By Louis Chan
AsAmNews National Correspondent
Asian Americans plan to light up the night in response to the recent incidents of hate in Charlottesville.
A candlelight vigil will be held just hours before a pro-Trump Patriot Prayer rally is planned in San Francisco on Saturday and another demonstration of White Supremacists in Berkeley on Sunday.
The vigil dubbed Light up the Night- from Charlottesville to Chinatown: No Hate will be held on the pedestrian bridge leading from the Chinese Culture Center to Portsmouth Square in San Francisco’s Chinatown Friday at 8 p.m.
A civil rights symposium is scheduled right before the vigil at the Chinese Culture Center from 6:30 to 8 p.m.
“A number of groups and leaders who came together to advocate against recent xenophobic immigration rhetoric and policy proposals were horrified about what we saw happen in Charlottesville and wanted to make sure we were both educating our community and speaking out against White supremacy,” Vincent Pan, Co-director of Chinese for Affirmative Action, said to AsAmNews.
CAA is part of a coalition of groups which organized under the banner No More Exclusion prior to the 135th anniversary of the Chinese Exclusion Act.
RELATED: 135 Years After the Chinese Exclusion Act, Asian Americans Say No More
Among the speaker at the symposium will be Reverend Norman Fong, Chinatown Community Development Center; Rabbi Lynn Gottlieb, Jewish Voice for Peace; Joyce Lam, Chinese Progressive Association; Annette Wong, Chinese for Affirmative Action; Clifford Yee, Organization of Chinese Americans – San Francisco Chapter; Sandra Lee Fewer, San Francisco Board of Supervisors and Phil Ting, California State Assembly Member.
Last week in Charlottesville, White supremacist marched through the University of Virginia holding torches. The image and size of the crowd stunned a nation and put it in turmoil.
It’s no coincidence that the symposium will end with a candlelight vigil of people supporting diversity and inclusion.
“Light representing hope and love is necessary to combat the hate of White supremacy,” said Pan.
He said the threat of what he called “overt white supremacy” directly affects Asian Americans. He cited the rise in hate crimes against the AAPI community and the continued “unequal access to education, health and employment opportunities.”
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RE:Chinese Americans to stage candlelight vigil in Response to Charlottseville:in I didn’t know there was a Chinese for Affirmative Action group. It’s seems just last week the Asian community was organizing to sue UCLA for affirmative action. . I thought “affirmative action” had become a bad word these days.
Chinese for Affirmative Action has a 48 year history in San Francisco and is responsible for integrating the police, fire, media and construction trade in the city as well as being a strong advocate for saving the community college satellite campus in Chinatown. Check out their work here: http://www.caasf.org/
RE: Chinese Americans to stage Candlelight vigil in response to Charlottesville: I’m sure you understand “Affirmative Action” means preferential treatment. Preferring one race over another is just plain racism. It had its place and time but now it’s 2017. We’re still keeping Asians from being admitted to universities so we can push in more blacks and Mexicans for “forced diversity”. Any wonder why the whites have become a little itchy lately as well.? All we need now is for the East Indians to get more demanding then we will have successfully cut America into five separate groups. Are we really heading in the right direction. What happened to the melting pot.?