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March held to denounce attacks on Asian-Americans

March 19, 2021 Jaime DeJesus

Photos courtesy of Jimmy Li

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Sunset Park hosted a “Unity March Against Hate” on Sunday, March 14.

Community residents, elected officials and members of 40 organizations marched with signs to condemn the growing violence against the Asian-American community.

The march began on Fourth Avenue and 43rd Street and ended on Eighth Avenue.

Participants urged local, state and national leaders to take immediate action to protect Asian-Americans from hate crime and bias attacks.

State Senator Andrew Gounardes said the attacks are not a new phenomenon and must be stopped.

“[Hate crimes are] not just in neighborhoods where we have a majority of Asian-Americans that we should care about this,” Gounardes said. “We should be fighting against bigotry and hatred against the neighborhood of every single city. It doesn’t matter where you come from.”

One marcher said elected officials should take immediate action to prevent people from similar attacks by providing more resources and training to hate crime unit officers and more language support for the victims.

“We have to stand together and fight against these idiots who do this hate,” said Assemblymember Peter Abbate. “We will continue this fight to make sure it stops. It has to end.”

“We must stand together hand in hand to denounce racism against the Asian-American community,” said Jimmy Li. “We are very happy to have our community allies today.”

Participating organizations included New York City Alliance for Unity, Sunset Park Lions Club, Muslim Community Center and Asian American Alliance Group.