GARDEN GROVE, Calif. — The mat shakes with the power of black belt martial artists, and 17-year-old Garden Grove resident Jamie Pham looks on at the demonstration.
It’s part of a self-defense event in Garden Grove held in light of a rise in attacks on Asian Americans.
Organizations like Nailing It For America and the Orange County Asian and Pacific Islander Community Alliance were joined by Garden Grove police, as instructors from the Vietnam Martial Arts Center taught around 50 participants self-defense outside of Advance Beauty College in Garden Grove.
Pham explained how she fears for the safety of older generations like her grandparents.
“It’s very scary because there’s so many potential threats that can happen to them. Especially with my grandparents, too, now. It’s like, I want my grandparents to go outside and live life, but it’s like I know it makes me more confident knowing that they’re inside,” she said.
According to Stop AAPI Hate, there were nearly 3,800 incidents reported against Asian Americans between March 2020 and February of 2021.
After sunset, the event moved down the street to Community Center Park. Attendees remembered victims of attacks, particularly the Atlanta shooting that left eight people dead, including six women of Asian descent.
Rev. Matthew Ahn, who had lived in the U.S. for more than 50 years, and his wife Grace came to the event to show solidarity with their Seal Beach Leisure World community, where police are investigating a hateful letter sent to a grieving widow of Asian heritage just this week.
“We are really, really frightened, sad, angry, and that’s why I came here,” Ahn said.
And as they put their lessons into practice, the younger generations like Pham hope events like these raise awareness.
“I really hope this spreads a message to a lot of people that we can fight and we’re not going to back down, and hopefully to ease some sort of discrimination out there in the world,” Pham said.