Protesters decry anti-asian racism
At Albany rally, residents denounce hate crimes, honor Atlanta victims
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We have always been unheard. Our histories are overlooked and willfully forgotten.”
Van Tran Nguyen
Jinah Kim said her parents’ generation was taught to work hard, assimilate and keep their heads down.
That’s how they survived emigrating to the U.S. and navigating its strands of virulent racism.
“But we are so desperate to speak out,” said Kim, the owner of Sunhee’s Farm and Kitchen in Troy and a first-year law student.
Now one week after a gunman killed eight people in Atlanta, six of them women of Asian descent, people are speaking out — including a new generation of emerging activists.
Van Tran Nguyen spoke of growing up in a nail salon in an overwhelmingly white suburb in western New York, and said the slaying hits close to home.
“We have always been unheard,” Nguyen said. “Our histories are overlooked and willfully forgotten.”
More than 300 people attended the rally at Albany’s Academy Park on Monday, holding signs denouncing systemic racism and calling to “Stop Asian hate.”
The event was designed to offer the Capital Region’s Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI)
community a public way to denounce violence in the wake of the aftermath that killed eight people at three Atlantaarea salons, and follows a weekend of rallies being held in cities across the U.S.
Kim was among the half-dozen people of Asian descent who spoke in raw and personal terms, describing a nation that has shoehorned them into “model minority” status in an attempt to drive a wedge with other races.
Yet while anti-asian bias incidences have surged amid the pandemic, racism has long predated the wave of xenophobia, speakers said.
Nicolle Beaury of Brunswick spoke of a childhood peppered with insults about her appearance and racist stereotypes.
“I had a boss call me a Korean ‘war rag’ while men told me they had yellow fever,” Beaury said. “People have said far worse things, but they’re far too inappropriate to scream out in downtown Albany.”
Beaury implored the crowd to engage in solidarity and get involved.
Again and again, speakers shared raw anecdotes of what it’s like to be Asian in 21stcentury America, including state Sen. John Liu, a Queens Democrat.
Liu was among the dozen or so state lawmakers who attended the event, which he noted was unfolding in the shadow — literally — of the Capitol. The state Legislature, he said, must allocate more funding to combat hate crimes.
“An attack against Asians is an attack against everyone,” Liu said.
Speakers also criticized the federal government’s hesitancy to label the shooting a hate crime, and lashed the Atlanta law enforcement official who attempted to explain the shooting by saying the suspect as “having a bad day.”
Rep. Paul Tonko, D-amsterdam, flatly referred to the shooting as an “act of terrorism and white supremacy.”
Yet as dusk fell and the attendees lit white candles, some speakers scoffed at the lengthy lineup of largely white elected officials pledging to be allies without offering specific policy proposals.
“I want to hear what each and every one of you is going to do,” said Jeanette Lam, an Albany-based filmmaker.
H.P. Wang, chairman of the Albany chapter of Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs, said the group has typically focused its efforts on civic education to educate first-generation immigrants.
Of the 15,000 qualified Asian voters in the Capital District, just 4,000 are registered to vote, he said
“The Asian community doesn’t speak up,” Wang said. “They’re shy. We want people to speak up. We need to energize people, the next generation.”
Nguyen said she stands with Black activists and shares many of their demands, including defunding the police.
She also called for better language services to aid people who don’t speak English, and more restrictive gun laws.
The event drew attendees from across the Capital Region and beyond.
Jin Chen, 36, came with two others from Saugerties.
Chen was among those who said he lived in a state of heightened fear and anxiety since the onset of the pandemic, when many elected officials used racist language to characterize the virus, which originated in China.
“Violence against Asians or anyone in this country cannot be tolerated,” Chen said, who clasped a sign with the names of the eight victims.
Emerald Zhang, 29, said that she was heartbroken when thinking of the ramifications on both young people and the elderly, two of the most revered groups in traditional Chinese culture.
“And I hate they’re going to face all this racism,” Zhang said.