 I'm sure you guys have heard about the surge in anti-Asian hate violence in America. There has been some coverage in the media, although I think there could be a lot more because a lot of people in this country are still not aware of it. And a lot of what the mainstream media has been covering has been pretty general and big picture, which is great. However, we do think that there could be a stronger focus on the more specific actionable items. So we've made a lot of videos about this in the past and we've been helping throw rallies here in New York City locally. But we wanted to take our time and give you guys something a little bit different than what you guys might have been seeing. So here's a list of 20 things you need to do or at least think about when it comes to the anti-Asian hate right now. Let's go. And by the way, everybody, these are just our opinions. This is a list that we came up with. So if you guys agree or disagree, let us know in the comments down below because I do believe a healthy conversation is helpful. Number one, first things first. You have to protect yourself and your family. Remember, guys, you are your own first responder. Listen, guys, I'm not saying that there aren't situations that are completely out of our control, but to the extent that they are, I think that we can all do better and we can all just do better as a community, as family members, as a culture. I think we've all got to take a look at our own personal situations, the way our family is moving and just send out text messages, emails, ping people, ask them how they're doing, ask them what their plan is, ask them how they're moving, understand routes, and listen, guys, this is what we can do right now. Send out a text, send out an email, call somebody. There are so many different aspects to maintaining your own safety, whether that's situational awareness, pre-planning certain routes, or buying self-defense tools on Amazon. In fact, if you need to pause this video right now, make sure you text or contact somebody within your family or your circle who could be perceived as an easy target. Throughout all the media that I've seen on this topic, I rarely ever hear a call to action for Asians to defend themselves, and that's something that may be more inherently natural for other groups of people, but I think that Asians need to hear it directly. At point number two, if you cannot bring yourself to even look into purchasing one of many legal self-defense tools off the internet or from a store, then I urge you to rethink that mindset. So a lot of families, including our own, did not really stress the use of tools or security weapons for self-defense. It's not how we're raised to think. I'm not telling you to go purchase a legal firearm. What I'm telling you is to just think a little bit more about your own safety. There's a lot of different levels to legal self-defense tools and even something like a very high lumen, aka very bright tactical flashlight, can do a lot. Flash somebody in the face, or you can hit somebody with it. I'm not telling everybody that they have to get a tactical belt with a holster in all these gadgets here, like pepper spray, an alarm, a tactical flashlight, and a kublaton, but it does look kind of cool. It's very important that you find the level of self-defense tool that you actually want to use because even something like this little siren can actually maybe help disrupt the confrontation. When it comes to self-defense, obviously there's a huge physical aspect to it, but with that I would definitely recommend you watch these channels down here. But again, like I'm saying, use technology for your own safety and your family safety. Point number three, you do not need to engage in the keyboard warrior battles. Listen guys, I get it. There are people being killed, there are people being beaten, being targeted from everything, from the worst things to as light as a micro-aggression. And that has people very emotional and that emotion is translating itself into just different philosophies that are being expressed on Instagram. I'm not going to say who's right or who's wrong, I don't even know if there's an answer to that, but I do know one thing, these issues will not be solved in the comments section. There is so much finger pointing on Twitter, Reddit, Instagram, any platform you can name and as we know guys, it is very difficult to change anyone's mind over the internet. Everyone wants equality, justice, peace and safety for everyone. But a lot of people have differing philosophies, pathways and methodologies and priorities on how to achieve that. We're actually all arguing about different GPS routes to the same destination. But you know what that doesn't do? Get us closer to that destination. The most important, impactful and just moving the needle type conversations are definitely not taking place in the comments section. So while it is valid to have discussions and arguments about what approach to take, I think there are more urgent discussions like people's personal and family safety to have right now. That's probably higher on the priority list than big picture philosophies. Point number four, these incidents are happening in real life and therefore that change that we want to see is going to also have to happen in real life. Reposting to your followers and friends on your Instagram account is a start and it's good, but it's really like step one out of ten. Now I know this might sound kind of unappealing to a lot of people because it's kind of uncomfortable and requires some work. However, building bridges within our community and with outside communities is ultimately going to be a huge part of the solution. As a internet person and content creator, I understand you can do a lot on the internet, but you can't do everything. Now that you've retweeted, reposted, restored, now what? Point number five, acknowledge that it is truly scary to be a good Samaritan and put your own body in harm's way. But the answer is absolutely not to do nothing like the security guards in Midtown, New York did nothing when the old Asian grandma was being kicked in the head. But then 30 seconds into it, we see them close the door to the building and watch the 65-year-old woman being brutally beaten. There are so many different levels of being involved in an incident or attack from zero, one, two, three, four to five. Now is not the time to pick zero. Absolutely. Listen, guys, I