Sandra Oh gives passionate speech at Stop Asian Hate rally

Canadian actor Sandra Oh delivered a passionate speech during a Stop Asian Hate rally that took place in Oakland, Pennsylvania on Saturday. The Grey’s Anatomy and Killing Eve star made a surprise low-key appearance at the event while in town shooting her latest project and stepped up to the megaphone to deliver a short but powerful speech.

“Thank you to all the organizers for organizing this just to give us an opportunity to be together and to stand together and to feel each other,” said Oh. “For many of us in our community, this is the first time we are even able to voice our fear and our anger and I really am so grateful to everyone willing to listen.”

The Golden Globe winner continued, saying “I’m going to be very brief, but one thing that I know is many of us in our community are very scared, and I understand that. And one way to kind of go through and get through our fear is to reach out to our communities,” Oh said. “I will challenge everyone here, if you see something, will you help me? If you see one of our sisters or brothers in need, will you help us?”

Oh asked the crowd to repeat after her as they chanted together, “I am proud to be Asian. I belong here.”

Finishing her speech, Oh touched on the importance of being able to proudly declare her pride as an Asian American. “Many of us don’t get a chance to be able to say that, so I just wanted to give us an opportunity to be able to shout that,” said Oh.

Video of Oh’s speech was captured by many in attendance at the rally, including CBS Pittsburgh, and quickly went viral on Twitter.

The event was organized in response to the recent rise in violence against members of the Asian community, including the shooting in Atlanta last week that left six Asian women dead. Violence against members of the Asian communities in Canada and the US is tragically nothing new, but incidences have steadily been on the rise since the beginning of the pandemic, with high profile mouthpieces like former President Donald Trump blaming China for the virus and often referring to covid as the "Chinese Virus" or "Kung Flu." A recent study by Stop AAPI Hate found that since Trump’s initial tweets, hate crimes against Asian Americans have gone up 150 per cent in 2020 compared to the previous year.

Following the devastating Atlanta shooting by a white domestic terrorist, many Asian American celebrities have condemned the violence in their community and the media’s complicity in perpetuating negative stereotypes of Asian Americans, which in the case of women are often fetishized and sexualized. Oh shared information for donating to the AAPI Community Fund on her Instagram and released a message on March 19 paying tribute to the eight people who were senselessly murdered in Atlanta, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng.

Referencing a line from her appearance at the 2018 Emmys, where she became the first Asian ever nominated for Lead Actress in a Drama and told the camera “It’s an honour just to be Asian,” Oh ended her message of support and solidarity with the hashtag “#itsanhonorjusttobeasian."

Daniel Dae Kim, Simu Liu, Ashley Park, George Takei, Olivia Munn, Awkwafina, Mindy Kaling, Andrew Yang and more celebrities of Asian and non-Asian descent have been speaking out in support of the Stop Asian Hate movement since the devastating shooting in Atlanta on March 16.

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[video_embed id='2163858']BEFORE YOU GO: More stars stand with AAPI community[/video_embed]