We Grieve. We Act. We Demand Better.

The past 72 hours have been difficult. Lunar New Year is supposed to be a time for joy and celebration; instead, we are grieving. On Saturday, 11 Asian elders died in a shooting in Monterey Park, an Asian American suburb in California. On Sunday, a shooter deliberately fired a gun multiple times at Tokyo Foods, a Japanese store in Cincinnati. And on Monday, seven people, mostly Chinese farm workers, died in shootings in Half Moon Bay, California.

Even though the motives of each incident may differ, the violence still leaves an impact on us. During the last few years, attacks against our community have sharply increased. It gets harder to bounce back with each incident, especially when the people targeted could be our uncles, aunties, friends, or us. We demand better.

We created the Asian American Cultural Association of Cincinnati and Asianati as gathering spaces for Asian Americans to celebrate our cultures and heritages in Cincinnati. But to build community, we also need safety. We need to take care of each other.

In the following days we'll highlight resources contributed by our community that we hope will help begin or continue the healing process. We see you. We love you. We are with you.

-The Board of the Asian American Cultural Association of Cincinnati