know that different people have different capacities and things they feel comfortable doing, but zero absolutely cannot be an option. You can still contribute to helping stop something or helping an incident at a level one out of five, but you cannot pick zilch nothing. Trust me, guys, I understand there have been situations in my past that happened and I froze up when I thought I was going to do something. So that's why it's so important that we think about it, we talk about it with our friends, we visualize. So God forbid something does happen in front of us. We're ready to help. Number six, when it comes to being a good Samaritan, what might help is remembering the five D's. Number one, document. Number two, disrupt or distract. Number three, delegate. Number four is direct. And number five, last but not least, defend. Documenting is important, of course, because you see all these videos going viral because someone documented it. Also, it gathers specific and important information about potentially finding the suspect. Disrupting and distracting is really important because a lot of people tend to think, oh, if I want to intervene, I have to get my hands in there. There's a lot of ways that you can draw attention to it or disrupt the confrontation before it even happens or while it's happening. Three, delegate. That means calling for help, whether that's police, firefighters, or somebody around you, or even just someone who might be more equipped than you to intervene. And for direct, you've got to speak up about things directly because, you know, some of these attacks have always kind of happened, but not on this level. And it's because people are speaking up about it, which is why everybody's calling for change. And for the fifth D of defend, I mean, let's be honest, this is probably the largest opportunity for us to grow as a community. We are not generally known to defend ourselves as well for whatever reason, but hey, listen, remind yourself, let this sink into your head and just think about it over and over again because it is something that we will need to improve at. Remember, these are my five D's that I kind of modified off of a list that I saw on Instagram, but again, I'm not the only list out there, so check out all these links down below in the description. There'll be lots of resources. At the end of the day, you don't have to listen to anybody who's telling you to do it that way or this way. You don't even have to listen to me, but you have to figure something out for yourself. Point number seven, I understand that worrying about the personal safety of yourself and the others around you is an uncomfortable new addition to many people's lives. However, do not let it distract you from your game plan in life. Do not let it distract you from doing your day job and do not let it distract you from being successful. The reason that it's really important to not get thrown off of your life's game plan through all of this happening is because even something profit-driven like a company can be useful in fighting these type of attacks because as you rise up the ladder of a company, you can start to apply more inside pressure within a company to do something. That's happening right now. There are a lot of Asians within large corporations right now in America making sure that they issue statements, donate, and try to do whatever they can within their capacities to enact change. And not only that, you can do a lot for your family. You know, if you come up in your job, you become more financially successful. You can move into a different neighborhood. You can just get them into a different situation. Do not be ashamed about trying to be successful in this moment. Just don't forget about your family or the community while you're at it. It's something that we talked about at our speech at the rally. So do not apologize for pursuing a career. Do not apologize for trying to be successful, but all I ask you is on your way up, save some more time for the community. Point number eight, the Asian population in America is still mostly made up of immigrants, meaning that it's still pretty traditional, meaning they probably don't focus so much on having the hard conversations, not just about safety, but about a lot of things. So that means we are going to have to get our repetitions up in order to catch up. You're familiar with HIT, high-intensity training. We're going to need HIC, which is high-intensity conversations. And that's why I do think it's helpful that there are a lot of rallies, events, and conversations going on, because a lot of people are having these conversations for the first or second time. But really, not until maybe the 10th or 15th conversation are you really doing something about it. So people just got to get their reps in. Even if you took some of your time and energy and put it into learning and studying this type of topic, as much as you do gaming, photography, arts, school subjects, business stocks, we're going to be a lot better off. Point number nine, focus on the victims and not the perpetrators. We have to focus on the victims, potential victims, people that are viewed as easy targets, whether that's the elderly, the poor immigrant population, or women. It's not helpful to focus on the perpetrators and what they look like. You guys, it is true that there are super big, macro, big picture issues in society that play into the issues that are happening in the Asians right now, but almost every issue everywhere. Sometimes it feels like we're just little fishes in the ocean, in an ocean that has its own tide and gravitational pull from the moon, and all we can control is how our little fish swims. I can't change poverty or mental health with a town hall meeting. There are systems and pulleys and levers and mechanisms that require millions and millions of people to act together in unison, as well as people who rank super high up in the ladder of society to decide they want to change it. I or you cannot change systemic issues with a text message. I can't change the security policies of an entire governmental infrastructure with stuff I bought on Amazon. I can't change global geopolitics or propaganda with an email, but I can change the security of myself, those I love and people within my community with just a few clicks. What I can do is send a text message to my parents to ask them how they're moving around to go to the store