With attacks against Asian Americans, including many elders, surging, a multiracial crowd of hundreds gathered in a park in Oakland’s Chinatown on a sunny Saturday afternoon during the Lunar New Year to show support for the community and decry the violence.
The rally drew a diverse group of people, some carrying signs. “Asian Americans save lives as your doctors, nurses, grocers, farmers and teachers — we are not the enemy,” one read. “We stand with our neighbors — end white supremacy,” another said. Several in the crowd wore T-shirts proclaiming “Black-Asian unity.” Other tied big red ribbons to a wishing tree to express their hopes for the community.
A long string of speakers voiced messages in a variety of languages that had a common theme: The community needs to unite against violence against anyone — and everyone.
Meghan Schwartz of Berkeley said that’s why she went to the rally with her husband, two young daughters and 5-month-old puppy, Poki.
“It’s our community that keeps us safe,” she said. “By us coming out here and supporting Chinatown, it shows that we can help keep each other safe. Harm against one community hurts us all.”
Attacks both physical and verbal against Asian Americans have increased during the pandemic as former President Donald Trump blamed the Chinese government for failing to contain the coronavirus’ spread — even as he did not contain the virus on American soil.
Recent attacks in Oakland Chinatown, including one in which a 91-year-old man was hurt after he was pushed to the ground, have attracted national attention and prompted some in the community to organize volunteer patrol groups. In San Francisco, an 84-year-old man died after he was shoved to the pavement and struck his head in an attack in the Anza Vista neighborhood. Suspects have been arrested in both incidents.
A protest against the recent violence is planned for Sunday afternoon in San Francisco.
Since the start of the pandemic through the end of 2020, 2,808 cases of hate or discrimination incidents against Asian Americans nationwide were reported to the Stop AAPI Hate project, co-founded by Russell Jeung, an Asian American studies professor at San Francisco State University. Reports from the Bay Area accounted for 708 of those cases, with most of them — 292 — occurring in San Francisco followed by 58 in San Jose and 55 in Oakland.
Rally speakers and attendees said they know family members and friends who have been victims of discrimination against Asian Americans ranging from snide and hateful remarks to coughing and spitting to robberies and physical assaults.
Vivie Pan, a San Francisco resident in her early 20s, said her parents have both been victims of robberies and that she often stayed awake at home as a teenager waiting for them to come home.
“I would always be afraid something was going to happen to them,” she said.
Pan attended the rally with Daniel Segura, who lives in East Oakland and said he wants to show support for the Asian American community.
“I want to make sure my neighbors and extended family are OK,” he said. “I want to show the solidarity of being there for them.”
Pan said the rally made an important statement that “people within communities of different backgrounds need to come together,” she said, “not see each other as enemies.”
Sine Hwang Jensen, a librarian from Berkeley, said she attended the rally because she fears for the safety of her elders. She found solace in the diversity of faces and voices gathered in the park.
“I was very inspired by the solidarity being shown by the communities of color,” she said. “I was encouraged to see so many people from different communities here.”
Even as the rally went on, an Illinois information technology consulting company apologized for a job posting on LinkedIn for Menlo Park that appeared to require that applicants be “non-Asian.” The company, Aptude, told The Chronicle on Saturday that the posting — which is now removed — occurred after “misunderstood communication was posted by an individual with no conceivable discriminatory intent.”
“As a company with diverse leadership, we are especially sensitive to, and aggressively oppose, discrimination in any form. We deeply regret this occurrence, and we are especially saddened by the pain it caused and by the resulting misperception of our values,” Aptude officials told The Chronicle.
San Francisco Chronicle reporter Lauren Hernández contributed to this report.
Michael Cabanatuan is a San Francisco Chronicle staff writer. Email: mcabanatuan@sfchronicle.com Twitter: @ctuan
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