About 200 people gathered on Saturday night along the Portland waterfront holding candles and posters during a vigil in honor of the victims of a series of shootings at three Atlanta area spas earlier this week.
“We are only here to show our unity and tell the world that we are part of America, we are not a target to be discriminated against,” said Liying Zheng, vice president of the Vancouver Chinese Association.
People carried posters with messages like “Stop Asian Hate” and “Hate is a virus”, as well as the names of people who were killed on Tuesday. Of the eight dead, six were Asian American women.
Authorities identified those who died in the attacks as Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; Suncha Kim, 69; Yong Ae Yue, 63; Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; and Paul Andre Michels, 54.
The event along Tom McCall Waterfront Park was organized by several Asian-American organizations in Oregon as part of a national vigil night planned by United Chinese Americans, a national Chinese-American advocacy group. Volunteers from the Portland Chinese Friendship Association distributed candles to participants.
Ai Fen, 46, said she is not the type of person to attend such an event, but she wanted to appear and be counted among those who publicly condemn violence against Asian Americans.
“We need to learn to get up and speak openly,” said Fen in Chinese. “We need to show that Asians cannot be mistreated like that.”
Hyun-joo Oh, who is Korean-American, said he came to “help us to be more visible”.
“I think it’s time for us to change to get up and show each other more, because sometimes we get scared, so we hide,” said Oh.
A list of Oregon leaders spoke at the event, including Attorney General Ellen Rosenblum, State Representative Khanh Pham, an Asian American lawmaker who represents the Portland Jade District, Multnomah County Commissioner Lori Stegmann and Christine Ryan Chin, president of the Oregon National Organization for Women.
Rosenblum urged those present to use and publicize the state’s hotline of bias complaints.
Asian Americans have faced increasing racism since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Community leaders in Oregon have been on high alert in recent months, as hate crimes and violence against these communities have increased nationally.
Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that tracks and reports crimes of prejudice against Asian Americans, recorded nearly 3,800 incidents from March 19, 2020 to the end of last month across the country.
Prejudice crimes against Asian American women accounted for 68% of the reports. Thirty-five percent of them happened in companies.
The report noted 40 racist incidents in Oregon.
In January, vandals attacked a stretch of Southeast 82nd Avenue that is home to several Asian-owned companies. Jade district business owners have reported more than a dozen such incidents.
“We appeal to members of our community – take care of each other, support each other,” said Hardy Li, a founding member of United Chinese Americans.
– Jaimie Ding
[email protected]; 503-221-4395; @j_dingdingding