Roughly 1,000 people rallied against anti-Asian racism Friday in Southeast Portland, marking the city’s latest Stop Asian Hate event.
The crowd gathered at Harrison Park for an event featuring speakers and performances, as well as an array of tents where people offered resources, information, Asian food and pizza.
The event came the week after a series of shootings at three Atlanta-area spas. Of the eight people killed, six were Asian American women.
About 200 people gathered last weekend along Portland’s waterfront to honor the victims.
Hate crimes targeting Asian people in major U.S. cities rose by nearly 150% in 2020, even though hate crimes overall decreased by 7%, according to a study by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino.
Stop AAPI Hate, an organization that tracks and reports bias crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, tallied nearly 3,800 incidents from March 19, 2020, to the end of last month nationwide.
Bias crimes against Asian American women comprised 68% of the reports. Thirty-five percent of them happened in businesses.
The report noted 40 racist incidents in Oregon.
— Mark Graves
Jaimie Ding of The Oregonian/OregonLive contributed to this report.