Women Against Racist Violence

WHO KILLED CHRISTINA YUNA LEE?!

The recent killing of Christina Yuna Lee chilled our blood. She was a young woman who worked a middle-class job and belonged to the greater Chinatown and Lower East Side community like many of us do. If in the past, we could have still held onto the illusion that with a college education and a stable job we could be treated as human, rather than as immigrants –– Christina's brutal murder forces us to confront that none of us are truly safe. Our illusion crumbles as attacks targeting Asian women increase over the past two years. No job or degree can save us: as women of color, we feel we are forever disrespected, cheapened, objectified, harassed, r***d, exploited, abused, and silenced.

Lai Yee Chan, a Chinese-American home attendant worker whom we organize with, has said, “When even our bosses abuse and look down on us at the workplace, how can we expect that we’d be treated with respect by the rest of the society?” She, like the majority of Chinese-speaking immigrant women in New York City who struggle to find other jobs, was forced to work 24 hour shifts, multiple days a week, for 8 years in a row. For each 24-hour shift, her employer Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC) violated labor laws and paid her only 13 hours of wages.

As CPC’s illegal practice has gone rampant for decades, it sowed a racist and sexist seed across the nation. While the alleged murderer of Lee, Assamad Nash, might suffer from mental illness, what his targeting of Asian women reveals is a societal illness on a much larger scale. Everyone in America is bombarded with the same narrative that Asian women are submissive and hardworking. Our food is cheap, our labor is cheap, our lives are cheap. Entire industries rely on society's acceptance of our worthlessness so that they can continue to force Asian women into sweatshop conditions, steal our wages, and work us to death. This is the foundation of the lucrative home care industry, with its 24-hour shifts. And this is what makes us as Asian women prime targets for street violence.

In the aftermath of the murder, our elected officials are quick to condone these attacks and street violence. Assemblymember Yuh-Line Niou is an Asian woman herself who represents Christina Yuna Lee’s district, and she shed tears for the tragic death of her constituent on TV. She asked, “why don’t people see us as human?” But it is widely known in the Chinatown community that Niou is the very advocate for this violence to continue in real life. She plays a prominent role in supporting the very institutions and organizations that oppress and exploit Asian women. For years, she has been the most fervent defender of Lai Yee’s boss CPC’s inhumane 24-hour workday and abuse of Asian women. Despite hundreds of home attendants’ outcry for the state legislators to end CPC’s violence and to enforce labor laws, Yuh-Line ignores the workers and even spreads racist and sexist lies that Asian women will have to suffer this violence, unless their boss CPC receives more money from the state. How convenient it is for AM Niou to speak for our fellow Asian women who are dead––yet while we the living Asian women fight to end the everyday violence against us, she firmly stands with our bosses and our oppressors!

Stop holding our seniors and sisters hostage, AM Niou! Because of your maintenance of the 24-hour workday, the stereotype of Asians as hardworking and job-stealing is more reinforced than ever. Because of you, Black and white communities alike are pitted against Asians. And because of you, more Christina Yuna Lees would have to sacrifice their lives, and more state funding would go to your own nonprofit friends, the wolves in sheep’s clothing that functions to strengthen the violent system.

We are sickened by having two types of Asian women: one sheds crocodile tears, while the other sheds blood. This is why we call on our dear sisters and brothers of all communities: to actually stop the violence, we must attack its root and end the exploitation. The home attendant Lai Yee, for example, took matters into her own hands instead of continuing to live in fear. She has organized for the past seven years to lead hundreds of fellow home attendant women to fight against the inhumane 24-hour workday, demonstrating that women of color refuse to be bullied and abused. We, too, should join their effort, and convert our fear into power at this very moment by not allowing politicians like AM Niou and nonprofits like CPC to keep killing us behind their progressive facades. Join us in asking AM Niou, CPC, and all the elected officials in the most progressive city in the US: Stop the 24 hour workday, a violence against women of color! Stop killing us, NOW!

