Justice For Brandon Elliot

This article from the South China Morning Post describes a violent incident that may be considered a hate crime and the response to it by some members of the Asian community in the US, specifically Filipinos. 

 There's a lot to digest in this entire episode. First of all, the accused in the case, burly 38 year-old Brandon Elliot, is on lifetime parole, whatever that is, convicted for the murder of his mother in 2002. He was incarcerated until 2019 and living in a nearby homeless shelter before his arrest. Elliot is also an African-American, a victim of systemic racism. 

The other victim, diminutive 65 year-old Filipina immigrant Vilma Kari, was walking to church when Elliot kicked her in the chest, knocking her down and then stamping on her head three times while berating her as an Asian that should  go back to wherever she came from. Elliot then sauntered across the street. Several observers, including one employed as a security guard in the building where the attack occurred, did nothing during the episode. These individuals appeared to African-American as well. The lady was reported to have suffered a fractured pelvis.

The focus of the SCMP article is not the incident itself but instead the response of Filipinos in the US to it and other attacks on Asians. 

   Leon Villavicencio, a Filipino-American researcher, says 

“I grew up in a place where the only other Filipinos I knew were my cousins, and other Asians were few,” he said. “You would always feel you’re the other. You’re different.”

He said he used to laugh along when he encountered racist jokes in high school in an attempt to fit in better. “I think it’s part of being Filipino to not take offensive jokes seriously, but looking back at them now you realise it’s wrong,” he said. 

Well, yes. While Filipinos are the fourth largest group of foreign-born immigrants in the US they still number only 2 million. They're bound to be "the other" in all but the tightest Filipino communities. A similar status would be held by Americans in the Philippines. Historically, Chinese have been the primary recipients of discrimination there. In fact, the Philippines has had a reputation as a dangerous, violent place since the Cebuanos killed Ferdinand Magellan in 1521 during his attempted circumnavigation of the globe. The US experience in attempting to colonize the islands after the Spanish-American war resulted in a 13 year battle with the Muslim chiefs in the surrounding islands, headed by Black Jack Pershing who would have remained there for years longer if he hadn't been moved to Europe to help settle some dynastic issues in 1917. The activity in the Philippines was the longest military engagement in US history until Americans occupied Afghanistan.

Statistics seem to indicate that racist attacks by black Americans on Asians are on the increase. Is the Brandon Elliot affair a disgusting example of this? Or is the sociopath just an example of what can happen when a mentally ill individual with violent tendencies is allowed to roam the streets? We'll probably never know. The event doesn't fit the narrative.