Americans rally against anti-Asian hate with self-defense class, more in San Francisco
Record ID:
1664312
Americans rally against anti-Asian hate with self-defense class, more in San Francisco
- Title: Americans rally against anti-Asian hate with self-defense class, more in San Francisco
- Date: 17th March 2022
- Summary: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES (MARCH 16, 2022) (REUTERS) VARIOUS OF HUDSON LIAO, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ASIANS ARE STRONG, LEADING A SELF-DEFENSE CLASS SHOES BEING PUT DOWN (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUDSON LIAO, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ASIANS ARE STRONG, SAYING: "More and more, that is the most top of mind thing for everybody, right? Safety. People are getting attacked, and on this day we're commemorating when six Asian women were murdered last year in Atlanta and over the last two months, Asian women have been targeted and murdered in New York and around the world as well. And having these concepts and ideas (of self-defense) doesn't just physically protect them but it also protects them emotionally as well and mentally as well." VARIOUS OF ORIANA THAM, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT WHO WORKS IN TECH, DURING SELF-DEFENSE CLASS (SOUNDBITE) (English) ORIANA THAM, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT WHO WORKS IN TECH, SAYING: "To be here to commemorate what had happened a year ago in Georgia means quite a bit. I think that in celebration of those that passed, I think it does bring everyone in the community together and this is just one way of doing so." VARIOUS OF THAM AND ANOTHER WOMAN DURING SELF-DEFENSE EXERCISE INSTRUCTOR GIVING TIPS (SOUNDBITE) (English) HUDSON LIAO, FOUNDER AND EXECUTIVE DIRECTOR OF ASIANS ARE STRONG, SAYING: "Yeah, we helped put a lot of this together. We want to provide resources for women and Asian women specifically. And what we're doing today is teaching basic fundamental self-defense techniques and bystander intervention training as well. And we're going to go through concepts and scenarios that are more common to females and how to use their body and their strength to their advantage to get out of situations for them." CLASS GOING ON VARIOUS OF LIAO TEACHING MOVE (SOUNDBITE) (English) ORIANA THAM, LOS ANGELES RESIDENT WHO WORKS IN TECH, SAYING: "Oh absolutely. I think it's definitely when it comes to fight or flight, it could be different when you're in an actual situation, but I think this definitely helps prepare just women in general as far as what precautions to take." VARIOUS OF PARTICIPANTS IN CLASS VARIOUS OF SCREEN SHOWING MEMORIAL EVENT IN ATLANTA VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE MEMBERS (SOUNDBITE) (English) HANNAH CHO, SACRAMENTO RESIDENT AND MEMBER OF THE KOREAN AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION OF NORTHERN CALIFORNIA, SAYING: "It's been difficult for me, it's been difficult for our community, but I think it's important to really come to terms with what's happened and really just face the facts and the reality of what's going on, and just try to grow from it." FLYER THAT READS "JUSTICE FOR ASIAN WOMEN" VARIOUS OF SCREEN SHOWING MEMORIAL EVENT IN ATLANTA VARIOUS OF NICOLE WANG, SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENT AND VOLUNTEER WITH ASIANS ARE STRONG, AT TABLE FOR GLOBAL ART PROJECT SIGN FOR PARTICIPANTS (SOUNDBITE) (English) NICOLE WANG, SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENT AND VOLUNTEER WITH ASIANS ARE STRONG, SAYING: "This is in light of a lot of the Asian hate crimes, especially against Asian women. Ever since the pandemic we feel that a lot of women have been experiencing a lot of trauma, pain that they don't have an outlet or platform to share their experiences or any of their story so we wanted to use this a way to encourage women to speak out, to share their dreams, experiences and stories." FAY DARMAWI, SAN FRANCISCO RESIDENT, HOLDING HER HAND UP AS PART OF GLOBAL ART PROJECT WRITING ON DARMAWI'S HAND THAT READS "WE ARE DIFFERENT AND THE SAME" DARMAWI GETTING PHOTO OF HAND TAKEN (SOUNDBITE) (English) FAY DARMAWI, SAN FRANCISO RESIDENT, SAYING: "It says we are different and the same. REPORTER: "What's the message there? Why did you write that?" "Because each of us has our own histories and our own families and our own communities and our own struggles but we are all the same in that we want to be seen and we want to have love and we want to have community." WOMAN WITH HAND MESSAGE THAT READS "NOT AFRAID OF BEING ME" GROUP POSING FOR PHOTO (SOUNDBITE) (English) FAY DARMAWI, SAN FRANCISO RESIDENT, SAYING: "Yeah it's really important to me because I have two sons and I want them to live in a world that's safe and supportive of them, but I also know that they need to pay attention to the women in their life and they have privilege as men and we have to show as adults how to behave civilly and lovingly."