Share: https://genoverworked.substack.com/p/who-killed-christina-yuna-lee?s=r

Video: https://vimeo.com/688267911

XIAO HUAN YU⁠
Home Attendant, New York City⁠
24-hour Shifts, 3 Days a Week, 10 YEARS⁠
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"I have taken care of a patient for 10 years. The patient cannot take care of himself. Every day I have to move him several times to sit in the wheelchair. I have to use all my strength to move the patient, that's why my waist, hand and shoulders are often strained. ⁠
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My day off can only be used for physical therapy. For a long time, in order to make a living, I have dealt with fatigue, lack of sleep, psychasthenia, waist pain and leg pain. What's even more ridiculous is that there is no pay for hours we work at night! It's like being a slave. I filled in the work record from every night on the details of all the tasks I have to do whenever I woke up then I gave it to my employer, Chinese-American Planning Council (CPC). The next month, I was fired."⁠
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End the war on women of color in the US!⁠
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Sign the petition to the UN: https://nomore24.org

Ignacia Reyes
Home Attendant⁠
24-hour workdays, 4 days a week, for 20 YEARS.
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"All those years I could not sleep. Now, even though I stopped working in 2018, it's not easy for me to fall asleep. All those years of having to be vigilant and alert to my patient's needs have affected my sleep and my health. I have high blood pressure from all this stress. I have such pain in my two legs from having to stand so much and having to support my patients, helping them to the bathroom. For any of us, 24-hours is inhumane."⁠
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Let's end this war on women of color in the US.

Sign the petition to the United Nations! https://nomore24.org

Hui Ling Chen⁠
Home Attendant⁠
24-hour workdays, 4 days a week, for 16 YEARS.⁠
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"Long period of doing 4 days a week, 24-hour shifts to take care of the patient is really exhausting. I've been dealing with insomnia, waist strain and bone pain. In order to make a living, I've neglected my own family to do 24-hour home attendant work. The company has not only stolen our wages--in order to avoid paying us for work we have done during the night, the company told us not to give water to patients at night, not to get up to change their diapers, to ignore the patient when they call for help. We can't do something this inhumane. The patient needs 24-hour care, and our responsibility is to do the job well. That's why 24-hour workday system is inhumane for both the patients and the home attendants."⁠
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Let's end this war on women of color in the US. Sign the petition to the United Nations! https://nomore24.org

Spread the word about the war on women of color in the USA, and the petition to end it! ⁠
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DM us to get some stickers to put up in your neighborhood! 🙋🏽‍♀️⁠
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We have them in English, Chinese, and Spanish. ⁠
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Sign and spread the petition: https://nomore24.org

Imagine trying to have a family when you have to work 24 hours a day, days on end, in your patient's home, and can never get time to rest or be with your loved ones. ⁠
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Four years of 24-hour workdays cost Lesly Mejia her pregnancy and her partner. As she says, "Just as it happened to me, it happens to a lot of people." ⁠
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We must end this war on women of color, on families of color, in the USA. ⁠
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SIGN & SPREAD THE PETITION: https://nomore24.org

Over the past 7 years, workers have spoken out through every possible channel to end the racist violence they face, the 24-hour workday.⁠
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They have gone to court to sue their employers for breaking labor laws. They went to their union 1199SEIU, as well as the Department of Labor. They’ve protested in front of their employers and the courts, and testified in government hearings. However, all of these entities have ignored the women workers and used their power to continue the 24-hour workday.⁠
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SIGN THE PETITION TO END THIS RACIST, SEXIST VIOLENCE!⁠
https://nomore24.org⁠
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MEI K*M CHU's STORY
10 years of 24-hour workdays

I was instructed to turn [my bed-bound patient's] body every 90 minutes at night to prevent bed sores. One day, while supporting my patient's body getting out of the bath tub, I injured my wrist to make sure she wouldn't fall. I can't lift my arms even to this day.

A year later, I was assigned to a second patient. I was unable to sleep at night because the patient called for help every 1 to 2 hours. Due to sleep deprivation, I slipped in the shower and was injured again. But I had to continue to work because my patient's son lived far away and did not visit her often. Without me, she would live very painfully and with no dignity. But after awhile, my injury and pain accumulated and became unbearable. I had to retire.

Sign the petition to end this war on women of color in the USA!
https://nomore24.org

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