Chicago Sun-Times: Rev. Jesse Jackson offered powerful support to Asian Americans
When harassment and violence against Asian Americans surged during the COVID-19 pandemic, the Rev. Jesse Jackson condemned the heinous acts early on. He was outspoken at a time when many people didn’t realize or believe that anti-Asian racism was real or could happen.
Jackson wrote several Sun-Times columns in solidarity with Asian Americans. In March 2021, he wrote that violence targeting them was “stoked to no small degree by more than a year of Trump obsessively describing the coronavirus as the ‘China Virus’ and ‘Kung Flu.’”
Asians in the U.S. were spat on and threatened, including my elderly mother on her way to work. Jackson said, “The scapegoating of Asian Americans is taking an ugly, violent turn.”
Weeks later, Jackson wrote about the murder of eight people near Atlanta, six of them Asian women ages 44 to 74.
Videos of Asians being brutally attacked and murdered underscored that anti-Asian hate was real and dangerous. They were stabbed on the street in San Francisco; kicked in the stomach on their way to church in New York; pummeled more than 100 times in an apartment vestibule; and head-stomped to death.
Jackson died Feb. 17 at age 84. Services were held Monday in South Carolina, where he was born and raised until he was 15. A “People’s Celebration” in Chicago will be held at 10 a.m. Friday, at House of Hope, 752 E. 114th St.
For those who know Jackson, it was unsurprising that he spoke up against anti-Asian hate. It was in keeping with the mission of his nonprofit Rainbow Coalition, which dates back to the 1970s and unites people for social justice. It represents the marginalized: Black Americans, Latinos, Asian Americans, Native Americans, Arab Americans, gays and lesbians, poor people, family farmers, workers and more.
To read the entire article: https://chicago.suntimes.com/columnists/2026/03/03/jesse-jackson-supported-asian-americans-pacific-islanders-covid-vincent-chin-amy-yee
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