Hundreds rally in S.F. against anti-Asian American violence.
Friday’s march in San Francisco kicks off a weekend of rallies planned throughout the Bay Area
Spurred to action by recent violent attacks in Atlanta and the Bay Area, hundreds of protesters gathered in San Francisco on Friday to rally against anti-Asian American hate.
The crowd marched from Union Square to the Embarcadero, shouting “Rise up, people, rise up!” and “The people united will never be defeated!” while waving signs that demanded “Stop Asian Hate.” The event kicked off a weekend of rallies planned throughout the Bay Area in response to what many say has become a troubling surge in violence against local Asian Americans.
Anna Verzosa, one of the organizers of the youth-led San Francisco rally, said it’s important to educate people about the history of racism and discrimination in the U.S.
“It can’t just be a trend; it has to be a long-lasting story of: How did we get to this place?” said Verzosa, the community and political affairs chair of San Jose State’s Akbayan Pilipinx-American Organization. “It’s disappointing it had to get to mass shootings and violence to get attention.”
The march is part of a growing cry to stamp out violence against Asian Americans following a shooting last week that left eight people—six of them Asian American women — dead at spas in and around Atlanta. Violence victimizing Asian Americans appears to have increased during the pandemic, including in the Bay Area, where recent violent attacks and robberies have shaken local Chinatowns.
COVID-19 first was reported in Wuhan, China, and many say racist messaging from former President Donald Trump about the pandemic contributed to the surge in violence.
Flanked by San Francisco Supervisors Matt Haney and Shamann Walton, former Supervisor Sandra Lee Fewer — a fourth-generation Chinese American — praised the youth leaders who had organized Friday’s rally. As a child, Lee Fewer said, she watched a White woman push her mother down on a Muni bus, leaving her with a “slow, seething anger.” She also recounted being yelled at to leave the country when she was in a grocery store parking lot.
“These incidents are not new,” she said. “These incidents have always happened.”
But Lee Fewer said she had a message for the people who attacked her and her mom: “I say to them, we are going to stay,” she told a cheering crowd.
People up and down the Bay Area have been protesting anti Asian American hatred for weeks. Several hundred people gathered in San Mateo’s Central Park last month. People rallied in front of San Jose City Hall in mid-March, and again last Sunday — when more than 1,000 people converged to draw attention to the cause.
California Congresswoman Judy Chu dubbed Friday a national day to speak out against anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander hate. South San Francisco Councilwoman Buenaflor Nicolas, who is Filipino Ameri-