Bend resident speaks out on anti-Asian racism experience

'It's not okay to make people feel like they don’t belong here.'

BEND, Ore. (KTVZ) -- The Asian American community has been experiencing a spike in anti-Asian incidents across the country. Now a Bend woman is speaking out about her personal experience with racism in Central Oregon.

A Bend resident, who didn’t want to be identified but chose the alias Kim Lee, first moved to Central Oregon 18 months ago in hopes of finding affordable housing. She settled in La Pine, and there is where she first dealt with Asian American discrimination. Her teenage daughter felt  unwelcomed because she was Asian American.

“It was really hard, her coming home telling me the she feels like she just doesn’t belong…she felt like she could never fit in,” Lee said Tuesday.

Shortly after, Lee herself faced discrimination.

People would ask her "where she was from," noting her Asian heritage.

“They’ll say things like, 'Oh, wow -- you speak English so well!' And I have to tell them, ‘Well, yeah. I’ve lived here for 40 years -- of course I speak English well,” Lee said.

Lee and her family then decided to move to Bend. after seeing the support that the city gave during the Black Lives Matter movement.

But she still witnessed racist remarks being voiced at her workplace.

“A co-worker had been speaking to another white coworker and she said, 'I hate Chinese people,'" Lee recalled.  

Lee said she confronted the co-worker and asked her why she felt that way. She let her know she was of Chinese decent.

“And then she talked about the Chinese virus, and she talked about how, you know it’s all our fault -- that there’s a pandemic.”

There have been about 38,000 anti-Asian hate incidents reported to Stop AAPI Hate between March 19, 2020 and Feb. 28 of this year.

Of those, 68.1% of the incidents were verbal harassment, 11.1% involved physical assault, civil rights violations accounted for 8.5% and 6.8% were from online harassment.

Lee said she feels that there may be a lack of diversity within the Central Oregon community that's causing these sentiments. It makes her worry about doing simple, everyday things.

“That’s the way I feel sometimes, as I’m going about my day sometimes, I’m looking over my shoulder, and I’m scared," Lee said.

Lee said she wants the Central Oregon community to be more aware of the way they treat people.

“It's not okay to make people feel like they don’t belong here,” she said.

Although Lee has had experiences dealing with hateful comments toward the Asian community, she says she still Bend has been a great, diverse area to live in.

“Bend is a community that can embrace people of color, and it's a community that can be open to new experiences and new people,” she said.

Lee says the Central Oregon community can show support toward the Asian community during this difficult time by supporting local Asian businesses, checking in with Asian friends and speaking out whenever witnessing hate speech.

An "End Anti-Asian Racism" Rally is planned for Saturday at 3 p.m. at the corner of Newport Avenue and Wall Street in Bend, for anyone who would like to attend and show support.