[PARTNER] ALLICE joins nationwide protests vs racist, sexist attacks vs. Asians
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ALLICE 2021 president Nan Santiago, Kumpare Rev. Leonard Oakes, and 2020 president denounce attacks against Asians and urge support for those suffering directly and vicariously. (Photo by Eric Capalla)
Nellie was simply playing safe. A single, successful professional, she was avoiding an encounter with someone who detests Asians.
How could Hizon not worry?
The 2018 president of ALLICE Alliance for Community Empowerment was hypercautious before the yearlong surge in violence against Asians escalated March 16 with the killing of 8 mostly women of Korean descent in greater Atlanta, Ga. The alleged gunman blamed massage parlors for his sex addiction. Despite the targeted attacks, the Atlanta Sheriff's Office rep reinforced the shooter's explanation as a case of "having a bad day."
The spa killings exposed the "legacy of hypersexualization and fetishization of Asian and Pacific Islander women" denounced in an open letter by Asian and Pacific Islander women leaders published March 22 in the Los Angeles Times. See https://www.plannedparenthoodaction.org/uploads/filer_public/7e/bc/7ebc6897-281a-48d5-a948-6c716236b105/an_open_letter_-_aapi_jodi_final.pdf
Bigots have pounced on older persons of Asian heritage, including two in California who have died from their injuries.
The spate of violence united San Francisco Bay Area Filipino American organizations at a rally against anti-Asian racism and sexism condemned at demonstrations throughout the United States.
Daly City through Mayor Juslyn Manalo hosted the March 20 midday rally and vigil with ALLICE Alliance for Community Empowerment, Anak Bayan Daly City, Asian Pacific Islander American Public Affairs, Filipino American Democratic Club of San Mateo County, Filipino American Human Rights Alliance, Filipino Mental Health Initiative, Pilipino Bayanihan Resource Center, and Pin@y Educational Partnerships at the City Hall Rose Garden of Daly City.
Daly City Mayor Juslyn Manalo wears her motivation for the rally she organized with community groups. Photo by Cherie Querol Moreno
Speakers denounced the surge of anti-Asian violence as a consequence of the scapegoating of the population by the previous president who still uses Chinese references to Covid19, inculpating the country for the pandemic.
"The horrific violence and deaths that have occurred towards elders and women in our AAPI community should have never happened," Manalo voiced the sentiment behind the gathering in the city where about half of the 107,000 residents identify as of Asian descent. "This rally and vigil is to stand against hate and unite against racism in a space to be 'in community' to start to heal and unify."
Hizon was unable to attend, but on her behalf and their abuse and violence prevention nonprofit, ALLICE 2021 president Nan Santiago, former president Allen Capalla and member Rev. Leonard Oakes read the abuse-prevention organization's statement demanding elected officials and people in power to "stop the use of racist language in reference to the pandemic" and for "authorities to be accountable by recognizing and prosecuting hate crimes to prevent recurrence."
Following is the full text of the ALLICE statement issued March 19, 2021:
We, the ALLICE Kumares and Kumpares, condemn all forms abuse, particularly those against the vulnerable. Race-motivated attacks are crimes against an entire population. Hate crimes are malevolent - a most heinous form of abuse that often is born out of ignorance.
We grieve with the families of the people killed in the March 16 massacre in Atlanta, Ga. We mourn the deaths of Vicha Ratanapakdee of San Francisco and Pak Ho in Oakland, who died from injuries sustained recently after being hurled savagely to the ground by strangers while on their morning walk.
We empathize with the Noel Quintana who was slashed across the face on the subway in February in New York; Xiao Zhen Xie who was punched in the face while waiting to cross a street March 17 in San Francisco, and the Orosa family harassed for their ethnicity by a tech CEO while celebrating last year in a Carmel restaurant. They and almost 4,000 people recorded by Asian American advocacy organizations in this last year alone are the lucky ones who have survived mounting hatred for Asians but will be scarred forever in every way by their experience.
Anti-Asian sentiment is not new and in fact historically documented. The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 signed by President Chester Arthur and the internment of Japanese Americans in 1942 by President Franklin D. Roosevelt are just two of the shameful acts of racism perpetrated by the United States.
We who know Filipino American history will always remember Fermin Tobera, who was shot to death while asleep in his bunk during a raid against Filipino farm workers in the infamous 1930 Watsonville race riots. We cannot forget USPS worker Joseph Ileto, who in 1999 was on his way to deliver mail in Southern California when an avowed white supremacist stopped and shot him dead point blank.
Our physical features distinguish us from fellow Americans whose ancestry is traced to Europe. And last year the previous president began branding Covid19 with obvious Chinese references, essentially placing a bull's eye on our backs, for which he and his followers show no regret to this day.
We Filipinos are proud of who we are and Asian is also what we are. We stand with all communities targeted because of our race.
We Asians are Americans, we have the right to a life free from fear of violence.
Our community is our responsibility. Let’s educate ourselves to understand that we have more in common than not.
