 It is the one-year anniversary of the Atlanta spa shootings and I think a lot of people are taking this time as a moment of reflection. There's a lot of think pieces and a lot of journalists have come out to write things talking about the stop Asian hate movement, what it did and where is it going? Yeah, I think they're chronicling the ups, the downs, the pros, the cons, the disagreements within the movement and obviously the great things that the movement did accomplish. But I think I saw like 10 to 15 to 20 different publications drop their sort of like recap pieces today. Yeah, and I think it's great for the conversation. It's great to move it forward. Do I also think some of the publications did it for the views, possibly to who knows? But either way, it's a big conversation right now and it's a good time for reflection. So what we wanna do in this video because we were contributing to the stop Asian hate movement, we were part of a rally and so forth. We wanna ask the question, did the stop Asian hate rally actually stop any Asian hate? For sure, clearly the Asian hate incidents are continuing to happen. We may or may not know if it prevented any attacks because that kind of stuff is not gonna be tracked because it didn't happen. But also I wanna ask, what were the major flaws with the movement and what could we change about it moving forward? Because now everybody is asking the question, where do we go from here? I wanna point out a major flaw. It was unclear about who stop Asian hate was for. I'm sure it was for everybody, but it needed to be clear that for a potential victim, stop Asian hate meant maybe change the way you move, rethink some behaviors, to non-Asian bystanders that are good Samaritans, it informed them to step into an incident where they feel like they could realistically help with unreasonable means and to a potential attacker, theoretically subconsciously, the term stop Asian hate could be in their brain and subconsciously stop them from acting out and being an aggressor violently in an incident. Also some people are asking if stop Asian hate actually increased the attacks, which I'm not sure about. I don't know if there's a way to measure that. Anyways, let's talk about the good things that the stop Asian hate movement visibly did have an impact on. I think the Asian-American narrative is more congealed now than it has been in maybe like 20 years. Yeah, I think this is as unified as I've seen the Asian community in my life's history that I can visually say. Obviously there's social media, all the hashtags, it brought people that were not thinking about Asian issues into it. There's Asian people who didn't wanna think about Asian issues now that got brought into it and everybody knows that there are now issues about this. I mean, we have like family members that messaged us and they're more like, you know, they like to more hang out with just non-Asian people or white people and they were saying, oh man, this was like the first time I ever really like sat and thought about it for more than like five minutes. Another thing that it led to, it did push through a couple policy things. It wasn't just like on an individual basis. Government hutchle of New York State did pledge a $10 million to Asian causes. I don't know exactly what that means or how that's being split up. Yeah, I think a lot of people are kind of skeptical about the distribution of those funds to be honest because these things are very incredibly difficult to track. I do think to stop Asian hate movement was the final push for pushing more high schools to teach Asian American history in the schools. The positive effects of teaching Asian American history in schools will take a decade at least because you're like teaching kids and the kids need to grow up and then you'll start to see the effects. I think that people are more likely to step in and help when they see an Asian being attacked because they're like, oh, I know that this is a trend right now that vulnerable people, women, Asian women, just Asians in general, older Asians being attacked. It's like, oh man, this is a thing. I gotta step in and say something. It definitely increased everybody's thoughts about self-defense. I mean, people are thinking about it on a whole new levels now. I know people are taking classes, people are buying pepper spray. And finally, I think that for some people, they didn't feel like that there was leaps and bounds made by the stop Asian hate movement but one of the small steps was Asians just talking about their pain and talking about the struggles and talking about how much they felt targeted and that was progress. Although it seems like a small step because ultimately I think a lot of people wish that Asians would just become strong and gear up and march. You mean become like Navy SEAL Ninja Turtles? Yeah, I don't know. We didn't like band together and set up a whole bunch of military patrols which I'm not saying we should have done or shouldn't have done, but there is a lot of people who wished that's what happened. I do think there was a slight push in media. Like I do think some of the media companies were willing to green light some more Asian stories. Now the question is that everybody's wondering did it stop actual Asian hate? Obviously we're still in the movement. It's not like one year was meant to be like a technical checkpoint but many people use it as a reflection checkpoint. Yeah, the movement doesn't last a year. I mean, it could last for years. I mean, it's gonna last as long as there is Asian hate attacks. Now there's obviously attacks that are still happening to this day. I don't know if the stop Asian hate prevented any because we don't really have the statistics. There's not as many stories. There's a couple of kind of hate attacks being people kind of intervening. So I think that's where you see the movement take place and have an impact. But no, as far as like the hate crime dip, like it's not like the Asian hate movement became a hashtag and then the crime dipped. No. It's possible that even though there may even have been an increase from a year ago that there's also a lot more incidents being stopped. But to your point, those don't get recorded because they're stopped. I think one of the main issues that people had was stop Asian hate. It was a double negative. Some people talked about the law of attraction and you just even put the word Asian hate out there potentially in the mind of some deranged individuals that actually increases Asian hate because these people don't like being told what to stop. In fact, they may reverse, vice versa, increase it. Right, they may have an inverse reaction and maybe they're just like, stop Asian hate. Hate Asian, hate Asian and maybe that's even in their brain. I mean, most of the people are mentally ill. So that's why some people had suggested some remixes, spread Asian love, keep Asian strong, fight Asian hate, build stronger Asians, defend weak Asians. I think that actually all those hashtags are actually legit depending on who you are and depending on who you're speaking to. I think if you're speaking to an internal Asian group, I know Make Asian Strong is used by this group of like martial artists or self-defense guys out in the Bay Area and that makes sense because they're like, yo, Make Asian Strong, like we're about to show you how to defend yourselves or spread Asian love is more by people who are