AAPI communities' historic weekend of spontaneous protests involves thousands

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Sandra Oh spoke to a rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

Starting Friday when President Biden and Vice President Harris met with AAPI leaders in Atlanta, it has been a weekend not seen in decades as thousands of AAPI and their allies staged a score of demonstrations around the United States.

Spurred by the mass shootings in Atlanta that killed eight, six of whom were Asian women, Asian Americans, Latinos, Blacks and Whites took to the streets and parks in unrelated demonstrations as if to say "Enough is enough."

The demonstrations protested not only the Atlanta rampage, but a year that has seen bias and violence against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders surge to heights not seen since World War II, when 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were forcibly removed from their homes and into incarceration camps.

Speaking through a bullhorn, the actress Sandra Oh had the crowd in Pittsburgh, Penn. chanting after her, “I am proud to be Asian,” she says. “We belong here.”

“For many of us in our community, this is the first time we are even able to voice our fear and our anger, and I really am so grateful for everyone willing to listen,” Oh said in videos. “One thing that I know is that many in our community are very scared, and I understand that. And one way to go through our fear is to reach out to our community.

“To everyone here," Oh continued, "I will challenge everyone here, if you see something, will you help me? If you see one of our sisters and brothers in need, will you help us?” she said, as the people chanted, “Yes!” in response. “We must understand, as Asian Americans, we just need to reach out our hand to our sisters and brothers and say, ‘Help me and I’m here.’”

From the big cities to the suburbs, AAPI gathered in apparently spontaneous demonstrations. They were angry, fearful and fed up for being targeted by racist bullies and for being blamed for the coronavirus pandemic. Many felt they just needed to do something. 

“We knew we had to do something about it,” John Zhuang told the Eagle Tribune,  the local newspaper of Andover, Mass., with 14% of its population of 37,000 of AAPI descent.

“I just want people to be aware and support us,” he added. “We are the same, dads and moms, and people of this country.”

In California, with the largest AAPI population outside of Asia, rallies were held in the cities that included San Francisco, Oakland, San Jjose, San DIego, and Los Angeles. Across the nation rallies were held in Seattle, Pittsburgh, PA, San Antonio and, of course, Atlanta;  vigils and rallies were held in the suburbs not used to demonstrations such as Andover, Mass., Cary, North Carolina, and the California 'burbs of Alhambra, Fullerton, Walnut Creek, and Brisbane,; even Boise, Idaho, where  AAPI makes up only 3% of the population held a rally organized by teenagers.

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In Atlanta, steel reeling from the deadly shootings, U.S. Sens. Raphael Warnock and Jon Ossoff, and Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen, the first Vietnamese American to serve in the Georgia House spoke at a rally.

“I just wanted to drop by to say to my Asian sisters and brothers, we see you, and, more importantly, we are going to stand with you," Warnock said to loud cheers.

“No matter how you want to spin it, the facts remain the same. This was an attack on the Asian community,” said Nguyen, an advocate for women and communities of color. She noted the shooter targeted businesses operated by women of Asian descent.

“Let’s join hands with our ally community and demand justice for not only these victims but for all victims of white supremacy,” she said.

Camden Hunt, a Black activist, joined Saturday’s rally to “show Black and Asian solidarity, ” adding “I think it’s amazing. I look out and I see people of all shades and ages and backgrounds.”

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Hundreds attended a Saturday rally at Portsmouth Square in San Francisco.

“Whether we are grandparents, workers, women, or young people, we all deserve safety and it is clear the current systems are not working,” Shaw San Liu, executive director of the Chinese Progressive Association, said in a statement read in Portsmouth Square, the heart of San Francisco's Chinatown where several hundred gathered Saturday.

"Our members —many of whom are women, mothers living in the SROs, and young women — are risking their safety to go to work, providing childcare and caring for family members, navigating distance learning, and trying their best to preserve their mental health during these trying times. This is further exacerbating an already stressful time," the statement continued. 

 “We need to fight racism, economic inequality and sexism/gender-based violence with effective community-based solutions if we are to achieve true safety for our communities.”

After speaking with the daughter of Vicha Ratanapakdee, the 84-year old who was killed last month on his morning walk in San Francisco, 13-year old Ashlyn So felt compelled to speak out to the assembled crowd. “How many more of our people’s blood, black eyes, swollen faces, broken bones, must happen before we will be visible?” said the teenager.  “Before we will feel safe? Before we will be an equal?”

Teenagers organized the rally in Boise, Idaho, where about 100 people gathered on the steps of the State Capitol.

“As Asians, we’re supposed to be ‘quiet’ and ‘shy,’ ‘just keep your head down and work hard,’” Yvonne Shen, 13, of Boise told the gathering in Boise. “But we’ve kept our heads down for long enough. It’s time for us to stand up for ourselves.”

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Former Congressional candidate Gina Ortiz Jones, who organized the vigil, spoke to the several hundred who had gathered at San Antonio's Main Plaza Saturday.

Darsheel Kaur told the crowd at Dayton, Ohio's Courthouse Square that Americans love many aspects of Asian culture: yoga, anime, food, spiritualities and nail salons.

“But the moment of now is asking for us to be included in the larger human family,” Kaur said. “Not as the perpetual other, but as your neighbors and friends and colleagues and classmates, who have their own spirit stories and experiences reckoning with and resisting the white supremacy embedded in this land and soil.”

About 2,000 demonstrators rallied in New York City Saturday where local politicians including Mayor Bill DiBlasio and Senate Leader Chuck Schumer addressed the crowd.

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Senate Leader Chuck Schumer spoke to the Saturday demonstrators in New York City.

Senator Schuimer called out Donald Trump for his use of racist rhetoric tying Asians to the coronavirus.

“We will not let bigotry prevail against Asian Americans or any American. We know that violence and bigotry against one is violence and bigotry against all. We stand firm. We speak to the better angels of America,” Schumer declared. “We’ll fight violence with every atom in our bones, and we, not the bigots, not those who are violent, we will win this fight and prevail.”

The attacks against AAPI continue. Friday morning, another elderly Asian man was attacked for no apparent reason other than he was Asian. The 68-year old victims was punched in the face while riding the subway after the attacker said, "You M***F*** Asian!"

The victim was taken to a hospital where he remains because he was in critical, but not life-threatening, condition.

Meanwhile, as people began arriving for another rally in Columbus Park in Manhattan,  at 9 a.m., Sunday, a 66-year old Asian man was punched in the face in New York's Chinatown. Despite a swollen face and puffy eyes, the victim refused hospitalization.

And a 37-year old woman on her way to the Sunday rally with her daughter. She had her handmade sign taken away and when she tried to retrieve it, her attacker punched her twice in the face. She was hospitalized but she was able to get a recording of the man as he ran away.

Her daughter started to cry as her mother was placed on a gurney.