and do their grocery shopping. I can message my cousin who works at a retail shop about their security protocols. And I absolutely can do what I can in any incident that involve a stranger that is in need. Yes, by the way, these big macro, big picture systemic issues absolutely do matter. However, remember guys, change starts with the little things. It starts with the small details and it starts with you. Let me put it to you guys in a recycling analogy. Yes, the entire globe capitalistic society needs to address the way we're burning fossil fuels and ruining the environment. We need to adopt EVs. We need solar. We need all different types of technology. But at a micro level, it starts with you. Are you recycling that can in your hand? That's what you're directly in control of. Number 10, there are three levels of understanding any issue. There's the micro, the mid and the macro. The micro is the tiny radius of your own life and who you see on a day to day basis. The mid zone moves out beyond your family and is starting to talk about your work, your company, your neighborhood, your city, your zone. And the macro big picture range is basically the globe, society, the matrix and the architects around us. All three ranges of life of any type of issue are incredibly important. But for your average person that really needs to hear this, probably the only one that you have complete control of is the micro nano zone of your life and that of your family. I work in media personally and I know that it's my job to talk about a lot of factors that are macro. However, at the end of the day, I still have to go home and take care of my micro. There's a concept of Maslow's hierarchy of needs where you need to secure safety and shelter for yourself before you can move up the ladder of thinking. Point number 11, when it comes to anything, the media will continue to do what the media does. It will help and it will also hurt. It will push and it will pull and it will be a tug of war. Trust me, it's going to be complicated. Unfortunately, this tug of war is actually going to be prioritizing profits over actually solving anything. What I mean by that is that the media is probably going to be doing two things simultaneously. They're going to be talking about Asian hate, covering the stories and amplifying voices from our community, which is good. On the flip side, that same company and network is going to be vilifying, for example, China, that is going to be striking fear in people and making them feel uneasy and therefore circling back to potentially racist hate and crime. And because in 2021, people are still relating everything that happens in China to Asian people in America, that it's totally causing problems and it's going to be very, very confusing and it's going to be a weird back and forth. We get blamed for the superpower rise of China and Asia and simultaneously the detrimental impact of COVID while literally having absolutely nothing to do with either of those events. So basically what I'm saying is that you don't have to follow everything that the media is saying, both good or bad, because at the end of the day, their top priority is not our safety. Point number 12. I think that a lot of people believe that these criminals are just attacking random people, but I think it's pretty clear that they are scanning for easy targets to seem more vulnerable. In Instagram comments, I see a lot of badass Asians say, man, I wish they would attack me because I would end them. But that's the exact reason why those criminals would not attack you. A lot of these attacks are against people that these criminals believe will not fight back, whether consciously or subconsciously. It is true that if you are really big, tall, strong, tattooed, look like you might have a gun, it is very unlikely that one of these incidents is happening to you. And shout out to all the badass Asians. I think it's especially important in a community where a lot of people think that that is more rare in occurrence. But listen, guys, what's the plan? Are you guys going to be patrolling? Are you guys going to be enforcing, coaching, just providing some sort of assistance, maybe just even being present in the community? Everybody's got to lend their own unique skillset to the situation. Maybe if you're just a badass app coder, code a cool security app that everybody can use. Everybody can do something. Number 13, if you are concerned for the safety of your elders and you want them to stay indoors more instead of walking out, got to get a little creative with the solutions. For example, make it more fun for them to stay at home. Get them a TV where they can watch all the Asian channels, get them a little tablet where they can watch all the shows, maybe help them give them incentive to cook at home if they want to walk. You get them a treadmill. I mean, I don't know. I'm not saying that there's perfect solutions and I understand that everybody has different financial limitations and space limitations. But hey, I'm just saying you can get a little creative with it. You can get them a pet, a puppy, a kitten, a plant, a fish, something that requires them to be there. There's a lot of different things that you can get to help keep them at home. And if they do have to go out because we know our elderly like to walk the streets, you know, maybe you could set up a buddy system with them and their friends. That's still better than nothing. 14. I am not saying that everybody needs to go to the level of an actual vigilante Batman. But if we can all just become 10, 15, 20% more of a hero, especially since we're the hero of our own book already, that could help a lot. Number 15. In the process of trying to solve these really, really big macro issues, we won't fully be able to get it done on our own. What I mean by this is that everybody's input can be valid in this and having constructive conversations is super, super important with your friends, your Asian friends, your non-Asian friends. That's something that I've been doing recently is that I've been hitting up all the non-Asian friends that I have just being like, yo, what do you think about this? What are your thoughts? Like, and get their input, you know? And it's okay to have disagreements, but as long as it's constructive. And let me reiterate. Internet comments, not constructive. Asian Americans, we're not a humongous group. We make up only 6% of America's population and more than half of that are actually immigrants and foreign-born. So, as Asian Americans who have been raised here and understand the system and understand how the world works, it is on us to impact this situation in a different way that, for example, the immigrants might not be able to. A lot of American-born Asians do feel kind of helpless because we think that we're such a small population, but that should, if anything, get you more fired up because that's even more of an opportunity for you to make an impact. The Asian American population in America is 5.6%. 