I am here today to speak out about the hate crimes, violence, and racism that AAPIs have been experiencing. This is nothing new. For hundreds of years our community has endured racism, hate, and violence, but now more than ever our community and people of Asian descent, members of the AAPI community, here in America are facing hate and violence.

Ever since the pandemic started, violence and hate crimes against AAPIs have increased greatly. We are scared to leave our homes. We are scared to go outside just because of the color of our skin and the way we look. Now, more than ever, we need to stand together in solidarity against anti-AAPI hate and racism.

People in the media say harmful things about us. Saying things like the “China virus” puts a target on our back regardless of what Asian ethnicity we are. To blame AAPI for this pandemic is such a dangerous, dangerous thing to do. Words have power and these kinds of words influence and fuel the hate and violence against us. Back when 9/11 occurred, right after that tragic incident took place, violence and hate against those of Hindu, Indian, and Sikh origins skyrocketed. Last week in Georgia, there was a mass shooting killing eight people, six of which were AAPI women. Authorities have yet to confirm the motive for the shooting, but I believe that it was due to racism.

Every day, numerous AAPIs are being robbed, beaten in the streets, or even killed in their own homes. Our elders are now a big target. When I was a little girl, I was lucky enough to have not experienced an extreme case of racism in my life, but experience it, I did. When I was a little girl in 6th grade, I remember being the only AAPI person in the entire classroom. All the other ones ended up in the next class and being AAPI my teacher made fun of me quite often. He had a nickname for me, he called me “Wonton”. He would call me that name for fun, not exactly trying to be harmful but I didn’t like it either. Every time he called me that, he and the whole class would laugh at me. I never told him to stop because I was scared that people would look at me and see me as something lesser.

This may not have been a serious case of racism but I had to grow up with this behavior being “normalized” for me. I got used to the things that people said, I grew up thinking that I just had to endure it. And that is so toxic and harmful, for anyone in this generation to grow up thinking that racism towards you has to be endured. How can we let this continue? How can we let these atrocities go on? When will things change? When will we finally take a step towards the end of hate? How many more lives do we have to lose before things start to change?

That’s why I am here today. Today, I am here to start that conversation. The conversation that maybe many of you never had before or thought that it shouldn’t be said. We need to come together as a community to educate and inform each other of the things that need to be said and done. We need to take these steps in order to achieve change to make this place safer. So that we can stop race hate and violence. We all need to come together, all communities–the BLM, Latinx, AAPI, lgbtqa+, black, brown, white–and everyone needs to stand together in solidarity.

No, we will not take this anymore, no we will not stand for this violence anymore. Take the first step, have those hard conversations, take accountability for the mistakes that you have made and educate others so that we can make a change for the better.