Dressed in traditional Korean hanbok, Stella Kim stood among hundreds in San Francisco’s Chinatown to support the Asian American and Pacific Islander community. Kim sees the shooting of eight people in Atlanta, including six Asian women, as a backlash against progress and an assertion of white supremacy.
That can’t stand, she said, and people who want progress need to keep showing up.
“I wore a hanbok as a sign of resistance,” she said.
The Bay Area at large joined in that resistance. Hundreds gathered, marched, and even skated, Saturday, to mourn the lives of eight people killed in Atlanta, six of whom were Asian women.
Names of victims in the Atlanta spa shootings on March 16 are written on the Portsmouth Square Bridge on March 20, 2021, during a vigil and rally in support of the AAPI community. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
From a vigil in San Francisco’s Chinatown to a solidarity glide on roller skates in Oakland, with actions also planned soon in San Jose and elsewhere, people across the region are showing their support for the AAPI community.
There are hundreds of people here at Portsmouth Square in SFâs Chinatown. Theyâve gathered to mourn the lives of those lost in recent anti-Asian violence, the 8 people killed in Atlanta, 6 of whom were Asian women. @KQEDnews pic.twitter.com/0zl4Wqye1P
— Julie Chang (@BayAreaJulie) March 20, 2021
That community has grappled with rising racism and violence, including in the Bay Area.
Between March 19, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021, there were at least 3,795 incidents of anti-Asian hate across the nation, ranging from physical assault and verbal harassment to various civil rights violations, according to a report released Tuesday by Stop AAPI Hate. The project is based out of San Francisco State University that asks members of AAPI communities to self-report acts of hate and discrimination.
More than 700 of those incidents occurred in the Bay Area, according to a Stop AAPI Hate report released last month.
‘These Are Our Community Members’
In San Francisco, people hung love letters to friends, family, or the APPI community at large on a clothesline, which was strung across a bridge connecting Portsmouth Square to the Chinese Culture Center.
One sign simply read “grandma,” written in Korean.
Many AAPI people attacked in the Bay Area have been seniors, including a Thai man killed in North Beach, a neighborhood adjacent to the peaceful vigil.
âWhether itâs San Francisco or Oakland, I think a lot of people are facing similar things,” said Hyejin Shim, who works at Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence, Oakland.
A group of demonstrators hold signs that say, âStop Asian Hateâ during a vigil and rally in San Franciscoâs Chinatown on March 20, 2021. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
She says the public discussions of the womens’ sex work, or not, is a distraction â and dehumanizes people who lost their lives.
âThe reality is that sex workers have always been a part of the community,” Shim said. “And so I think the question of whether these massage parlor workers were or were not is irrelevant. But the fact is that massage parlor workers who are Asian are often hyper-sexualized without their consent or their workplaces become a site of sexual harassment from clients. And that is both about race and gender.â
Also at the San Francisco vigil, Esther Leong works at a nonprofit called Asian Pacific Islander Outreach. A San Franciscan with roots in Chinatown, Leong brought enlarged photos from books and family photos to the event to show the historic racism AAPI San Franciscans have faced, and to highlight AAPI’s contributions to the city.
She says sheâs upset law enforcement and police in Atlanta haven’t called the shootings a hate crime. Leong said she wants government to figure out a way to determine that an incident is a hate crime without having the assailant utter words of hate.
âWhen they smell like, walk like [a hate crime],â donât âturn around and call it something else,” Leong said.
The San Francisco vigil was organized by a wide breadth of AAPI groups, including the Chinese Progressive Association, the API Council, Filipina Women’s Network, Manilatown Heritage Foundation, Center for Asian American Media, Rose Pak Democratic Club, and at least a dozen other organizations.
âAll of us, including women and low-wage workers, deserve to be safe,” said Shaw San Liu, Executive Director of Chinese Progressive Association, in a statement. “Our members âmany of whom are women, mothers living in the [Single Room Occupancy hotels], and young women â are already risking their safety to go to work, providing childcare and caring for family members, navigating distance learning, and trying their best to preserve their mental health during these trying times.”
Roller skaters, skate boarders and bicyclists roll through Oakland on March 20, 2021, in solidarity with the AAPI community. (Beth LaBerge/KQED)
In Oakland, dozens came out in rollerskates to garner more attention for their support for the AAPI community.
One of those skaters, Ashley Silva, said she fears for her community.
âIâm also a Filipino and Hawaiian. Iâm hapa,” Silva said. “I have my grandmother who goes out and my grandpa used to walk every single day. This could be our family members. These are our community members. And we have to keep each other safe. Itâs really dangerous out there. And there are so many attacks. We really need to address the racism and take care of it.â
Also in Oakland, Lani Lee Marsden said the Atlanta shooting was a culmination of varying forms of hate.
âIâm here because Iâm half-Chinese and I am really devastated and upset and I feel helpless, hurt, and really mad about what happened in Atalanta as well as sexism, racism, and classism combined,” She said.
Taking Action Against Hate
Even before the deadly shootings at spas in the Atlanta area killed six women of Asian descent, President Biden had taken steps to address the recent surge of violence against Asians and Asian Americans by making forceful statements against hate and harassment, banning the federal government from employing the sort of “inflammatory and xenophobic” language used by his predecessor and tasking senior administration leaders to hold “listening sessions” with community leaders and advocates.
US president Joe Biden salutes Marines as he steps off Marine One after a series of meetings in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 19, 2021. – President Biden leaves Atlanta, Georgia, after touring the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, and meeting with Georgia Asian American leaders, following the Atlanta Spa shootings. (Eric Baradat/AFP via Getty Images)
Now, with a sharp focus on the disturbing trend, Asian American and Pacific Islander community leaders are calling for concrete, measurable responses from Biden and his Justice Department.
“Right now, people are afraid to leave their homes,” said Cynthia Choi, a co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate. “I think that basic denial of your sense of safety, it is a violation of our human rights. And I think that this does need to be taken seriously and urgently.”
This week, Biden and Vice President Harris, the first Asian American elected to that position, refocused a trip planned to tout the benefits of the coronavirus relief package to instead meet with Asian American lawmakers and other community leaders in Georgia.
“Too many Asian Americans have been walking up and down the streets and worrying, waking up each morning the past year feeling their safety and the safety of their loved ones are stake,” Biden said after the meeting. “They’ve been attacked, blamed, scapegoated and harassed.”
There are a wide variety of proposed solutions aimed at curbing violence, many of which are focused on the role that the Justice Department could play. Attorney General Merrick Garland and other Justice Department officials have been meeting with leaders of Asian and Pacific Islander groups, including several meetings this week, according to multiple sources familiar with the meetings.
Gregg Orton, the national director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, said that when Biden releases his budget, it should significantly increase funding for programs at the Department of Justice that are designed to engage communities.
“We can have as many listening sessions as we’d like, and I think it’s great that a department makes themselves available to that kind of engagement,” Orton said. “But truly, until we reach the people on the ground and support not just the community organizers, but the communities themselves, it’s difficult to see a lot of progress being made.”
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KQED’s Julie Chang, Lakshmi Sarah, Beth LaBerge and Joe Fitzgerald Rodriguez contributed to this report.
NPR reporter Juana Summers contributed to this report.
Copyright 2021 KQED