6.5% if you include mixed-race people. That means that 6.5%, somebody can logically justify that we scientifically do not matter in this country. Number 16, it's important to not demonize any singular group of people. It is not the solution. Think of each group of people in America, not just a racial group, as a pie. There are a lot of different slices of pie. Now, some of those slices are good, some of them are great, some of them are 50-50, and some of those slices are bad. Asians have it too. You cannot judge an entire pie by its worst slice, but we have to believe in the greater good because feeling negativity towards any group of people is only going to beget more negativity. We have to understand that there are more good slices than bad slices. Number 17, we have to be able to empathize with the other people that are most at risk. So, as we've seen, most of the Asians that are getting attacked are usually lower income or very elderly, which means, no matter what your own personal situation is, whether you're in a rich family or middle class family or another lower income family, you're going to have to be able to empathize with their situation to really care about them. There is a narrative out in media, of course, that we all know about that says that all Asians are rich and that is 100% not true. Teach, educate, donate, coach, patrol, protect, whatever it is, we can do something. Number 18, one of the main reasons why Asian Americans are so mad and taking this so hard right now is because they feel like they don't do anything wrong and they still get attacked and when they get attacked, nobody cares. Now, it's a fact of life that people get hurt and people get killed all the time. But for a population like Asians who are generally just trained to put our head down and work and think that if we do the right things, nobody's going to mess with us and, you know, we don't have a large population ourselves, obviously, these rise in attacks is pretty shocking. If you think about it, a lot of Asians don't even want to get called on in class or they don't want any attention. They keep it super humble and super low key. So when we start getting targeted for whatever reason, it just, it blows our mind. I mean, I would simply put it that right now a lot of Asians are feeling disenchanted or betrayed by the American dream. But now that all these things are happening, I think it's really important for us to acknowledge and really understand that these things can happen and they might still happen in some regard. Listen, bad things happen to good people who put their head down and work still. So we just have to prepare for it and acknowledge it. Number 19, the harsh reality of it is America is both a beautiful and vicious country. If you look at the history from the bloody revolution from the British to the evils of slavery to the genocide against the Native Americans, but also building all these great products and culture that the world loves, this country is just filled with some very gigantic peaks and valleys, pros and cons that we have to acknowledge. The promise of America is that it is a free melting pot but to be honest, the experiment has been successful in some ways and unsuccessful in some ways. Now, a lot of different people have different opinions. They boil it down to the innate tribalism between different groups of people, white supremacy, just the clash between classes. It could be a lot of things. But I just urge you guys to brace yourself, get educated and get ready because I don't think these things are going to end tomorrow. I wish I could say that they're going to end but I think me and you both know that that might not be true. And finally, number 20, the last thing I'm going to tell you to do is to make sure you protect your energy. Now, whether that is your arc reactor, your chi, your spirit, your heart, you have a lot of energy in your body and you can do a lot of things, but if that gets worn out or if it gets too sad or too blue, it's going to start to affect you. So basically, use that energy for good. Use it to change one little thing about yourself moving forward and if everybody does that, then that's going to be a really big change because no matter what happens out there, just make sure your spirit is beaming. That's not how Iron Man fights people. All right, you guys, thank you so much for watching that video on the 20 things that we wanted you guys to either do or think about. I don't think that these are limited to this. These are just the first 20 things that came to mind. I know that some people are going to agree. Some people are going to disagree. Some people are going to want to add on to what we say. That's totally cool. We are here to just want to spark a discussion and help in any way that we can. And I know a lot of people were asking us to make a video about this and of course we have in the past and obviously we've been very involved in social media and even out in public locally in New York City. But you know what? We wanted to take our time and make sure we put out a good video. So let us know in the comments down below what you thought about our 20 points and what you have to add. And make sure you let us know any additional points that you would like to add in the comments section below. Guys, please keep it civil. Keep it constructive, guys. This is a tough time for everybody. It's a tough time for us in America. It's a tough time for the world right now and literally, guys, the internet comments, it could just get so toxic. The world is crazy, man. There's a lot of different echo chambers out there that are circulating different bad information. But you got to think on your own, all right? So make sure you protect yourself, protect your family and have these conversations. And share this with somebody who needs to see it. Until next time, we out. Peace.