Oakland's Black, Asian seniors working to redefine public safety
Add Axios as your preferred source to
see more of our stories on Google.
Chinatown community members join drummers from the Bantaba Ensemble during a performance at Wilma Chan Park in Oakland Chinatown. The photo is part of a new exhibition at the Oakland Asian Cultural Center. Photo: Joyce Xi
Across the water in Oakland, Black and Asian American communities are reimagining public safety, one senior at a time.
State of play: At the height of the pandemic, Asian seniors were seeing reports of local attacks on their own every day. Their fear led to calls for increased law enforcement that put them at odds with Black community leaders who'd worked to deprioritize policing during the Black Lives Matter movement.
- Narratives that painted Black people as the main perpetrators of anti-Asian violence furthered the divide.
Catch up quick: Asian Health Services (AHS) and Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN) decided to launch a community education series last year for Chinese seniors after recognizing the need for them to have a voice in policy decisions amid ongoing public discourse around community safety.
- The goal was to unpack the root causes of crime and make space for dialogue about alternatives for public safety because "the current narrative was not working," APEN Oakland organizing director Kenneth Tang told Axios.
Driving the news: Their experiences are documented in the short film "Love Has Two Meanings," and a new photo exhibition in the Oakland Asian Cultural Center that's on display now through April 22.
Context: Despite perceptions of conflict, AHS and Baywell Health, a west Oakland clinic started by four Black women during the civil rights movement, had identified shared sentiment among Asian and Black Oaklanders in a previous survey: violence was a very serious problem.
- "It was different than what you were hearing as a popular narrative," Robert Phillips, CEO and president of Baywell Health, told Axios. "They weren't saying that somebody was doing something to me. They were saying violence is a problem."
- At the same time, "the fight over scarcity of resources, by neighborhood, by race, by ethnicity ... pitted [communities] against each other," noted AHS director of special initiatives Ben Wang.
Friction point: 74% of respondents felt that public officials had taken more action to tackle anti-Asian hate crimes while giving less attention to violence against Black Oaklanders.
How it worked: 12 Chinese elders participated in the workshops across roughly three months in 2024.
- They learned about Asian American history in San Francisco's Chinatown, toured Oakland's Black Panther Party Museum, spent time at Baywell Health and met with incarcerated men at San Quentin state prison, among other activities.
Zoom in: Meeting young people at San Quentin was a particularly moving experience for the seniors, 70-year-old participant Lily Zhu told Axios in Mandarin last week.
- Some had suffered domestic violence as children, while others faced discrimination and turned to gang activity in an effort to find support, she said.
- The experience helped her understand the need to tackle public safety in an integrated manner instead of simply relying on law enforcement.
- Social services, community groups and government must be "interdependent to have a sense of security in the community," she added.
The intrigue: At the beginning of the series, when asked about community safety solutions, many participants had emphasized law enforcement, Wang said.
- But by the end, the conversation had changed. "Nobody actually mentioned more law enforcement, but everyone talked about more mental health resources, re-entry resources, better schools and education for young people," Wang noted.
What's next: AHS and APEN are looking to replicate the series annually and hope to screen "Love Has Two Meanings" in more cities, according to Wang.