Below is a list of events and protests in response to an uptick in violence against the AAPI community, in particular a mass shooting in Atlanta that left six Asian Americans and two others dead. (If you know of other #StopAsianHate rallies with Berkeley connections let us know by emailing editors@berkeleyside.com, subject headline “AAPI event.”)
Friday, April 2, 2:30 p.m. | Youth Led Protest | Oakland A group of Berkeley High students is organizing this march and rally in Oakland. The march will start in front of Oakland City Hall. Protesters will walk through Chinatown to the Lake Merritt amphitheater, where they will be a rally and a vigil.Lucia Moratinos-Chu said the mass shooting in Atlanta was the impetus.
“I felt really sad and frustrated and I felt helpless too,” she said. After she heard the news, she called her good friend, Abby Lamoreaux, who is also a junior with Chinese heritage at Berkeley High. Lamoreaux said her own family has experienced anti-Asian prejudice. Recently her mother went into a grocery store where someone told her to stay away because she had the coronavirus. “We hear about our elders being attacked and slammed on the ground for merely being Asian-American,” she said.
The pair decided to organize a rally and are now working with BHS students as well as students from Oakland Technical High School. The group can be found at Bayareaaapi on Instagram.
Sunday, April 4, 2:30-4:30 p.m. | AAPI Raising Our Voices: A Healing Gathering | Virtual An online offering for Pan-Asian, Asian American, Pacific Islander and South Asian American identified people organized by the East Bay Meditation Center.
PAST EVENTS:
Sunday, March 28, 2 to 4 p.m. | Asian American Pacific Islander Youth Rising rally | Berkeley People will meet at Aquatic Park next to the Waterside Workshops at 84 Bolivar Dr. Speakers scheduled include City Council members Rashi Kesarwani and Rigel Robinson, as well as Mina F., a 7th-grade student who is one of the organizers. After the rally, marchers will talk to the pedestrian bridge that crosses I-80 to hold up banners.
March 25, 5:30 p.m. | Stop Asian Hate Rally | Berkeley Protesters will meet at the intersection of San Pablo Avenue and Buchanan St. in Albany to hold up signs decrying Asian hate.
March 21 | About 50 people attended another Stop Asian Hate rally in Berkeley’s Civic Center Park.