- Embargoed: 31st March 2022 05:09
- Keywords: Georgia spa shootings San Francisco anti-Asian discrimination anti-Asian hate race relations
- Location: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- City: SAN FRANCISCO, CALIFORNIA, UNITED STATES
- Country: USA
- Topics: Race Relations / Ethnic Issues,Society/Social Issues,United States
- Reuters ID: LVA001526816032022RP1
- Aspect Ratio: 16:9
- Story Text:Americans protesting anti-Asian violence gathered in Atlanta and other U.S. cities on Wednesday (March 16) to mark one year since a mass shooting of women of Asian heritage in Atlanta-area spas that awakened the nation to a spike in hate incidents against the community.
Advocates organized events in a dozen cities including Houston, Detroit, and San Francisco, to raise awareness about the growing risk of violence against people of Asian descent, accentuated in recent days by the brutal beating of a woman in New York.
At the Asian Art Museum in San Francisco, the group Asians Are Strong organized self-defense classes for women.
Group founder and executive director Hudson Liao said it's important to empower women with the ability to defend themselves, which will also strengthen them emotionally and mentally.
"More and more, that is the most top of mind thing for everybody, right? Safety. People are getting attacked, and on this day we're commemorating when six Asian women were murdered last year in Atlanta and over the last two months, Asian women have been targeted and murdered in New York and around the world as well. And having these concepts and ideas (of self-defense) doesn't just physically protect them but it also protects them emotionally as well and mentally as well," he said.
The class was designed specifically with women in mind and for both self-defense and bystander intervention.
While police initially said that the Georgia gunman, who was white, was driven to violence by his sex addiction, many saw misogyny and racial bias as likely triggers behind the massacre, which came as anti-Asian hate crimes were rising across the United States. Experts have said the COVID-19 pandemic, which originated in China, was prompting people to lash out against Asian-Americans.
Oriana Tham, a tech worker who lives in Los Angeles, said it was important for her to be there at the self-defense class and the rally afterwards that showed the Atlanta victims' families giving speeches on a screen.
"To be here to commemorate what had happened a year ago in Georgia means quite a bit. I think that in celebration of those that passed, I think it does bring everyone in the community together and this is just one way of doing so," she said.
The rally upstairs also featured a traditional Korean Taepyungmu performance and speeches by various speakers and activists.
President Joe Biden said in a statement on Wednesday the shootings had forced Americans to "reckon with our nation's long legacy of anti-Asian sentiment and gender-based violence" as he highlighted the COVID-â 19 Hate Crimes Act enacted last year, a bill aimed at combating violence against Asian Americans.
The event in San Francisco also featured a global art project in which organizers encourage women to write messages on their hand and post them online.
The messages can be stories about their Asian experience, something they want the world to know, a message for fellow Asian-Pacific Islander women, organizers said.
Fay Darmawi, a San Francisco resident, wrote on her hand, "We are different and the same."
"Because each of us has our own histories and our own families and our own communities and our own struggles but we are all the same in that we want to be seen and we want to have love and we want to have community," she said.
A total of 10,905 hate incidents targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders were reported between March 19, 2020, and Dec. 31, 2021, according to research released this month by the nonprofit group Stop AAPI Hate. The majority of incidents concerned women and 16% involved physical assault, the group found.
A separate report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, showed that hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders rose 164% in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period in 2020.
The threat was highlighted by an unprovoked assault in Yonkers, New York, where police said a woman of Asian descent was punched more than 125 times last week and stomped on by a man who called her an anti-Asian slur.
It was one of a series of high-profile attacks on Asians in New York and elsewhere in recent months
Also on Wednesday, a 25-year-old New York man was indicted in the murder of a young woman of Korean descent in her Chinatown apartment.
The defendant followed the woman into her building and stabbed her dozens of times, police said.
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