Republic file photo Joy King, vice president of Asian Pacific Islander Public Affairs of Indiana, is shown speaking at a past local event.
A public rally to show support for area Asians will be held at 4:30 p.m. Thursday on the Columbus City Hall steps at 123 Washington St.
The event is in response to the stabbing of an 18-year-old Asian woman on a bus in Bloomington Jan. 11 because of her race, according to police and news reports.
The gathering has been organized by leaders of the Asian Pacific Islander Public Affairs of Indiana group. Both the president, Linda Shi, and Joy King, the vice president, are Columbus residents.
King said that the rally is “to bring allies of the AAPI community together as a show of support in light of the recent brutal attack” in which the Asian woman was repeatedly stabbed in the head.
Expected speakers at the event include Shi and King; Mayor Jim Lienhoop; city council member Elaine Hilber; Bishop Johnnie Edwards, president of the Columbus/Bartholomew County Area Branch of the NAACP; Lt. Matt Harris of the Columbus Police Department; and Pastor Felipe Martinez of the Not In Columbus group that fights any and all forms of bigotry and hate.
Organizers say the assembly will last about one hour. This marks the second rally on behalf of Asian Americans in recent years. The last one was held March 26, 2021, also at Columbus City Hall.
“We need to speak up and we need to speak out,” said King, who also spoke at that last meeting. “This act is certainly something we should not ignore.”
Lienhoop has been among the city’s most vocal proponents of equality, unity, and respect for all people and cultures as apparent hate groups, racist graffiti, and racial incidents have surfaced in Columbus the past several years.
He has said repeatedly that such elements will not be tolerated. Columbus Police Department leaders also have joined the mayor and echoed his sentiments in the aftermath of such situations.
King said that former Columbus community leader Susan Zhuang helped form the statewide Asian group in 2021.
Hilber said she believes many in the area’s Asian community are especially upset because the attack has not been declared a hate crime and they believe it deserves even more media attention that it has received. And she added that residents here with family members at Indiana University, where the stabbing victim is a student, are concerned.
“You just assume that if you send your kid to small-town Bloomington, Indiana, they’re going to be relatively safe there,” Hilber said. “And when they’re not, it’s kind of jarring.”
Hilber added another thought about the student and ethnicity.
“If something like this could happen to her (because of race), then it could happen to anybody,” Hilber said. “This (rally) is partly to raise awareness, and to remind people that hate of any kind is never welcome here.”
Both Hilber and King say Columbus and Bartholomew County have a good record of fighting prejudice and promoting unity.
“I’d like to think so,” Hilber said, who has attended other, similar rallies. “I do feel like there is generally a lot of support for one another.”
Yet, King offers a stark reminder nonetheless.
“Most Asians whom I have talked to feel that violence or prejudice against Asians has increased significantly, including in Columbus,” King said. “That includes verbal aggression.”
