Killing Eve star Sandra Oh makes impassioned speech at Stop Asian Hate rally in response to Atlanta spa shootings
Sandra Oh addressing a crowd at a Stop Asian Hate rally in Pittsburgh. (Twitter)
Killing Eve star Sandra Oh has delivered a passionate speech at a Stop Asian Hate rally following the shocking Atlanta spa shootings last week.
Eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were killed at three spas in Georgia on 16 March, sending shockwaves through the Asian-American community.
Speaking at a Stop Asian Hate rally in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday (20 March), Sandra Oh addressed the fears Asian-Americans live with on a daily basis.
“Pittsburgh, I am so happy and proud to be here with you and thank you to all the organisers for organising this just to give us an opportunity to be together and to stand together and to feel each other,” Oh said to cheers from the gathered crowd.
I know many of us in our community are very scared, and I understand that. And one way to go through our fear is to reach out to our communities.
“For many of us in our community this is the first time we’re even able to voice our fear and our anger, and I really am so grateful for everyone willing to listen,” she added.
“I know many of us in our community are very scared, and I understand that. And one way to go through our fear is to reach out to our communities.”
BREAKING: Sandra Oh speaks at a “Stop Asian Hate” demonstration in Oakland to about 250 people.
“I am proud to be Asian,” she says. “We belong here.” pic.twitter.com/BCAtBpn4QQ
— Rebecca Johnson (@rebeccapaigejo) March 20, 2021
Oh continued: “I will challenge everyone here, if you see something, will you help me?” she asked, with the crowd chanting “yes!” in response.
Sandra Oh defiantly declares she is ‘proud to be Asian’
“If you see one of our sisters and brothers in need, will you help us?” she asked, again greeted by a chorus of yeses.
Sandra Oh closed out her address by leading the crowd in chants of “I am proud be Asian” and “I belong here”.
Police arrested 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long as their suspect in the shocking case, which has left the Asian-American community reeling.
Captain Jay Baker faced resounding backlash when he claimed that Long orchestrated his mass shooting because of a sex addiction.
“He apparently has an issue, what he considers a sex addiction, and sees these locations as a temptation for him that he wanted to eliminate,” Baker said at a press conference. He went on to claim that Long had “a really bad day” before killing eight people.
Meanwhile, Buzzfeed News reported that Long shared an image of a t-shirt with a logo that read: “COVID-19: imported virus from Chy-na” in 2020.
There has been a sharp rise in the number of anti-Asian hate crimes in the United States in the last year, according to research from Stop AAPI Hate.
The group recorded almost 3,800 anti-Asian racist incidents since the beginning of the coronavirus pandemic, up from 2,808 from the year before.
