Interracial family target of threatening letter

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The Yu family with friends.

ASAM NEWS

A family of 7 received a threatening letter demanding they move out of their Vacaville, California neighborhood in 60 days.
“The clock is ticking,” the anonymous typed letter read.

Marc Yu found the letter sticking out of his mailbox. He is Chinese Filipino. His wife is Mexican. They have five children.

“We family suggest that you rent somewhere else,” the letter continued. “We may sound harsh, but your interracial family is not welcomed here.”

Yu posted the entire letter on Facebook where he received much support.

“We want our simple life to be left alone,” Yu said. “You aren’t going to drive us out of Vacaville. We love Vacaville,” Yu told KXTV.

The letter referred to the Yu's as renters. They actually own the home.

“It’s a stupid letter,” Yu said to KXTV.

His message to the letter writer: he’s not moving anywhere.

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People Acting Stupid: Woman rants at Filipina American mom and mixed-race son

SCREEN CAPTURE / KTLA

The woman spouting hate speech remains unidentified.

ASAM NEWS

A woman upset that a mom and her son stopped in her Los Angeles community of Playa Vista for coffee hurled a racist rant at the pair, reports KTLA.
“What are you. He doesn’t even look human,” the woman said on video. “Get off our street. You don’t belong in Playa Vista.”

The woman kept asking the mom about her son’s “mix.” According to ABS-CBN, Belinda Panelo is a former model and VJ with MTV Southeast Asia.

“We pay $10,000 a month to keep you out.” the woman continued.

Throughout it all, Panelo tried to remain calm.

“Ok, how do I deal with this in front of my child,” she said to KTLA. “Inside, you know you want to react a certain way. But you’re going to have to keep it together.”

Panelo says the woman’s action don’t represent Playa Vista and that several people have come forward to offer their support and condemn the woman.

In an interview with Balitang America, Panelo, whose son was with her at the time of the rant, said that she and her son are doing fine after the incident, adding that as Filipinos, we should not change minds by reacting with the same hate that is spewed at us.

She says that we can do is be active in our communities, participate in civic society, and educate ourselves.

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TGIF FEATURE: Asian/Americans to stage anti-hate rally before white supremacist events in S.F, Berkeley

Asian/Americans took part in the International Workers Day march in San Francisco that took on the tenor
of an anti-Trump demonstration.

By Louis Chan
ASAM NEWS

Asian/Americans plan to light up the night in response to the recent incidents of hate in Charlottesville, Virginia.

A candlelight vigil will be held just hours before a pro-Trump Patriot Prayer rally is planned in San Francisco on Saturday (Aug. 26) and another demonstration of White Supremacists in Berkeley the following day.

The vigil dubbed Light up the Night- from Charlottesville to Chinatown: No Hate will be held on the pedestrian bridge leading from the Chinese Culture Center to Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown Friday at 8 p.m.

A civil rights symposium is scheduled right before the vigil at the Chinese Culture Center from 6:30 to 8 p.m.

“A number of groups and leaders who came together to advocate against recent xenophobic immigration rhetoric and policy proposals were horrified about what we saw happen in Charlottesville and wanted to make sure we were both educating our community and speaking out against white supremacy,” Vincent Pan, co-director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, said to AsAmNews.

CAA is part of a coalition of groups which organized under the banner No More Exclusion prior to the 135th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Among the speaker at the symposium will be the Rev. Norman Fong, Chinatown Community Development Center; Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Jewish Voice for Peace; Joyce Lam, Chinese Progressive Association; Annette Wong, Chinese for Affirmative Action; Clifford Yee, Organization of Chinese Americans – San Francisco Chapter; Sandra Lee Fewer, San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Phil Ting, California State Assemblymember.

Last week in Charlottesville, white supremacists marched through the University of Virginia holding torches. The image and size of the crowd stunned a nation and put it in turmoil.

It’s no coincidence that the symposium will end with a candlelight vigil of people supporting diversity and inclusion.

“Light representing hope and love is necessary to combat the hate of white supremacy,” said Pan.

He said the threat of what he called “overt white supremacy” directly affects Asian/Americans. He cited the rise in hate crimes against the AAPI community and the continued “unequal access to education, health and employment opportunities.”_________________________________________________________________________________

Vote Against Hate: The AAPI Victory Fund presents a message to South Asian/Americans

MOST FIRST-GENERATION immigrants have a different view of America than those who have lived here for decades. The difference can be as marked as the difference perspectives between the immigrants who brought their families to America and their children, who have mostly grown up in this society

The hate-filled rhetoric coming out the 2016 presidential campaign worries Vijay Chattha, founder of a public relations company in San Francisco. He created a video featuring South Asian celebrities to get a message across to his parents and the first generation of immigrant parents. “All Americans should be worried about things like the economy tanking as soon as Trump gets elected, his ability to have access to nuclear weapons, [his effect on] international relations,” Chattha said. 

“I think South Asians specifically should be worried about trickle-down racism and hate crimes," says Chattha. "If (Donald Trump) wins a lot of people are going to feel emboldened to do whatever they want to. That’s scary. Anyone who is South Asian should remember 9/11 and how the community was perceived afterwards. It was a scary time.”

The video was produced by the AAPI Victory Fund – the first Super PAC of its kind – is focused on mobilizing Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) eligible voters during the campaign cycle and moving them to the ballot box by Nov. 8.

In recent weeks, the Trump campaign have been touting their support among South Asian/Americcans. The Republican Hindu Coalition hosted Trump at a charity event in mid-October. Last week, Trump released a Diwali ad in which he attempts to speak Hindi. The ad has reportedly been running on Indian-American television channels.

RELATED: 

• Trump, Clinton commercials target AAPI
• Trump's biggest Hindu.American supporter
• Merger of race and politics spells trouble for the future
• Asian/Americans lean to the left

Despite putting their supporters of color in the front row, that apparent support is thin. According to the 2016 National Asian American Survey AAPIs, Latinos, African/Americans and South Asians are overwhelmingly against Trump. 

The same survey said 70 percent of Asian Indian registered voters said they were either voting for or leaning towards voting for the Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

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