(dramatic music)
- We are here standing together because we are sad.
We are angry and we are exhausted by the roller coaster ride
of emotions that we've all been dealing with today.
(somber music)
- [Interviewer] How are you.
- Sorry, many years ago,
we chose to come here,
not just to assume the education,
but also to pursue freedom.
And this country used to be the country all people look up;
the humanity value,
all people are equal,
doesn't matter the skin color,
doesn't matter where you from,
that's a value we believe too.
I never feel afraid feared of anything,
I feel equal to everybody else,
but all of sudden, I was like,
why does the racial thing become such a big
concern for the whole country?
Why we're being targeted
and we're being to be attacked,
to be pointed finger to?
(soft string music)
We heard so much the terrible attacks
to the elderly and women,
especially in San Francisco and New York.
People worry, they say,
if something threat to your life and to your parents,
your sisters brothers, should we call out for help?
(dramatic music)
When I saw those discussions and concerns,
and I said, maybe we should reach out,
we'll sit down with Tucson PD
and we invited some politician
from different department to listen to our concern,
to listen to the communities' questions.
(dramatic music)
- What is the legal grounds to defend myself
or my loved ones with a legally owned firearm?
- I am not interested in buying a weapon,
but I do here for my life right now.
- The treatment towards Asian-American Pacific Islanders
is uncalled for, it's unjustified, it should be denounced.
- I'm wondering if there's educational efforts out there
to help make that happen and to bring greater awareness
and visibility to the Asian-American community.
- A lot of the times people say,
"Ah, those Asian groups they would not complain,
"they would not, you know, they're the silent majority."
And I think those times have passed.
- We have to first start to understand
what the term Asian-American means.
You know, when they say AAPI, what does that mean?
That means everybody who have heritage
from the Asian-Pacific region
and that involves more than 40 plus countries if not more,
some of them were natives,
they were born here in the United States.
So I guess people have to understand the group itself,
what it means. And then talk about the contribution.
Chinese-Americans have been here since the 1800s,
Korean-American have been here probably
since the '50s and the '60s as well.
So they need to understand, yes, this virus came from China,
but it could have came from Africa,
it could have came from England.
Would you discriminate against anybody from England,
if it started in England, first?
(soft music)
- Chinese labor do the humongous contribution
to the transcontinental railroad
from the west to the east side,
it used to take six months to seven months.
After the railroad was built, seven days,
that make this country jump to a totally different stage.
(dramatic music)
This history was not being put in the education part,
so a lot of people don't know
they think Chinese come here to take things away,
but we're not, with generations here,
we made our contributions, including Indian,
Korean and Japanese people
that involved in the technology, science, entertainment,
and they've all made the contributions to this country.
So I think all the ethnic groups do something.
Do their share
- Being an immigrant myself,
I think every time I think about the opportunity
that was given to me by my parents to go to school here,
to make a living here, it's extraordinary.
Just like all the friends and families
and everybody that I know,
a lot of them were born and raised in the United States,
a lot of them were very grateful,
but I also have a lot of people that
don't understand what they have
and they don't understand why so many people
want to come here legally or otherwise,
it's because they don't have what we have here.
So if they would go out and see the
lives through other people's eyes,
then I think they will understand
we are not so different after all.
- And my communities,
I hope they will stand up
for whatever the problem they encounter,
any bias, any discrimination.
You know, when something like pandemic happened,
what I understand is people, us, all the people
live in this country, in this land,
should work with each other,
help each other to get over this.
Because from time to time, there's pandemic,
but pointing to each other, doesn't help,
doesn't resolve the problem, helping each other will.
United will make us more powerful and stronger.
(dramatic music)
- I wish everybody health
and stay well throughout this next, however many months
and when we can get together safely again,
I invite everybody to come back
to the Chinese Cultural Center
to visit so that we can share our stories
and get back together and go back on the road to normalcy.
- As Dr. Martin Luther king stated so eloquently,
"Darkness cannot drive out darkness;
"only light can do that.
"Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
We must participate actively in the dialogues
that create a light to overcome racism
and support healing in our communities.
(soft music)