probably not the fighters who are not the ones who are able to step in physically in a fight but they're like, I wanna spread Asian positivity and that eventually is gonna flow down. Is that a little hippie-ish of thinking? Yes and no, but I actually think in the long term it can work for many people. The big issue with stop Asian hate is some people thought it was kind of a little bit like too much of a victim situation, right? Almost like a kid at recess or something like that, like on a bully, you're like, hey, stop bullying me. And then people were kind of saying like, yee, I mean, that's like, it's a double negative. It's a little bit putting yourself in a weak position. Yeah, there was a great quote from one of the articles from one of the activists that's part of the stop Asian hate movement. She said, if we continue this idea of stopping Asian hate, that perpetuates this idea that we are constant victims of hate. We need to have a more empowering narrative that we are speaking out and fighting back. So she's basically saying, hey, listen, stop Asian hate was great, I'm part of this movement. We were all part of the movement. Everybody hopped on the hashtag when you needed to to get the message out but now that the message is out there, how do we fine tune the message? Also, I don't wanna forget that the article did say that after the movement congealed a little bit, people still had their disagreements about where to apply that newfound magnification or amplification of voice. A lot of people in the community, I would say to be honest, way more than 50%, they want more police in the community because police will protect the weak, vulnerable people, hopefully from being attacked more. And then some people are saying, oh my gosh, we can't support the police because I'm on this other side that's like, going for like mental health reform and redistributing funds and blah, blah, blah, blah. So it kind of, the article was pointing out there being some disagreement even within the movement. One year, really not that long. So I am kind of happy in where it's gone but I do think there has to be some fine tuning and that's why there are some important questions that we do have to ask ourselves being the Asian community moving forward. Okay, in the short term, here are some questions that you need to ask yourself or ask your community. And short term being like one to five years. These are things that you can immediately do individually. How do we prepare individuals of our community, especially the vulnerable ones, so that they're able to avoid or defend themselves against such potential attacks? I really don't know if the martial arts programs is where I would want to see the heaviest investment. I just don't think you can train a 60 year old person to be it man. That sounded like a joke and it was like kind of me being humorous about the truth. That ain't real. I think giving people pepper spray is a start. You have to practice using pepper spray in order to use it properly but really situational awareness is going to be your first and foremost defense tool. Another question is how do we prosecute individuals harsher and make sure that they don't just walk in and out of jail? Obviously a lot of these people who are attacking people are career criminals. They've been arrested 30, 40, 50 times sometimes. So obviously these people probably shouldn't be walking streets. Another one is which political party is going to have the best solutions to stop Asian hate and should Asians all vote for that party? Now there's debate right now, like we said in an earlier video about Asians turning Republican, whether the Republican Party or the Democratic Party is going to provide better solutions. I don't know yet. It's not clear. I believe that both groups knowing that the Asian vote is up for grabs is going to pander but some people are going to and it's going to be a mix on all sides, fake pander, real pander, hybrid, half real, half fake. I think you're going to see statements from both parties. Do I think both parties really care about Asians? To be honest, no, but I don't know. This is just the game that we're in. Here are some questions that you should ask yourself that are probably going to have a larger impact in the next five to 10 years, maybe not immediately. But it's also like how do we push for more mental health resources so that these erratic men have places to stay and are getting the help versus them being on the street potentially harming people? Another question is how do you push for better policing? Or if you don't want more police, how do you restructure the police so that they are doing a better job? And then here's some long-term questions. These are the things that I think will really affect things really in 15 plus more years. How does Asian American history being in the curriculum actually help people to build empathy and understanding for Asian people so that there is less Asian hate in the future? Obviously, if we just said, oh, more Asian history in the schools, that doesn't mean next year kids stop hating Asians. That just means that maybe next year you will learn about Asians and then down the road 15 years from now you don't hate them anymore. Also, will Asians leave high-risk zones? Will Asians migrate to places like, I don't know, Texas or like just inland or just away from the big cities? If they feel like the big cities are essentially not looking out for their interests or willing to compromise their safety? Here's another big question actually. I think a lot of like particularly Asian guys are asking, you know, Asian men being like the protectors of a community traditionally, right? Like I think a question is like, how aggressive or militant do Asian guys get? How much more stronger and aggressive and intimidating should we get? And how much more like, you know, excuse my language, weaponized should we get in order to protect our community? And that's a question that a lot of Asian guys are asking themselves. That's real, that's real. That's a real question. I'll tell you this Andrew, that's a very real question. Somehow did not get brought up in the slate and the Vox article. No, and I'm not putting it all on Asian men. Of course, I'm an Asian guy, but I understand that like as an Asian dude, you want to jump out there and do something. You want to like be on the street, but then you're like, I don't have a career, I got a life, like I don't want to get hurt, blah, blah, blah, but you're like. I personally like make Asians strong. I think it's something that could last like for a really long time, you know, whether these incidents die down or they continue. That's personally the one I like. If you learn to be vigilant yourself, that's something that never leaves you regardless, whether you're in a protected place like an airport or just literally on a dark alleyway. But it is a somber reminder, it's a somber recap, guys. Please let us know in the comments section below. Try to keep it civil. Obviously everybody's gonna have a different opinion because we've all lived different lives, we have different lenses, we have different priorities, we have different beliefs of what will be the best solution for everybody. I'm sure ultimately everybody in the comments section doesn't want there to be violence against anybody and they want peace. So yeah, let us know, keep it civil. Till next time, we're the hot pot boys, we out. Peace.