"This is our home."
"We belong here."
"No hate, more love."
Those sentiments and messages of support were written on poster board signs held by people at the "Stop Asian Hate" rally on Sunday.
At least 200 people gathered at the entrance of the National Underground Railroad Freedom Center on the weekend after eight people, including six Asian women, were killed by a gunman in Atlanta.
The rally began at 5:30 p.m. with speeches and prayer from political, religious and student leaders.
"Today, we remember the victims of anti-Asian discrimination and hate crimes all across the county," Aashka Raval, a third-year student at the University of Cincinnati, told the crowd. "...We are here to listen, share and support change."
The rally was held not only in response to a tragic act of violence, but also to the aggressive and racist actions directed at Asian American since the start of the pandemic.
From March 2020 to February 2021, Stop AAPI Hate, a group that tracks discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, received nearly 3,800 reports of anti-Asian hate.
On Thursday, the Wong family, who own the Oriental Wok restaurants in Fort Mitchell and Hyde Park, spoke out against acts of hate directed at them.
In a post on their restaurant's Facebook page, they wrote over this past year, their homes and cars were egged. Their restaurants have been receiving daily calls telling them, "go back to China" along with threats the Wongs described as crude and violent.
"This has to stop," Felicity Tao, rally organizer and founder of the Greater Cincinnati Chinese Cultural Exchange Association, said. "Racism has no place in our society. Asian Americans are here to stay."
Speakers talked about the pain they've experience following Tuesday's shooting and shared their own experiences of dealing with racism.
"...In American, it's always been just fine to be racist against Asians," Aftab Pureval, clerk of courts for Hamilton County and Cincinnati mayoral candidate, said. "Not just okay, but normal."
Zaw Latt, 32, who lives in Hawaii, said he's in town to visit his parents in Cincinnati, but came to the rally because he wanted to support the community. "This is a systematic problem," he said of anti-Asian hate in the U.S.
"Every time something like this happens we immediately jump to finding a mental fault with the perpetrator – whether sex addiction or whether it's loneliness or whether it's something else," Gautam Chander, 33, of West Chester, said. "That takes away from the actual issue."
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