“Jeremy & Hudson have been so fed up about the attacks on Asians & crime in general they started a group called Asians Are Strong which promotes unity & being proactive not passive,” says News Anchor Dion Lee who amplified the story on her Twitter. “Jeremy told me break-ins happen ALL the time & most of their staff have had their cars broken into. One 9+ times!”
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Previously on April 21st, Jong and his brother, Ritchie, a volunteer and Brazilian jiu-jitsu blackbelt, quickly intervened and chased the suspect into the Japantown mall while Liao attempted to cut the suspect off. They successfully took the suspect down and made a citizen arrest while waiting for the police to arrive. According to Asians Are Strong, they later found that the victims were a Vietnamese family traveling from Kentucky. The team suspected that the family was targeted because their car was a rental and had an out-of-state license plate, the caption reads. “When I stopped by the restaurant to learn more Jeremy said he’d like to see more community groups work TOGETHER b/c [because] that way we’re all stronger,” said Lee who has been advently reporting on all stories Asian hate and Asian crime related. When we looked into the organizations mission, we learned that Asians Are Strong promotes safety for the Asian community by empowering individuals to take action through self-defense, situational awareness, and bystander intervention.
“With these and numerous prior racist events weighing heavy on us on March 17, 2021, we not only felt the need to meet-up and decompress over a few drinks, but also to share and give voice to our frustrations.” Says the Asians Are Strong about page, “after some venting, but also feeling inspired by Xiao Zhen Xie (the grandma who fought back!), we decided then that we would no longer sit idly by.” But as institutions such as Japantown and Chinatown and parts of the Sunset and Richmond districts battle with the constant fear of Asian Hate related crimes, most (especially in the elders category) were advised to not go out alone and let others know where you will be.
Asian hate crimes around San Francisco and across the nation has risen to a deplorable 150%, about 21 times higher than 2019 which only saw a meager 7%. In 2020, the hate crime rise has been linked to many politicians spewing anti-people of color rhetoric whether targeting Asians or targeting other people of color. The first spike in anti-Asian hate crimes occurred in March and April last year, 2020. However, it occurred alongside a rise in Covid-19 cases and ongoing negative associations of Asian Americans with the virus, an analysis released by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
“We hear the negative things about a community. Why not highlight the good things?” said Grace Horikiri, executive director of the Japantown Community Benefit District, on the subject of her neighborhood’s hopeful bounce-back from the pandemic year. She spoke to the SF Examiner on how Japantowns bounce back may be slower than the rest of the city. On New Year’s Day, a vandal destroyed the cherry blossom trees in front of the Japanese Cultural and Community Center of Northern California. (The incident was captured on camera, though there was no arrest made). A crowdfunding campaign has since covered the cost of replacing the trees, and the cherry blossoms will bloom again next spring.
With that said, the Asians Are Strong community wants you to know very clearly, “it is to remind the world that the Asian community is strong. We are not easy targets. We are not passive. We will protect our families and community. And we will challenge the model minority myth.”
// Get involved with the Asians Are Strong organization; asiansarestrong.org. Follow the org on Instagram as well; @asiansarestrong. Feature photo courtesy of Asians Are Strong.
