Hundreds rally in San Francisco
Demonstration against anti-Asian attacks is one of many nationwide.
SAN FRANCISCO — Hundreds of Asian Americans and their supporters gathered Saturday in San Francisco’s Chinatown, part of a string of rallies across the country in response to last week’s shooting rampage in the Atlanta area, which claimed eight lives, including six women of Asian descent.
The San Francisco event was large, colorful, almost festive — but marked by testimonials of anguish and recollections of racist encounters. It came as the nation has seen a surge in hate crimes against Asian Americans since the pandemic began. The coronavirus was first identified in Wuhan, China.
Those gathered Saturday held signs with such messages as “We are NOT a Virus” and “Stop the Violence.”
Some sang songs to console each other, and others gathered on the square painted butterflies and assembled kites, symbols of peace. Speakers addressed the crowd in English and Cantonese, calling for unity and respect for the victims.
“How many more of our people’s blood, black eyes, swollen faces, broken bones, must happen before we will be visible?” said Ashlyn So, 13. “Before we will feel safe? Before we will be an equal?”
The teenager said later that she felt a “surge of energy” to speak out about antiAsian racism after speaking with the daughter of San Francisco resident Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-yearold Thai American who died after an assailant violently shoved him to the ground in January.
A similar demonstration was held Saturday night in Alhambra. Hundreds of people gathered at a “Stop Asian Hate” vigil at Almansor Park to honor the shooting victims.
“We will not be silent against the gun violence,” organizer Betty Hang wrote on Facebook. “We want to remember the importance of uniting — for love, understanding and compassion of our community.”
In Georgia, Robert Aaron Long, 21, who is white, is charged with murder in the killings of eight people on Tuesday at Gold Spa and Aromatherapy Spa in Atlanta and Young’s Asian Massage, 25 miles away. The vigils on Saturday included one in Atlanta outside the state Capitol. Among the speakers were the state’s recently elected Democratic senators, Jon Ossoff and Raphael Warnock.
Long told authorities he was not targeting Asians, but in San Francisco on Saturday, participants of Asian descent said they could not avoid seeing themselves in the victims.
Crystal Liang said she wondered whether she might be next.
“I don’t know what I would do if something like that happens to me, but that’s why I decided to come out here today as an Asian woman and voice my anger,” said Liang, an instructor at a San Francisco day-care center and a recent immigrant from Guangdong, China.
Before the pandemic, she had never attended protests or political events, but that’s changed in recent months. The need to be more vocal about racism against Asian Americans has been a long time coming, she said.
“I’m furious…. Even before COVID-19, when we went out on walks or when we were on the bus, people would scream at us to ‘go back to China,’ ” Liang said.
Since coronavirus shutdowns began last March, thousands of Asian Americans have faced racist verbal and physical attacks or have been shunned by others, according to a report released Tuesday.
Sasanna Yee connected such data to her family’s personal experience when she stepped onto a makeshift stage in San Francisco to recall her grandmother Yik Oi Huang. She said her grandmother died last year of complications from injuries sustained in a beating in January 2019.
“I come out and I show up time and again to be with our community because it’s healing, because I know I cannot carry this pain by myself,” said Yee, a yoga teacher and organizer of the Bay Area organization Asians Belong. “I am hurting. I’ve had nightmares: people breaking into my house and holding a gun against me.”