sbrobert
By Robert Bernstein
The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at Cal State University, San Bernardino recently released a report on hate crime trends in 16 major American cities. Such hate crimes decreased overall by 7% from 2019 to 2020. But hate crimes targeting Asians and Asian Americans increased nearly 150%.
Much of the hate seems to have been inspired by former President Trump associating people of Asian ancestry with the COVID virus. He regularly used the term “China Virus” to make this association.
Local residents Karena Jew, Sharon Hoshida, Juliet Velarde Betita, Judy Guillermo-Newton and Michal Lynch organized a gathering in solidarity with Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders on Saturday, March 27 in front of the Santa Barbara Museum of Art.
Here are my photos and a short video.
The event was not a traditional activist rally. There were no speeches and it was not widely publicized to the larger social justice community. It was mostly intended as a way for Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) residents to come out in a public place and see and meet each other.
It was very quiet and low key. After people were gathered, there was a brief ceremonial performance seen in this video:
I soon spotted Katie Becchio who I know from Solstice as one of the energetic and creative forces at the Solstice Workshop. She is holding the sign “Proud to Be Asian and We Belong Here!”
Here organizer Sharon Hoshida posed with Vijaya Jammalamadaka. I have known Vijaya for many years through her work with the Air Pollution Control District and my work on sustainable transportation. She has also come on some of my hikes. She is currently active with the League of Women Voters. You may remember Sharon Hoshida for bravely opening and running a real bookstore next to the Granada Theater at a time when most bookstores were closing!
You will probably recognize Santa Barbara Public Health Director Van Do-Reynoso for her reports on the local news almost every day this past year. She kindly gathered her co-workers at Public Health for this group photo. Also with her was her daughter who wants to be a psychotherapist.
Tina Villadolid was carrying this sign and posed with her friend and talked with me for a bit.
I was curious to know the particulars of the hate her ancestors endured. She asked what I knew. I said I was aware of the internment camps that Americans of Japanese ancestry were forced into. And I knew of the major Western American cities that expelled all of the people of Chinese ancestry when they were no longer needed to build the railroads. Even though they were legal US residents and/or citizens. But I was curious to know more specifics. It seemed that she was speaking in more general terms of colonialism and attitudes of white supremacy.
In 1882 Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act which prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers. But it also became a pretext for both mob terrorist acts against Chinese in the US as well as official discrimination by local governments.
Organizer Karena Jew had a simple message reminding everyone that Asian Americans are Americans who belong here.
This couple had a similar message calling for an end to hate:
Supervisor Das Williams was one of several elected officials and staff who quietly attended without fanfare.
In the 1980s there was another wave of anti-Asian American scapegoating. The US auto industry had failed to make reliable, energy-efficient vehicles and Americans were buying Japanese-made cars as a result. Instead of blaming US auto executives, some white Americans blamed people who looked Asian for the loss of US jobs.
On June 19, 1982 a Chinese American man named Vincent Chin was murdered simply because he looked Asian. The killers said they thought he was Japanese. As if that justified doing any harm to him at all. Worse yet, the killers each received a $3,000 fine and no jail time at all.
Very appropriately, these flyers were handed out at the local gathering reminding everyone that Asian Americans are not your scapegoat:
On the back of the flyer was a list of resources:
if he cared about his constituents, he would not be the SB Pot advocate he is……he has put this county on a path to ruin
It’s truly tragic that people are attacking Asians for nothing other than their race. Hopefully, with a bit of education this will stop. It took a while, but the truth about the origin of the virus is about to be made public. This was in the news today:
“A joint WHO-China study on the origins of Covid-19 says that transmission of the virus from bats to humans through another animal is the most likely scenario and that a lab leak is ‘extremely unlikely,’ according to a draft copy obtained by The Associated Press.”
OOPS – so what? So are you faulting him somehow for standing against racism? Try to stay on topic with your complaints.
PitMix: Of course, but the article states, “Much of the hate seems to have been inspired by former President Trump associating people of Asian ancestry with the COVID virus. He regularly used the term “China Virus” to make this association.”
So, the report has the potential of reversing the false Trump narrative. At least, let’s hope so!
I am faulting him for being SB’s crappiest politician. I don’t care who he marches with!
of course Das Williams shows up for a photo op
OOPS – or, maybe he’s just a good human being and is showing is support and solidarity against racism.
OOPS–his job is literally to stand with and support his constituents.