Southern California city host rally of support for Asian American communities

One of many protests and candlelight vigils being held across the United States took place Saturday evening in San Gabriel Valley in Southern California.

San Gabriel Valley, renowned for its large Asian American community, is home to over half of Los Angeles County's Chinese American population. The area also has large numbers of Vietnamese, Korean and Filipino American residents.

The San Gabriel rally, held to commemorate the six Asian women murdered in cold blood by a young White gunman in Atlanta, Georgia on March 16, drew hundreds of attendees.

An old Chinese American resident, who gave his name only as Li, came to the rally with his children and grandchildren despite the danger of virus infection.

"The COVID-19 virus is dangerous. But the anti-Asian hate is a virus which is more dangerous," noted Li.

"Asians must stand up to give our voice," he said.

Local activist, Cheri Cabot, told Xinhua she attended the rally because, "Neighbors and friends that are Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are very important to me. I don't want to see them hurt or afraid to go out because of hate."

Candles and flickering penlights lit up the darkness as community leaders, local officials, concerned citizens and neighbors gathered to pay their respects and protest the escalation of anti-Asian violence and hate crimes that has largely gone unchecked since the pandemic began.

Tony Ding, vice mayor of City of San Gabriel told Xinhua: "We used our heart to help distribute lots of personal protective equipments to local people during the pandemic, now we must use our voice to stop the anti-Asian hate."

"Since the pandemic there has been a sharp rise in hate crimes against Asians. That is not acceptable," he said, encouraging Asian American residents to break their silence and stand up against racial hate and prejudice.

City of San Gabriel is one of several San Gabriel Valley cities with Asian American majority populations.

From March 19, 2020 to February 28 this year, Asian Americans in the United States reported nearly 3,800 hate-related incidents during the pandemic, according to a report released Tuesday by the Stop Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Hate, a leading aggregator of incidents against Asian Americans during the pandemic. A total of 1,691 of those reports (44.56 percent) were from California, said the report.

A total of 360 such hate incidents have been reported in Los Angeles since March 2020, revealed Stop AAPI Hate co-founder, Manjusha P. Kulkarni earlier this week.

African American neighbor, Chasity Nunez, has lived in the community for 17 years. Nunez told Xinhua she and her husband attended the San Gabriel protest rally to show their support for the Asian American friends and community.

"Just like after the George Floyd killing that ignited a huge showing of support against discrimination and violence that has affected black and brown people, after the killings in Atlanta, we are seeing the same igniting of support for Asian Americans who have said this kind of discrimination has been going on for a long time behind the scenes," Nunez said.

LA County Supervisor Kathryn Barger announced earlier this month more LA County funding for the "L.A. vs. Hate" initiative and said: "COVID-19 doesn't discriminate, and neither will we. To our Asian communities, we stand with you."

She lamented in a statement that hate crimes have skyrocketed and that blame for the virus has been unfairly placed on the community's Asian neighbors.

"Not only are they not at fault for this pandemic — they've been a force for help and hope," she said. "They've raised funds to provide masks, gloves, hand sanitizer, and other needed supplies for our frontline workers to protect against the virus."

"Our Asian communities have shown up for all of us and it's time we stand up for them," She said.

On Friday, Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti and other officials came together to address the rise in hate crimes and hate incidents against the Asian American community and to urge everyone to be vigilant in reporting any instances of hate crimes to local law enforcement.

President Joe Biden has stepped up to the plate to address the issue by signing a new Executive Order instructing the Justice Department on how to deal with anti-Asian Hate Crimes.

In a speech Friday at Emory University in Atlanta, Biden said: "We have to change our hearts. Hate can have no safe harbor in America. It must stop. And it's on all of us, all of us together to make it stop."