Nationwide rise in hate crimes targeting Asian communities

NBC's Vicky Nguyen talked to basketball player Jeremy Lin who shared his experience of being called "the coronavirus" during one of his games. And other Asian-American celebrities are speaking out about their own personal experiences. She joins 'The News with Shepard Smith' to discuss. For access to live and exclusive video from CNBC subscribe to CNBC PRO: https://cnb.cx/2NGeIvi

Covid-19 has taken a terrible toll on the restaurant industry, which has been financially devastated as the pandemic forced restrictions on indoor dining and pushed Americans to eat more at home.

As of January, more than 1,000 restaurants in New York City had closed since the start of pandemic lockdowns in March 2020, according to Eater.

But Asian restaurants are facing an additional obstacle: racism.

Since the pandemic began, there’s been a slew of racist incidents targeting the Asian American community, from some officials referring to the virus as “kung flu” to the recent uptick in unprovoked attacks in major cities like San Francisco and New York.

Last week, a 56-year old Malaysian immigrant was on his way home from work when an individual pushed him to the ground and repeatedly punched him in the face at a subway station in New York.

That’s translating into fear for Asian restaurant owners who are concerned about the safety and security of their establishments and their employees.

Living in fear

Sakura Yagi, chief operating officer of T.I.C. Restaurant Group, a collection of nine Japanese restaurants in New York City, is worried about her dad, who is the owner, her employees and even herself, amid growing anti-Asian sentiment.

“I was worried first and foremost about people older than me, including my father as well as my nanny,” Yagi told CNBC in an interview, adding that she encourages them to go home early and offers to call a cab for them instead of taking a subway.

“Especially with the rise in hate crimes against Asians, I will say that getting on the subway is more terrifying these days, in comparison to being worried about getting the coronavirus,” said Yagi, adding that she gave up her habit of listening to music on her commute in order to be more aware of her surroundings at night.

Yagi heard of an individual who threw firecrackers into the indoor dining area of a Japanese restaurant located on the same block as one of her own in the East Village.

“It’s really hard to say if it was racially motivated because it isn’t so blatantly obvious, but at the same time I do think that there is a prevalence of people thinking that it’s easy to take advantage of Asian businesses in general,” Yagi said.

It’s also difficult to define the toll of racism on Asian businesses because of the overall impact of the pandemic. T.I.C. had 14 restaurant locations in the city before Covid, but has been forced to shutter five of them since March.

Closing early

Jason Wang, CEO of popular New York chain Xi’an Famous Foods, told CNBC in an interview that he’s noticed anti-Asian attacks happening around the city since last summer.

Wang began closing his New York locations early, at 8:30 p.m., to ensure the safety of his employees as they commuted to and from work via public transportation.

He told The New York Times in February that two of his employees had been punched in the face on their commutes in the past few months.

“Because of those [incidents], we were proactive in closing down [early] but unfortunately these crimes are happening in broad daylight so it’s not something that could be necessarily prevented,” Wang said.

Before the pandemic, the New York restaurant chain boasted 14 locations. Now, due to the financial strain from Covid-19, it only has eight.

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