It seemed that justice for one community could only be obtained by denying it to the other. What frustrated me about the Peter Liang case is that it seemed to be a zero-sum game. In another scene that takes place outside the courthouse moments after a judge decided Liang would serve no jail time, a group of cheering Chinese American protesters are confronted by a Chinese man who castigates them in Mandarin, telling them that there is nothing to cheer about when a man is dead. In one scene, a group of Black Lives Matter activists passionately debate whether it is acceptable for a protest chant to use the term “model minority” in a pejorative way. But the documentary’s quieter moments shine the most. Liang and her collaborators also capture the moments of ugly, racist confrontation that I remember. Ursula and her assistants track three different groups of activists as they mobilize the Black, Chinese immigrant and Asian American communities, patiently unearthing parallels, commonalities and nuance. One, a feature documentary by filmmaker Ursula Liang called “ Down a Dark Stairwell,” offers an intimate and uniquely multilingual portrait of Black, Asian American and Chinese immigrant protest actions after the shooting. Years later, two new films have taken on that task. But it was too early at the time to tell what the lasting impact would be. I knew that incidents like these could leave an indelible imprint on community relations, much as the murder of Latasha Harlins polarized Black and Korean communities in L.A. In the end Liang was indicted and convicted, but did not serve jail time, an outcome which left neither group particularly satisfied. ![]() ![]() ![]() The bullet ricocheted off a wall and killed a 29-year-old Black man named Akai Gurley. Liang, a rookie officer at the time, and his partner were patrolling a darkened stairwell at a public housing project known as the Pink Houses when Liang heard a noise and fired his gun. But both groups ended up directing that justified anger at each other, showing up at each other’s protests and staging shouting matches. Both the Black and Chinese communities were angry at the New York City Police Department for different, but valid, reasons. I traveled to New York City to cover the aftermath for the Los Angeles Times, and it still stands as one of the most challenging reporting experiences I’ve ever had. It’s been nearly six years since thousands of Chinese immigrants marched across the Brooklyn Bridge in the largest Asian American protest I’ve ever seen in the United States, sparked by the conviction of former NYPD Officer Peter Liang for the shooting death of Akai Gurley. ![]()
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