Several dozen people gathered in downtown Reno’s City Plaza Saturday, March 27 to protest anti-Asian violence in the wake of attacks against the Asian community across the nation. The event was part of a National Day of Action promoted by the Party for Socialism and Liberation, which said groups in more than 60 cities gathered to protest anti-Asian violence and China-bashing.
Racially motivated attacks against Asians, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have increased over the past year. On March 16, six Asians were killed by a white gunman in Atlanta, Georgia, in a shooting spree that is widely believed to be a racially-motivated hate crime.
The Stop AAPI Hate reporting center was launched March 19, 2020 to track violence, discrimination, bullying and other race-motivated violence toward people in the AAPI community. Since it launched, it has documented nearly 3,800 reported incidents—a number they say is just a fraction of those that actually occur.
According to data from Stop AAPI Hate, verbal assaults and shunning made up the largest proportion of reported incidents, at 68.1% and 20.5% respectively. Physical assault came in third at 11.1% of reported incidents. AAPI women reported incidents at more than twice the rate of men.
While none of the day’s speakers said they had faced physical attack, many spoke to the casual racism they face, such as being told they don’t look Asian or asking why their eyes are not more slanted.
Phuong Tran also brought attention to the fetishizing of Asian women in Western culture.
The protest remained peaceful.
