Good morning, and welcome to the Essential California newsletter. It’s Thursday, Oct. 20. I’m Anh Do, and I cover Asian American issues as we work to further diversify our Metro section.
Every week, I’m alerted to new situations where members of the communities I monitor have been attacked because of their race or ethnicity. On the streets, at schools, on the job, at church or while dining, they’re the subject of slurs. They’ve been robbed. Beaten. Threatened. They’ve been assaulted while roaming in their neighborhoods. They describe being mercilessly taunted — some of it captured by cameras.
The anti-Asian violence that existed long before the pandemic has intensified during this time, as evidenced by incidents in California. Groups have emerged in the state with the aim of protecting the elderly. The younger generation began offering an older generation protection as seniors carted home groceries or waited for a bus or walked to their destinations. The spa shootings in Atlanta in spring 2021 spurred the formation of Compassion in Oakland, then Compassion in San Gabriel Valley, a grass-roots spin-off I first shadowed last year, trailing the founder as she shared the urgency of having a team of chaperones on call for safety.
Graphic designer Brittney Au launched the group, and her artistic skills proved valuable in its marketing and promotion. She said she could picture her “grandmother’s face in the faces of those hurt.” She could not let go — and part of her efforts are for “my grandma’s memory.”
Au, 31, and close friend Phoebe Gallo delved into community organizing and trained with Be Boldly, public relations experts who helped them pro-bono. Jason Pu, then a San Gabriel city councilman, went with the group in 2021 to talk to merchants at popular Asian retail areas and tout Compassion’s services and to speak at an anti-hate rally. And he said something struck him at the time: “I looked around and saw what a multiethnic effort it was, and it was heartwarming. It’s allyship — Asians and non-Asians joining together.”
There they were — college students, some of their parents, 20- and 30-something professionals, portfolio managers and the like, often showing up to volunteer, motivated by Gallo and Au. At San Gabriel Square, Au and others in the group stopped at Kee Wah Bakery, Boba Ave, Vege Paradise and Yang’s Braised Chicken Rice. They weaved in between the workers picking up HungryPanda meals for delivery. They moved on to more popular Asian retail areas, passing out multilingual fliers, which translated their message to Chinese, Japanese, Korean and Vietnamese.
In the early months, some residents reacted with joy, thanking the volunteers for their foresight. Others responded with surprise. “Why would we need this?” they asked. “How do we know you’re honest and helpful?”
“Seniors don’t always want a stranger next to them. People had trust issues,” Au recalled. “They still do.”
Calls to the free service picked up by the end of last year, with the San Gabriel City Council lauding the group’s mission. Meanwhile, Stop AAPI Hate data showcased how much their work is needed, supporters said, citing the nearly 11,500 hate incidents reported to the nonprofit between March 19, 2020, and March 31, 2022.
This fall, outreach for service has slowed, and volunteers face a shortage of labor and burnout. To help compensate, the group switched gears, hosting a food drive with the Asian Youth Center as well as free self-defense classes in Rosemead, Rowland Heights and San Gabriel. They distributed safety kits, tucking in personal alarms, pepper spray and flashlights. The gatherings are led by a kung fu instructor, held outdoors at a park to reduce COVID risk. More will be scheduled, due to demand, as Au seeks beefed-up funding and manpower.
“It’s really hard to retain volunteers ever since the world opened up again,” she said. “A lot of people have returned to their new normal lives, believing there’s nothing to fear when it comes to illness or safety. But that’s not true.”
There are people “who think, ‘Look at where we live, everybody’s Asian. No one will harm us,’” Au said. But “when you look at the statistics, when you hear the tragic stories,” she added, “you know people who appear Asian are getting clobbered and shot,” at times blamed for causing the pandemic.
Janet Setsuda, 88, who still taps Compassion in SGV for services three times a week, said she discovered the group through her son, who got a tip from his hairstylist. He worried for his mother’s daily well-being and told her to “call now.”
The longtime SGV resident had walked three to five miles regularly — alone. She’s no longer on her own. She described the volunteers as “wonderful companions; they mirror the name of their group. They’re so compassionate.”
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