The Dangerous Cycle of Fear

Notes from America with Kai Wright

WNYC Studios

News Commentary, Politics, History, News

4.4 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 11 April 2022

⏱️ 51 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

Host Kai Wright attends a free self defense class hosted in partnership between The Alicia and Jason Lee Foundation and University Settlement, and meets the instructor. Read more about the effort’s mission here. Then, he speaks with Jo-Ann Yoo, Executive Director of the Asian American Federation, which works with nonprofits to support the pan-Asian community. What’s the economic and social cost of hate crime on Asian American communities? What are the uncomfortable – yet crucial – tensions between Black and Asian-American communities in the air right now? And then, Kai grabs dinner with Tammie Teclemariam, New York Magazine’s first-ever Diner-at-Large, at her favorite restaurant, Singiri. They try Sri Lankan food as we learn about Tammie’s weekly newsletter and column called, “The Year I Ate New York.” Subscribe here.

Companion listening for this episode:

People Feel Unsafe–and It’s More Than Crime (3/14/2022)

The social fabric is torn. People nationwide are scared, some going so far as to arm themselves. What can we learn from our history as we react to this fear?

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Transcript

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0:00.0	How long have you lived in New York?
0:02.0	Like four years I think?
0:04.0	I'm going on to two years now.
0:05.0	One year?
0:06.0	Three and a half years.
0:07.0	Have you felt unsafe at all in the city?
0:08.0	No.
0:09.0	I never think of that.
0:11.0	Someone was punched in front of the storm.
0:13.0	And why you're storm building?
0:14.0	Right.
0:15.0	By, yeah.
0:16.0	Like several people I think.
0:17.0	Five out of six of them are Asian.
0:20.0	So they think it was like kind of racial issues.
0:23.0	The subways recently have been a little, you know,
0:26.0	kind of out of whack recently.
0:28.0	I work like really long hours and I'll be going home very late.
0:31.0	I have to constantly be like switching trains or switching cars.
0:34.0	And I'm definitely more aware of like being my own race
0:37.0	and like knowing that that puts me at a higher risk than other people.
0:40.0	I had my friend buy me a pepper spray.
	...

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