Marin Rallies Against Anti-Asian Hate: Report

SAN RAFAEL, CA — A group of around 200 people held a demonstration against the rise in anti-Asian hate and violence Friday at City Plaza in San Rafael, The Marin Independent Journal reports.

The rally was held amid a nationwide surge of attacks on people of Asian descent including the March 16 Atlanta spa attacks.

A moment of silence was held at Friday’s rally for the eight people killed in the attacks, which including six women of Asian descent.

Law enforcement officials have not classified the incident is a hate crime.

There have been nearly 3,800 hate attacks against Asian people in the last year according to the group Stop AAPI Hate.

That the explosion of anti-Asian hate incidents followed former President Donald Trump's incendiary rhetoric amid the pandemic is no coincidence according to a UC Berkeley expert.

Trump's use of the terms "China virus" and "kung flu" were especially problematic, UC Berkeley Asian American and Asian Diasporas Studies Associate Professor Lok Siu said in an interview with Berkeley News, the university's official publication.

"… that automatically associated the virus with Chinese people, a racial category that references people of Chinese descent, regardless of location," Siu told the publication.

"By blaming the Chinese as the cause of the pandemic, he ignited anti-Chinese sentiments and channeled popular fear and rage against East Asian-appearing persons."

The results of a UC San Francisco study published in the American Journal of Public Health support Siu’s conclusion.

The study concluded that a direct correlation between the use of the #Chinavirus hashtag and anti-Asian sentiment, ABC News reports.

The rise in anti-Asian hate incidents illustrates that such sentiments fuel violence, Dr. John Brownstein, the study’s author said according to the ABC News report.

"We often see that online conversations that contain messages of hate don't stay online," Brownstein said. "Oftentimes, the conversations that take place on social media results in real world consequences."

Read more in The Marin Independent Journal