The Tucson Chinese Cultural Center is bringing together Tucson’s Asian community to share any concerns they may have about hate crimes and their safety.
The center is hosting a roundtable meeting Tuesday evening, and the Tucson Police Department Street Crime Interdiction Unit will be available to answer questions.
The meeting was organized in response to a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes nationally since the start of the pandemic.
National group Stop AAPI Hate has reported almost 3,800 incidents of discrimination between March 19, 2020, and Feb. 28, 2021. Stop AAPI Hate is a reporting center that tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment and discrimination against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.
Shootings this month at three massage businesses in the Atlanta area have raised concerns about violence against Asians. Eight people were killed in the March 16 shootings, most of them Asian.
“TCCC condemns any act of physical violence or verbal abuse to our Asian American community,” Tucson Chinese Association president Peter Chan said in a letter to its members. “We stand with all Asian Americans. We support all Asian Americans and all of the values of humanity.”
The meeting will be held virtually at 6 p.m. Tuesday on Zoom and is intended as a space for Tucson’s Asian community to discuss and share concerns.
“We must participate actively in the dialogues that create the light to overcome racism and support healing in our communities,” Chan wrote.
To join the meeting, email info@tucsonchinese.org for the Zoom link. Space will be limited.
The Tucson Chinese Cultural Center worked with the Organization of Chinese Americans (OCA), the Pan Asian Community Alliance, the Southern Arizona Japanese Cultural Coalition, the Asian Pacific American Student Affairs and other University of Arizona groups to plan the event.
