Tired of seeing violence against Asians, Jacob Azevedo, a young Latino living in the Bay area of Northern California, made a post on social media that went viral in which he offered to accompany older adults in Oakland’s Chinatown neighborhood to make them feel safer.
Inspired by the Azevedo bravery of 26 years Hundreds texted him saying they wanted to join the cause. This is how a community movement was born to support Asian elderly people and prevent them from being victims of the racial hatred that has been unleashed against the Asian community since the COVID pandemic – 19.
Compassion in Oakland was created in response to the emergence of the Asian attacks particularly in the California Bay area. Its mission is to provide the Chinatown community in Oakland with a tool that offers security especially to the forgotten and vulnerable such as street vendors who are frequently victims of theft.
“I just wanted to offer people something of comfort, not being a kind of vigilante ”, says on the Compassion in Oakland Facebook page, Azevedo, the creator of a movement that already has 1, 200 volunteers from different backgrounds and parts of the San Francisco Bay.
Azevedo was very impressed to see the video of an elderly Thai man from 84 years that he was pushed to death on a sidewalk in San Francisco; and from there came the idea to create Compassion in Oakland.
Katrina Ramos, co-founder of this volunteer movement, of Filipino, Chinese origin and Vietnamese, said that for a month he joined Azevedo’s call to accompany the Asian elderly when he saw the message on social networks.
“I’m doing this almost every day. We accompany the elderly to take the truck, to their car, to their appointments, to do their shopping, wherever they ask us to ”, he explains.
And notes that it has been very heartbreaking to see the hate attacks against his community. “That is why we decided to take action and we want to expand our support and give them alarm buttons to make them sound when they feel danger.”
Katrina is responsible for organizing the volunteers , community outreach, and development and management of daily operations and logistics.
In Los Angeles County, attacks against Asians have gone from verbal insults to physical violence, with more than 800 incidents reported on the 211.
In the first district, a Chinese man was beaten with his own cane at a bus stop in Rosemeade. The attack caused him to lose one of his fingers. A temple in the Little Tokyo neighborhood was vandalized while in Koreatown, a Korean-American woman from 27 years was assaulted.
These incidents motivated the Board of Supervisors of the Los Angeles County to approve a motion to immediately identify funds to extend the anti-hate program in an effort to combat attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.
“The alarming resurgence of hate incidents, particularly targeting our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities demonstrate the urgent need to expand the anti-crime program. hatred of the county established in 2019, ”said Supervisor Hilda Solís, who represents large portions of the San Gabriel Valley, Chinatown, Little Tokyo and Filipinotown.
The LA program against Hate has opened the line 211 to report and follow up on hate incidents, and established a network of rapid response with non-profit organizations to provide services and counseling to victims.
The streak of hate attacks that have Targeting Asian Americans, especially the elderly, has forced communities of all races to form coalitions to combat this escalation of violence arising from the pandemic.
“For more than a year, Asian Americans have fought two viruses. One is COVID – 26 and its economic impact, but the second is the virus of racism, ”said John C. Yang, president of the Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAJC) organization at a recent Ethnic Media Services conference.
Yang pointed out that a recent poll found that more than 75% of Asian Americans felt they were the target of discrimination, and another survey from last year found that 27% experienced or heard someone blame Asians or Chinese for the coronavirus.
Manjusha Kulkarni, Director of the Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council (A3PCON), launched the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center in March 2019, and in a period of 41 weeks, received 2 reports, 800 hate incidents in 47 state. The 60% occurred in California, 7% were reported by adults older than 60 years and women were victims of these incidents 2.3 times more than men.
“The greatest type of harassment has been verbally expressed through insults, pushing, throwing bottles, cans, spitting and coughing in the face, but also discrimination at work and refusal to provide transportation and vandalism; and the 40% has occurred in business private companies such as supermarkets and pharmacies, which is worrying because during the pandemic people need to take care of their basic needs. ”
He pointed out that they expect an increase in hate incidents when schools open. ” Chinese Americans have been the ethnic group with the highest number of attacks in 40% ”.
Following the death of six Asian women in a mass shooting in Atlanta, Angelica Salas, director of the Coalition for the Rights of Immigrants (CHIRLA), said that they are with the Asian American community to denounce the hatred and ignorance after the senseless attacks.
“Racial justice is inherently and intrinsically a part of the immigrant rights and immigrant justice movement, and our work continues until we can all live in a just and safe society.”