A Thai American family in Prospect, Kentucky is scared, angry and frustrated after seeing their home vandalized with anti-Asian slurs over the weekend.
In yellow spray paint, words such as “Chi Com,” “Go home” and “c***kkk” shocked the family of five, who have decided to stick together at all times.
A neighbor discovered the graffiti in the family’s front door around 11 a.m. on Saturday.
“We live in a really nice neighborhood in the east part of Louisville. This doesn’t happen here, or at least I didn’t think it did,” Todd Blankenship, who is white, told WLKY.
Todd, a former marine, is married to Sasiwan “Sassy” Onphukhao, who is Thai. She is in the process of becoming a legal citizen and already has her green card. The couple has three biracial children.
“I feel sad because I don’t understand,” Sassy told WHAS11. “I’m Thai, I’m an Asian woman. I did not hurt anyone. I did not do anything bad.”
Subscribe to
NextShark's Newsletter
A daily dose of Asian America's essential stories, in under 5 minutes.
Get our collection of Asian America's most essential stories to your inbox daily for free.
Unsure? Check out our Newsletter Archive.
Sassy has lived in the U.S. for the past four years. She’s aware of the rise in anti-Asian sentiment but has not experienced discrimination until Saturday’s incident.
“I didn’t think what happened to me would happen. I watch that in the news, online, Facebook. I never thought it would happen to me. It made me stunned and sad,” Sassy tells WHAS11.
The family has since set up security cameras, locked their doors, closed their blinds and put all their beds in their living room.
The incident also left Todd and Sassy worried about their children’s well-being, especially their 4-year-old daughter who started drawing the graffiti on paper.
However, the couple was moved when they saw the message their daughter had left on their porch.
“She said, ‘Bad guys, go away,'” Todd tells WAVE3. “She stuck it on the table on our porch. This morning when nothing happened, I said ‘Are you okay? Do you feel safe?’ And she said, ‘Yeah, the bad guys didn’t come back because they saw my note on the porch.’ She believes the power of her heart stopped the bad people from coming to our house. That’s amazing to me.”
Todd was also moved by friends, neighbors, and fellow marines who made sure they were okay following the incident.
The family filed a report with the Louisville Metro Police Department. Todd was frustrated when authorities did not come in person to check graffiti, saying it goes against their policy.
Anyone with information is urged to contact the department’s anonymous tip line at (502) 574-LMPD.
Feature Image Screenshots via WHAS11