We demand a stop to the use of racist language in reference to the pandemic, especially by people in power.
We demand accountability from authorities who should recognize and prosecute hate crimes to deter these from recurring.
If we are to win over race hatred, we must speak up and report incidences and encourage others to do the same. We cannot minimize the attacks and think we are safe: We are all vulnerable by virtue of our race.
If we see it, let's call it out.
Let’s protect each other instead of building walls around each other. Let’s stop this epidemic of hatred and abuse that is racism.
Cherie Querol Moreno
Cherie M. Querol Moreno is founder-executive director of ALLICE www.allicekumares.com
More articles from Cherie Querol Moreno
The attacks on Asian Americans won't just go away. We must act.
By Grande Lum
Tuesday night’s carnage in Atlanta was beyond distressing. It yet again adds to the deluge of recent cases of harm and, sadly, death to Asian Americans. When I watched the YouTube video of the assault on 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee that resulted in his death, I was shocked and angry. I wished I could brush this off as an anomaly, a purely random and capricious act.
However, it is impossible to do so in the face of these continued tragedies. It shook me to the core when I learned the attack on Mr. Ratanapakdee occurred on the same street in San Francisco where I grew up.
When I was in elementary school on a weekday evening, my father was outside our Anza Vista Avenue home taking out the garbage. A man pointed a pistol at my father demanding his wallet. For my brother and me, it was the first time we had ever experienced the possible loss of a close loved one.
The police would catch the suspect, but my father refused to testify, due to a concern about retribution. It is an action that I can understand as his son and as a father. We know that Asian Americans are often targeted because of their reluctance to engage in the legal system.
President Biden’s call Thursday (March 11) against Asian American violence was a critical step to stem the hate and violence. We must build on that as a country, which includes passing legislation sponsored by Rep. Grace Meng, D-N.Y., to create a position to monitor hate crimes related to COVID-19. The response requires the U.S. Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division taking a lead in prosecuting hate crimes. It requires local elected officials and law enforcement to enforce laws and work in a culturally sensitive manner with Asian Americans.
During President Barack Obama’s administration, I led the Community Relations Service, a Department of Justice agency with a mandate to respond and prevent hate crimes based on identity, including race. The agency did tremendous work in helping communities cope and heal at Sanford, Fla., after the 2012 killing of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin, and at Oak Creek, Wis., in 2012 after a white supremacist shot six dead at a Sikh gurdwara.
The harsh reality is that while Asian Americans are being scapegoated for the pandemic today, the history of anti-Asian violence stretches to the Gold Rush days. It will not disappear of its own accord. The real tensions between China and the United States when it comes to trade, money valuation and global leadership will continue to unleash collateral damage on Asian Americans unabated — unless our leaders take action.
During much of 2020, President Donald Trump and other leaders labeled COVID-19 the “Chinese virus” and the “kung flu.” The data on the increase in anti-Asian sentiment and violence since the pandemic started has been well-documented, including the over 2,800 incidents recorded by Stop AAPI Hate.
The gut punch for me has been listening to relatives, friends and students at the college where I work, recount their ugly anti-Asian verbal incidents. While my father never attributed his being robbed to racism, it is impossible to not appreciate how central race was to our lives as a whole.
When my family first moved to Anza Vista Avenue in 1967, we were one of the first Asian families to reside there. Asian American and other families of color were prevented from living in many white neighborhoods for generations in San Francisco, long considered one of the most liberal and progressive cities in the country.
My parents, perhaps in an effort to protect their children, had my brother and me attend St. Mary’s, a Catholic school in Chinatown. However, upon entering an all-boys mostly white Catholic high school, I can readily conjure memories of bullies taunting me and others with random antiAsian epithets. Ultimately I transferred to Lowell High School, which was more diverse and much less racially hostile.
After sacrificing for their children and saving for years, my parents built a dream home in a different San Francisco neighborhood and moved in 1992. Shortly after moving in, my father opened an anonymous note dropped in the mail slot complaining about the aesthetics of a garden that my father tended to with sweat and pride.
“We are in America, not China,” it read. I cannot remember my father ever complaining about anti-Asian racism against him on any other occasion, so the anger in his voice stays with me to this day. The questioning of our place in America has always been used in an attempt to dehumanize us.
I am heartened by the allyship that humanizes all of us. Black and Brown communities working with Asian American communities to stop the preying on the most vulnerable, no matter the race.
The Community Relations Service, which had been targeted for elimination by the Trump administration, needs to engage with local communities to provide mediation, cultural competency and hate crimes training.
Social service and nonprofit agencies to provide culturally responsive support and prevention must be sufficiently funded. We owe action to those who have paid a high price by working together to protect our beloved communities.
First published in the San Francisco Chronicle
Grande Lum is the provost of Menlo College. He served as director of the Community Relations Service in the Obama administration and is the author of the recently published “America’s Peacemakers: The Community Relations Service and Civil Rights.”
