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02:59
In the wake of a spike of violent attacks against Asian and Asian-American residents, many of them elderly, outraged citizens from all different backgrounds in U.S. cities Oakland and San Francisco have joined in solidarity over the past weekend.
In San Francisco, 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee died after an attacker knocked him to the pavement on January 30. The next day, in Oakland's Chinatown, a 91-year-old man is shoved to the ground by an assailant who's now been charged with three different assaults on that day.
"I was just tired of everything going on social media, the attacks against the elders, them getting hurt, the robberies. It's just disgusting to look at, and I'm like, why is nothing happening?" said JoJo Au, who was born and raised in Oakland's Chinatown.
As a community activist, Au recently launched a fundraiser to hire armed, private security guards to patrol both the city's Chinatown and nearby areas. To her surprise, she met her goal of raising $25,000 in one day, raised the goal to $50,000 and met that, too.
"Honestly, I didn't know it was going to spread like wildfire," Au said. "So many people were so concerned about it but wanted to do something but didn't know what. I'm glad that I did this, cause you know ... The merchants they even say they feel safer. Some of the shoppers they feel safer."
According to the California-based Stop Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Hate center, in 2020, it has received more than 2,800 reports of hate incidents from Asian Americans. Eight percent of those cases involved physical assault, and women were harassed nearly two and a half times more than men.
"I know the Asian-American community is really fearful and concerned at this moment from both the racism of last year and the current spate of violence against the community this year," said Russell Jeung, the co-founder of the civic group.
He said that it was not known if the "street crimes were necessarily racially motivated," but the effect is similar. "We are being traumatized, and we just want community safety and racial justice."
The activists say the rampant violent crime in their community has always been there, but now people are seeing the brutality of the acts in videos and the vulnerability of the victims. Many residents said they are fed up and will do whatever it takes to protect their neighborhoods.
With several attacks committed by Black Americans, civic leaders also made it clear that the worst thing to do is pit one race against another. Instead, the system and the government do more to address the problems.
Saabir Lockett, the director for East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy, said, "The root cause of the violence and crimes is actually lack of resources."
Eddy Zheng,the founder of the nonprofit New Breath Foundation, said the system and the government should be held responsible for their failure to address the systematic racism and they should create opportunities for cross-cultural engagement and healing.
"We are able to learn from each other, so therefore we are able to humanize each other," Zheng said.
