San Gabriel resident and community organizer Brittney Au is tired and angry.
On Jan. 21, a Saturday night, Au had just come home from celebrating the Lunar New Year weekend with friends, when news broke that a gunman targeted a dance studio near where she lives in Monterey Park, killing 11 people.
When asked if she was OK, Au, 31, said she “doesn’t know how to answer that question.”
“It’s exhausting, mentally, physically, socially,” Au said. “I feel hopeless, helpless and powerless every time I hear about a new incident or attack. This hit so close to home.”
After mass shootings in Monterey Park and, just two days later, Half Moon Bay, which involved both Asian victims and shooters, Au and many others in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community were left shaken.
They’ve already faced waves of anti-Asian hate crimes in the wake of the coronavirus pandemic. They’ve been healing from the 2021 shooting spree at Asian spas in Atlanta, a 2022 targeted attack on a Taiwanese church in Laguna Woods and countless other incidents that have gone unreported or did not receive national attention.
AAPI people nationwide are sick of feeling targeted and unsafe in their own neighborhoods.
In Southern California and beyond, more AAPI organizations and individuals are doing something to address these fears – starting with talking about them. It’s this community’s way of fighting back while still allowing themselves to process and grieve.
“None of it makes sense – more members of our community are dying for no reason,” said Au, who co-founded the San Gabriel Valley-based nonprofit Compassion in SGV in 2021.
Days after the shooting, Au and co-organizer Naomi Hom put together a candlelight vigil in front of the Star Dance Ballroom Studio, where the Monterey Park shooting happened, so that the community can come together to mourn the lives lost and “begin to heal.”
The Jan. 25 vigil included speakers on mental health, multilingual…
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