Smashing the 'bamboo ceiling': How Syracuse's Tai Shaw helps refugees find their 'middle dot' in America
- Abigail
- 3 days ago
- 4 min read
Inside CNY Uniforms Plus in Syracuse, a man in a pressed checkered button-down with slicked-back hair chats Vietnamese with his "neighbor” — a term he insists using rather than employee.
Tai Ngo Shaw spent his early life in refugee camps fleeing war-torn South Vietnam before coming to the United States. Now, the store has become his American dream.
“I watch around and see the struggle from everybody,” said Tai Ngo Shaw, owner of the store. “I'm not a [savior]. I’m just a guy that care. I believe one person make a difference. One person makes it possible.”
Shaw, 54, recalls difficulties as a 10-year-old cashew farmer in Vietnam. He slept on cardboard boxes on the beach and went days without food. He lost his aunt— his only relative with him at refugee camps — amid the chaos, and when he arrived in America, speaking no English, he couldn’t communicate with his adoptive family.
These memories push him to support other refugees today through a slew of advocacy organizations that provide food, build community and share their stories.
Racks of bright pink, purple and yellow uniforms stretch to reach overhanging paper lanterns in CNY Uniforms Plus. For Shaw, who employs locals and refugees, it’s less about the clothing on the racks and more about the culture his store and organizations foster.
April Perry, a three-year employee at CNY Uniforms, said before Shaw, she was couch surfing. He gave her a job, then a place to live in one of several properties he renovates and rents to people from marginalized groups around Syracuse.
“He did so much for me — still does. We've grown to be very close, like father and daughter,” Perry said. “He's a giver.”
Progress over profit
Nearly two decades after moving to Syracuse from Buffalo, he has not stopped fighting for the city’s diversity. One flight above his uniform store is Diversity 315, where he leads nine immigrant advocacy nonprofit organizations.
Photos line the walls with neighbors, colleagues and Gov. Kathy Hochul after she appointed Shaw as the first superintendent of the Asian Village at the New York State Fair. A banner reads: “Diversity is having a seat at the table. Inclusion is having a voice, but belonging is having that voice be heard.”
Along with his work with the New American Forum and Syracuse’s Vietnamese community, Shaw sits on the boards for Make Us Visible and Empire State Development. Diversity 315 fills regularly with refugees seeking solace and community leaders sharing meals, stories and solutions.
“I want people to know they have a voice," Shaw said. "Together we can break through the bamboo ceiling."
Feeding his 'family'
With federal aid cuts hitting programs New Americans rely on for food assistance along with the rising cost of housing, Shaw says people have to choose between rent and groceries. That makes Shaw’s efforts now indispensable.
“Most of our community don't have decent jobs. Factory workers, janitors, assembly line; majority are Amazon workers because of the language barrier. They don't have to speak. They're just throwing boxes, so I help my neighbor,” Shaw said.
Through another door in the same building on Syracuse’s Northside, there is a narrow food pantry chock-full of vegetarian, vegan and gluten-free foods. “Blessed,” Shaw murmured, nodding to refrigerators marked “halal” and “kosher.”
(Spectrum News 1/Abigail Luca)
“Hunger has no color. You have to eat who you are,” Shaw said.
Shaw said he is committed to preserving immigrant identities in a “white world”; giving refugees hope that they belong here. Borne from this idea is, CNY Blessing Box Food Pantry.
As chair of the New York Asian American and Pacific Islander Commission, Shaw represents 48 countries, all of which eat differently. Likewise, Hindus, Muslims and Buddhists have a unique diet. Shaw works to cater to these individuals, he said. Blessing Box stocks scattered micro-pantries with culturally specific foods, hosts bi-weekly distributions and annual events, feeding over 500 families in CNY Uniform’s parking lot. Shaw has recently brought Blessing Box to Brooklyn and has plans to expand to the Bronx, Queens and Manhattan.
Fellow advocate Jay Subedi has worked alongside Shaw for years, calling him his brother.
“He is the man with a big heart,” Subedi said. “He supports the community, me, my family and my business.”
Avoiding her eye contact, Shaw translated for volunteer Dung thị Trần, trying his best not to cry as tears dripped off her jaw.
“The first time I stand, I was in line to get the food,” Trần said. “That's why I come every day. If I skip one Sunday, somebody's hungry.”
Shaw and Trần have known each other for over 30 years. She embodies his mission, Shaw said, which is participation, not praise. While other pantries may rely on grants, Perry noted that Shaw personally funds appliances, a detail Shaw would have otherwise kept to himself. He, however, often reiterated his motto: "If you have to choose between being right and being kind, you pick kind and you're right every day.”
By the “grace of God”, Shaw said he hopes to create a foundation that opens safe spaces for refugees throughout the country.
“Possible. Three dots,” Shaw said. “We are born and we are going to die. So the dot [in the middle], we have to make a difference in that dot.”
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