17-Year-Old Filipina Beaten for being 'Chinese' on New York MTA Bus

by Mike Liu
4/11/07

A dozen black youth attacked a Filipino American teen who for looking "Chinese" while riding an MTA bus in Brooklyn on her way home from school, while the bus driver stood by.

Marie Stefanie Martinez, 17 said she was wearing her Catholic school uniform when she was attacked on the bus at 3:30 p.m. Friday. She said she was laughed at when she tried to defend herself, with the bullies mocking her accent.

"They were pulling my hair, pulling my hair, opening my book bag!" she said. "I said, 'Leave me alone. I'm not doing anything to you.' That's when they started to crowd around me. The boy punched me twice in my face and my mouth."

Suffering cuts and bruises, Martinez was finally rescued by a man in his 30s, who pulled her from the group. As she got off the bus, Martinez says the driver told her to "go talk to a priest."

On March 20 NYPD's hate crime task force arrested two teens - a 14-year-old girl and a 17-year-old boy. The boy allegedly hit Martinez in the face.

Martinez has filed a civil lawsuit against the MTA seeking monetary damages and changes to the current MTA policies. The MTA has not commented.

The United Chinese Association of Brooklyn are demanding that the New York Police Department look into the beating as a possible hate crime and are seeking accountability from the MTA. The United Chinese Association was formed when there was a wave of anti-Asian attacks in Brooklyn, particularly in the public schools.

Jun Zuniga, a Filipino American, has started an online petition that has received 2400 signatures condemning the recent assault on Martinez.

We must support efforts to defend Asian Americans against such attacks, even as we support unity of communities of color. We need to create more avenues for our communities to get to know each other and prevent such senseless assaults.