Teaneck Committee Hosts 'Rally For Asian Lives'

TEANECK, NJ — The BLM Mural Committee has joined forces with the Asian Student Union and a coalition of others across New Jersey for a candlelight vigil and rally for Asian Lives.

This follows multiple reports of a rise in anti-Asian violence since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, and the metro Atlanta massage parlor shootings last week.

Cherokee County Sheriff's Capt. Jay Baker said Wednesday that the gunman, identified as Robert Aaron Long, 21, of Woodstock, admitted to killings and blamed the massage parlors for fueling his sex addiction, according to a Patch report.

Many of the victims are of Asian descent, but Georgia authorities have yet to fully address whether they consider the shootings racially motivated. Long has denied any racial motivation. Read more: Metro Atlanta Massage Parlor Shootings (5 Things To Know)

The vigil in Teaneck provides North Jersey residents the opportunity to "rise up against anti-Asian violence," according to a flyer for the event. It is scheduled for Thursday at 6:30 p.m. at the site of the Black Lives Matter mural, located at Palisade Avenue and Colonial Court across from the Richard Rodda Center.

Teaneck groups aren't the only ones speaking out about the trend, as officials in Hoboken and Montclair have added their voices, as have other local activist groups in Wayne, and even Valley Health's Social Equity Council.

A Rise In Violence Since The Pandemic

At least two reports tracked anti-Asian violence since the onset of the coronavirus in March 2020 through the first two months of 2021.

The Stop AAPI Hate reporting center received 3,795 reports of anti-Asian violence since March 19, 2020, a recent report states.

Verbal harassment and shunning make up the majority of those reports, with acts of assault accounting for over 11 percent of the total incidents reported to the group.

These numbers are consistent with a recent survey published by the Pew Research Center, which found that 3 in 10 Asian adults have faced slurs and jokes since the start of the coronavirus pandemic.

The survey also found that people are more likely to share racist views about people of Asian descent since the onset of the pandemic.

From Pew:

"A majority of Asian adults (58%) say it is more common for people to express racist or racially insensitive views about people who are Asian than it was before the coronavirus outbreak; roughly four-in-ten white, Black and Hispanic adults say this is more common now. A sizable share of Black adults (45%) also say it is more common for people to express racist views about Black people than before the outbreak, more than the shares of white, Hispanic and Asian adults who say the same."

Stop AAPI Hate said it's important to contextualize that these numbers are just what are being reported, and it's likely the case that more incidents are happening than the nearly 3,800 included in their report.

"The number of hate incidents reported to our center represent only a fraction of the number of hate incidents that actually occur, but it does show how vulnerable Asian Americans are to discrimination, and the types of discrimination they face," the report read.

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