Photo by Gage Skidmore via Wikimedia Commons
Actor and comedian Ken Jeong (The Hangover, Community, Crazy Rich Asians) donated $50,000 to victims of the Atlanta spa shootings that occurred last week and killed eight people, including six Asian women.
Jeong made five separate $10,000 donations to the GoFundMe pages of the families of Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant (maiden name Kim), Yong Yue and Xiaojie “Emily” Tan, People reports.
Though the donations were originally made under the name “Kenneth Jeong” (now listed as “Kendrick Jeong”), and the donor did not directly identify themselves as the actor and comedian himself, People Magazine was able to verify Jeong as the donor.
A day after his donations, Jeong appeared on Late Night with Seth Meyers to directly address the issue of anti-AAPI hate and its presence in the tragedy in Atlanta.
“This was clearly, clearly racially motivated,” he said. “This was clearly a hate crime.”
Jeong, alongside other celebrities and public figures such as Daniel Dae Kim, Olivia Munn and Jeremy Lin, has spoken out against the rise in anti-AAPI hate crimes and violence since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic — a near 150% increase since 2019, according to data from California State University San Bernardino.
“This is precisely due to weaponizing terms like ‘China virus’ and ‘kung flu,’” Jeong said. “This kung flu sh— has got to stop. And we really need to express that loudly.”
“With the Asian American community — enough is enough,” he added. “We’re just fed up.”
GoFundMe pages for the families of victims of the shoot can be found at this link.
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