As rain dropped down on the canopies erected outside of Worcester City Hall on Thursday, City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. stepped to the microphone as the last elected official to speak.
His words during the gathering - meant to show solidarity between the city and its Asian American population - echoed those who spoke previously, yet he felt compelled to speak anyway.
“Everything may have been said but it is important on this occasion that everybody say it,” Augustus said. “That everybody speak up and use your voice and use your platforms. Use your social media opportunities to speak up and speak out against hate in any form, any manifestation.”
City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. spoke outside city hall in Worcester as residents and city officials gathered outside on Thursday to support Asian Americans.
About two dozen people gathered outside despite the cool temperatures and the wet weather to show support for the Asian community in Worcester and across the nation after a man in Georgia shot and killed eight people including six women of Asian descent at Atlanta-area spas.
The words and sentiments attempted to express the support all communities have in Worcester, however, each speaker regretted that hate continued to emerge in American society.
“I personally, my colleagues here, all strive for the day when inequality, discrimination and bias no longer exist in our city and in our world,” District 1 City Councilor Sean Rose said. “No one should fear for their lives because of their ethnicity, their gender identify, their sexual orientation or their religious beliefs.”
Rose and others spoke of the recent hate that has been directed toward Asian communities around the country, which they said has only been amplified recently by former President Donald Trump referring to COVID-19 as the “Kung flu.”
Anh Vu Sawyer, the executive director of the Southeast Asian Coalition in Worcester, spoke outside city hall in Worcester as residents and city officials gathered outside on Thursday to support Asian Americans.
“It’s nothing new. You have seen this happen again, again and again,” the executive director of the Southeast Asian Coalition Anh Vu Sawyer said. “But as I’m standing here, I will tell you that Asians are very strong. We are strong in body, in spirit, in our hearts and in our commitments. No matter what people have done to us.”
Sawyer said only weeks ago she was told to “go back to China.” She’s heard stories from schools where students were blamed for bringing the “Chinese virus” to the United States.
“But you know what, our love for Worcester is very thick and very strong,” Sawyer said. “We will stand with you. We have been shoulder to shoulder and arm to arm and hand to hand with Black Lives Matter, with the protest against injustice and unfairness against people of color, for people who have no home. We are here for people who are white, Black and brown.”
Tim Garvin, the president and CEO of the United Way of Central Massachusetts, sparked the gathering on Thursday outside City Hall.
It attracted Augustus, Mayor Joseph Petty, City Councilors Rose, Morris Bergman, Candy Mero-Carlson and Kathleen Toomey. Rep. David LeBoeuf of Worcester’s 17th District said the state delegation supports the efforts to stand with Asian Americans. Sawyer and Boa Newgate of the Southeast Asian Coalition of Worcester each spoke as well.
Earlier in the day, the Worcester Regional Chamber of Commerce released a statement condemning the acts in Atlanta and denouncing hatred of any kind.
They echoed the sentiments felt by the dozens who gathered but weren’t able to speak in front of the microphone.
“Edmund Burke once said that All that is necessary for evil to flourish is for good men to do nothing,’” Augustus said. “Today, we all come here as good men and women to do something. To raise our voice. To speak out. To stand in solidarity. That’s the Worcester way.”
Related Content:
- Worcester City Manager Edward Augustus Jr. targets racial equity, police reform in calling for removal of officers in schools, banning facial recognition technology, implementing online use-of-force database
- Why Worcester waited for a chief diversity officer and Massachusetts’ police reform bill before releasing its measures
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