San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
Marchers protest violence against Asian Americans
More than 1,500 people marched through San Francisco on Saturday in one of the larger local demonstrations demanding an end to the surge in antiAsian violence across the nation.
“Stand up! Speak up! Stop Asian hate!” protesters chanted at full volume as they made their way from Civic Center to Union Square.
“We need active people 1,000% with us, to make the world happy and peaceful,” organizer Jeff Lee of the Wah Ying club told the crowd that filled the western half on Union Square. “Asians feel they are not being treated equally.”
The massive gathering was part of a national day of protest decrying the surge in violence and hate crimes against Asian and Pacific Islander communities. A review of media reports shows that at least 39 people of Asian descent have been robbed, beaten or killed in the Bay Area this year. Mayor London Breed drew cheers when she urged San Francisco to “stop the violence and stop the attacks.”
“Let’s have peace and unity in San Francisco,” the mayor said, staring out at the growing crowd from the stage in the north side of the square.
Breed has announced increased police and antiviolence community patrols in primarily Asian neighborhoods. On Thursday, she appeared with Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf and San Jose Mayor Sam Liccardo in a videorecorded public service announcement condemning violence and discrimination against Asian and Pacific Islander communities.
Former San Francisco Superior Court Judge Julie Tang told attendees that they were there “to say no more Asian bashing and hate crimes,” while San Francisco police Chief Bill Scott drew loud applause when he told the crowd, “Hate is the virus, and love is the vaccination.”
The rally came just one day after another incident of antiAsian violence drew widespread notice with the court appearance of 53yearold Victor Brown, who faces felony hate crime and assault charges for allegedly beating a 56yearold Asian man on Ocean Avenue in San Francisco on March 13.
For the hourlong march through downtown, there were families, kids on shoulders, dogs, drums, bicycles and no end of honking from cars stalled by the procession. Yan Huang of San Francisco came with his two children, 11yearold Emma and 9yearold Aiden.
“I guess I just want to support all these people,” Emma said. “This is important.”
Her father blamed former President Donald Trump for fomenting much of the problem by characterizing the COVID virus as Asian.
“And his followers are still here and haven’t changed,” he said.
According to a new UCSF study that tracked the former president’s impact on social media discourse, the number of coronavirusrelat
“Hate is the virus, and love is the vaccination.”
S.F. Police Chief Bill Scott
ed tweets with antiAsian hashtags exploded after Trump used the term “Chinese virus” in a March 16, 2020, post on Twitter.
The study, which appeared in the American Journal of Public Health on March 18, “lends support to warnings by public health experts that naming a disease after a place or a group of people is stigmatizing,” UCSF said in a release.
“These results may be a proxy of growth in anti-Asian sentiment that was not as prevalent as before,” Yulin Hswen, an assistant professor of epidemiology and biostatistics at UCSF, said in the release. “Using racial terms associated with a disease can result in the perpetuation of further stigmatization of racial groups.” While Trump has been widely condemned for increasing hostility against Asian communities, the roots of this bigotry predate him by more than a century.
Following the mass shooting that killed eight people, six of Asian descent, at massage spas near Atlanta on March 16, organizations like the Coalition for Humane Immigrant Rights called attention to early antiimmigrant laws like the Page Act of 1875, which specifically excluded Chinese women from this country.
“These racist and misogynist acts of violence are sadly not out of context following a history of ongoing xenophobic and racist verbal attacks against people of color and women and little national action to prevent them,” CHIRLA Executive Director Angelica Salas said in a statement. History was on the mind of Suki Wen, who came from Castro Valley to attend Saturday’s rally with her daughter, Kimi, 8.
“This problem,” she said, “is not new.”
Among the scores of signs borne by the crowd were signs reading “We Are Not a Virus” and “Under the Sky there is but 1 Family” and “Love Us Like You Love Our Food.” The crowd was noisy and peaceful as it proceeded from Civic Center via Polk, Market, Fifth and Powell streets to the square. Police blocked cross traffic, some of which backed up for two blocks. Tourists snapped selfies with the passing throng. Unhoused people yelled words of support.
Other antihate rallies and marches took place in San Jose, Redwood City and Santa Cruz — and across the country in such cities as New York, Denver and Los Angeles. More demonstrations are scheduled for Sunday.