RALLY SUPPORTS ASIAN-AMERICANS

‘The only way to fight hate is to respond with love’

Ceena Vang’s grandparents are afraid to leave the house.

As Asian-Americans, they fear for their lives, Vang told a crowd of about 100 people at a rally in Troy on Sunday.

Activists say that for more than a year, since the first coronavirus cases were reported, Asians have taken the blame. Theories have circulated that the virus was leaked from a laboratory in Wuhan, China. Physical attacks and acts of discrimination have been reported around the country, including several in metro Detroit.

Vang says her grandparents are COVID-19 survivors. She and others say Asians are not the enemy — the virus is.

Out of eight fatalities in a series of shootings last month at three Atlanta-area spas, six were women of Asian descent. Investigators say there is little evidence that the shooter acted out of hatred for Asians, but activists are skeptical.

The problem goes back before anyone ever heard of coronavirus, according to speakers at the rally Sunday, held at Troy City Hall.

“Growing up here, I always felt like an outsider, even in one of the most Asian cities in Michigan, said Vang, a 2012 graduate of Troy High and a co-founder ofthe civil rights group Whenever We’re Needed Detroit. The group, along with the Asian Pacific Islander American Vote-Michigan, organized Sunday’s rally.

State Rep. Padma Kuppa, a Democrat representing Troy and Clawson, said 29.9 percent of

A little more than a quarter are of Asian descent.

Kuppa, born in India, came to the United States as a young child and has lived in Troy for more than 20 years. She is aware of discrimination against Asians in Troy and elsewhere.

“After 9-11, people who look like us were being racially profiled,” she recalled. That gave her the incentive to get involved. She did so through her place of worship and by serving in government, first at the local level and later in Lansing.

She said Asians have allies across many minority groups, adding, “the only way to fight hate is to respond with love.”

ANNE RUNKLE — THE OAKLAND PRESS Troy City Councilwoman Rebecca Chamberlain-Creanga addresses the crowd at a rally Sunday in support of Asian-Americans, as her son, William, holds a sign. She said that as a white woman, she doesn’t personally know the bigotry that Asian-Americans are experiencing. “I’m here as a white ally,” she said.