Asian Community Stands By Asian American Activist Couple Days After Racist Attack

Members of the Southeast Asian Coalition gathered in front of Tin Nguyen and Cat Bao Le’s house on July 17 in North Carolina days after they encountered an aggressive man yelling racial slurs at them, according to Charlotte CL.

The man stepped foot on the couple’s yard on July 15 and began yelling at the residents because they had signs that read “F*ck Donald Trump,” “Black Lives Matter,” and “Refugees Welcome Here” posted on their front lawn.

The man, reportedly identified as Cullen Heald from Charlotte, North Carolina, demanded the removal of the signs and called the couple the N-word.

Both sides exchanged heated words before the racist man drove off.

Le, the executive director at Southeast Asian Coalition, expressed her views at a press conference on Tuesday in front of her home. She said that the man’s actions are part of an even bigger pattern of harassment directed towards minorities and immigrants during President Donald Trump’s term.

“The Trump administration has allowed white supremacists to feel emboldened and to escalate attacks against our communities,” she said. “And when I say our community, I mean a lot of the communities that are facing these attacks under this administration and continue to fear for their lives.”

Meanwhile, Nguyen, a lawyer, admitted that he did not call the police as he did not trust them to take action against the man.

“We know what happens to people like him,” Nguyen said. “In the past few months, just turn on your TV, turn on your Facebook, you will see some white person wanting to police somebody just for breathing … and so we know that that’s our justice. This video went viral within hours, it got picked up by all the different news networks, so that’s the kind of transformative justice that we believe in.”

This was not the first time Nguyen and Le have encountered such harassment over the signs, but they continue to leave them on their lawn as it does not violate any city ordinance.

“We have these signs here because we know that the president deserves this sign, he deserves this big middle finger,” Nguyen, a pro-immigrant activist whose mother grew up in a refugee camp in Malaysia, said.

“The signs that we have here is the vision of the community that we believe in. We believe that refugees are welcome here. We elevate black lives and queer and trans black lives. We believe in all the immigrants that are in this community, and we do not stand with Trump one bit,” added Nguyen, who is also an active member of the group Charlotte Uprising.

Featured Image via Twitter / Charlotte Uprising