SF Chinatown vigil remembers shooting victims, highlights mental health in Asian community

SAN FRANCISCO (KGO) — Amid the gleaming skyscrapers of downtown San Francisco, music and candles met by ache in Portsmouth Sq. Thursday night time, the place dozens gathered to recollect the victims of the mass taking pictures in Half Moon Bay and Monterey Park.

“We ran out of candles. We may’ve had 3 times the quantity of candles. I am overwhelmed by how many individuals have been touched sufficient to return out and spend their night with us,” mentioned Lily Ho.

Ho, with the Delta Chinatown Initiative, was one of many vigil’s organizers.

She says the shootings, that are extraordinarily uncommon within the Asian neighborhood, have shaken it to its core and are available at a time of heightened anxiousness.

“The trauma in our neighborhood, I feel, has come to a boiling level for a few of these people. We have been by way of years of anti-Asian hate, mindless violence,” Ho mentioned.

However Thursday’s vigil was about extra than simply remembering the lives misplaced. It was additionally an opportunity to debate tough topics like trauma and psychological well being.

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Josephine Zhao tells me these subjects are sometimes occasions taboo inside AAPI communities.

Zhao says she’s been working years to assist do away with the stigma that is prevalent inside her personal tradition.

She believes by doing so, it would assist extra individuals battle interior demons and forestall extra tragedies from taking place.

“Mainly, issues that we wish to shove underneath the carpet. We do not need anyone to know. If any battle or dispute throughout the household, it’s ugliness on the household and we do not need it to be unfold,” Zhao mentioned.

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However for a lot of right here, the grieving has solely simply begun.

“The Asian neighborhood is already struggling, so simply to bodily be right here and be within the presence of everybody already places me in slightly higher temper,” mentioned Jade Tu.

A course of that can require everybody, one step at a time.

“From our mates and households and communities. Solely once we grow to be susceptible and begin to share how we really feel and the way I really feel internally and how much assist I want, then different individuals know methods to give me the assistance I wanted,” Zhao mentioned.

TAKE ACTION: Assets for individuals impacted by Half Moon Bay mass taking pictures

Get the most recent on the lethal Half Moon Bay shootings right here.

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