SAN DIEGO COUNTY, Calif. — With signs in hand, a large group of people gathered in Carlsbad Village and Del Mar on Sunday to show their anger and frustration with the rise of hate crimes against Asian Americans throughout the country. The tipping point was an attack last Tuesday in which a gunman killed eight people in three Atlanta-area spa businesses. Six of the victims were Asian women.
High-schoolers Joan Chong and Ara Lee organized the rally in Carlsbad.
“It almost brought me to tears just knowing that this could have been me,” said Chong. “Or someone’s mother or sister or friend. It was just heartbreaking.”
In Del Mar, crowds lined the sidewalks and bridges to show their support and solidarity with the victims of the Atlanta shootings and all of those affected by hate crimes in the United States.
“Yesterday, I went to a vigil honoring the eight lives we lost in the Atlanta shooting,” says organizer and high school student Katherine Ge, “It brought me to tears when we were all singing and when we all told our own stories.”
The rallies in San Diego were a part of a bigger series of protests. From New York to Chicago to Los Angeles the message was clear: stop the hate against Asian Americans who have seen an increase of violence against them since the pandemic started. Though there has been a well-documented rise in violence against Asian Americans recently, some acts haven't been labeled as hate crimes including the recent shootings in Atlanta.
“I definitely feel like we need to start speaking up and taking accountability for what has happened and labeling things as hate crimes,” said Lee. “Hopefully today we will realize that silence is violence and we need to speak up.”
Organizers believe that these acts of violence and prejudice against Asian Americans have always existed in the United States and hope that these rallies will put the issue of hate and racism against them into the forefront of the American conscience.
WATCH: San Diegans react to deadly Georgia shooting