Amidst a lion dance, drums and a dinner celebrating the Heroes of API Caucus in San Mateo County, the organization's vice president and also Redwood City Mayor Jeff Gee, called to not only stop hate against the Asian and Pacific Islander (API) community, but to push it back across the area.
In that sense, Gee invited the community to stand up against acts of hate to make San Mateo County a better and safer place to live.
San Mateo County API Caucus is an organization founded in 2018 that seeks to support the API community and elected and appointed API officials, and also advocates and supports policies that promote the goals and aspirations of the API community in San Mateo County.
On June 9, the San Mateo County API Caucus held its first Caucus Heroes Awards Dinner, where the lucky winners of the Ashland Award were recognized.
«Ashland was 14 when she founded the first anti-Asian hate rally in San Mateo", Jeff Gee recalled.
Also honored at the event were Supervisor Dave Pine and former Peninsula Healthcare District CEO Cheryl Fama, who launched a hepatitis B campaign in San Mateo County..
And, he said, talking about hepatitis in the county is an important topic since it ranks fourth in terms of the number of hepatitis B cases in all of California.
Likewise, the work of other organizations such as the Chinese-American Association of American Citizens (OCA) was recognized for its 50th anniversary, during which time it has advocated not only for the Chinese-American community, but for the entire API community.
The mayor of Redwood City recalled the work done by the API legislative group in California, which has managed to obtain resources to track hate crimes, not only against the API community, but in general.
Another important organization that has been working hard in recent years is Stop AAPI Hate, which was recognized for its fight against hate in the Asian American and Pacific Islander community.
At the event, attended by around 200 people, to discuss what can be done together for the API community and for San Mateo County, Jeff Gee called for joining forces to continue implementing measures that support a society of respect and unity.
«I am very honored to be the Mayor of Redwood City and to be part of the API Caucus, I am also honored to be part of Casa Círculo Cultural and the best thing we can do to push back on hate and make San Mateo County a great place to live is to work together across demographics, across the Latinx community, across the Jewish community, across the API community, across the Black community, and across the LGBTQ+ community, to be able to have conversations, work together and know where there are issues and incidences to push back on hate together.", he pointed out.
The API Caucus Heroes Night in San Mateo County becomes a memorable event by bringing together so many people who seek to end acts of hate for the API community but also for all communities that may feel vulnerable to racism, harassment or violence.
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the California State Library.
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