Asian Americans rally against racism, violence

WASHINGTON－Asian Americans from across the United States came to Washington, DC, on Saturday to call for an end to racial hatred and violence that has increased significantly amid the pandemic.

Under a burning sun in early summer, demonstrators gathered at the eastern end of the National Mall, with many of them holding self-made banners reading "Stop Asian Hate", "Asian and Proud" and "Love us like you love our food", for what organizers described as a "Unity March".

"We're here to ensure that our voices are heard as we try to make sure that there's racial equity and safety for our community, as well as all communities here in the United States," Christine Chen, executive director of Asian Pacific Islander American Vote, told Xinhua News Agency.

The rally came as the United States has largely moved on from COVID-19 though it continues to sicken nearly 100,000 individuals and take hundreds of lives in the nation on a daily basis. Meanwhile, hate against Asians in the country remains out there and poses a threat to their safety and well-being.

"As we know in the last few years, there have been escalations in terms of attacks, not only on Asian Americans, but also on blacks, Latinos and other marginalized communities," Chen said.

Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, or AAPI, have reported nearly 11,000 hate incidents against them between March 2020 and December 2021, said a report published earlier this year by Stop AAPI Hate.

Jean Park, a high school student from Philadelphia, told Xinhua there was "a rise in Asian hate" even within her school after the pandemic broke out.

Some US politicians and media outlets fabricated and spread conspiracy theories about COVID-19 to deflect the responsibility for a botched response to the public health crisis, fanning flames of racism and xenophobia with Asian Americans falling victim to their lies and rhetoric.

"There have been a lot of micro-aggressions and a lot of people think that because of the coronavirus, they can start blaming Asian Americans," said Park, who started a "Stop Asian Hate" walk in response to those racially charged behaviors.

In remarks from the Rose Garden of the White House last month, Vice-President Kamala Harris said: "Racism is real in America. It has always been," Harris, who has South Asian American heritage, acknowledged. "Xenophobia is real in America. It has always been."

At the National Mall rally on Saturday, Anthony Lee, an artist from Detroit, was holding up his latest painting for the 40th anniversary of the murder of Vincent Chin, a Chinese American killed in a racially motivated hate crime by two white autoworkers in 1982.

Lee said he had been concerned throughout the COVID-19 pandemic that similar things would happen somewhere in the country because of political stunts and scapegoating of Asians, a phenomenon that has repeated itself in times of economic downturns, wars and diseases. "It's too convenient" for people to blame others for the problem, he said. "We have to be better than that," he said.

Xinhua