Campaigned Against Hate Crimes in New York City

Hate crimes against immigrant populations in New York City became very serious immediately after the September 11 disaster. The crimes were especially directed against Asian Muslims immigrants such as Indians, Sikh, and African cab drivers. They were harassed in New York City. Some of them suffered temporary set backs in their small businesses as they were traumatized due to sporadic attacks on their lives and business enterprises. Some of their roadside vending businesses were closed down indefinitely for the safety of their lives and businesses. Some Asian women who dressed in traditional burkha (veil), were physically assaulted and they were advised to remain home until the situation subsided. Many Asian high school students were in a disturbing psychological state of mind for a period of one month or so. Some of the young students had to be escorted to their schools, and many preferred to remain absent in the first two weeks. There were cases of an increasing inability of the immigrants to pay their apartment rents because of loss of business and this caused a shocking uncertainty to many cab drivers’ families, particularly of Asian and African origin. The World Trader Center tragedy left more than 65,000 immigrant cab drivers and their families in an irreparable state of affairs who suffered income loss because of the slow-down of the economy and a drastic fall of tourists to the city. AWCD put many activities together to alleviate the problems of hate crimes in New York at this critical time. These include:

In September 2001, AWCD organized workshops to address the problem of hate crimes particularly in the Asian and African Muslim immigrant communities in New York City. AWCD organized many door-to-door counseling in Coney Island of Brooklyn Borough where there was a high concentration of Muslim community reaching Asian populations in Jackson Heights, Elmhurst, Flushing, and Steinway Street of Queens to campaign against hate crimes.
In October 2001, AWCD marched with hundreds of Muslim Americans and other religious groups in the Brooklyn community to show its sympathy to, and solidarity with, those whose lives were lost in the World Trade Center attack, and to call for peace between the immigrant populations and Americans.
In November 2002, AWCD carried out a campaign against hate crimes in Jackson Heights, the Bronx and Flushing communities where around eight hundred taxi drivers of African and Asian origins were residing. In addition to the campaign drive, AWCD trained about two hundred cab drivers on how and when to call 911 and report to the police any type of organized crime, or matter of law and order and the procedure to file complaints to the police.
To fight against discrimination, hate crimes, and bias against immigrant communities, AWCD organized one workshop on March 15, 2002 at Coney Island in Brooklyn, New York. Over fifty people, who were mostly Asian-American immigrants, attended it. Participants in the workshop were mostly Asian-American immigrants, community leaders, women, college students, and religious leaders. Participants were mostly Asian-Americans in Coney Island. About 60% were in the ages between 25 and 30. About 40% were 40 years and older, while about 70% were men and 30% women. The main objective of the workshop was to improve the intercultural communication issues among the people in the neighborhood. Most of the participants were community members from the Coney Island area and came from different countries of origin, primarily South Asia. They responded to our partner organization in this initiative, namely the Council of Pakistan Organization (COPO). The participants were mostly grassroots community leaders who actively took part in the campaign against hate crimes that we organized immediately after September11.

AWCD’s main office is currently located
in New York City at the following address:
Agency for Women and Child Development
274 Malcolm X Blvd @ 124th St
Second Floor, #3
New York, NY 10027
Phone: 212-722-7005
Fax: 212-722 7006 E-mail: admin@womenandchildren.net
Website: www.womenandchildren.net