Missourians taking a stand against Anti-Asian hate

Thanks, mike.

With recent anti- asian crimes spiking in the midst of the covid-19 some area missourians are taking a stand.

Here's kq2's kilee thomas with the story.

Kilee thomas reportinghate crimes against asian americans have been making headlines across the country...kind of crime may be hitting closer to home....sot: brandy skouby, wintess of anti asian comments- "i was in utter disbelief, like just blown away.

I couldn't believe that anybody could be that disrespectful."brandy skouby says she witnessed an act of hate first hand..she says she was at a nail salon when another customer began berating workers for not speaking perfect english shaming them for speaking two languages sot: skouby-"even when the lady told her that she had been her for 20 years, the lady who was being so rude said, 'well, it sounds like you've only been here for two weeks.'""i looked at the lady and i said, 'there's no reason to be so rude.'

She just kept on saying, 'well they need to speak just english.'" skouby taking to social media to sound off on what happened... hoping to raise awareness for others to speak up against anti asian sentiment sot:skouby-"if i had to do it all over again, i would have been more outspoken.

I would've asked her to leave."

Sot: kayla reed, co-founder of "asians do matter"- "words hurt.

Those are things we don't forget."

Microaggression s like that one sparking a 23 year old kansas city woman to co found a nationwide organization matter"...like a fire in my belly and i just felt as though i needed to do something about it and take action."

Kayla reed building the website asiansdomatterm ovement.org americans targeted and assaulted during the covid pandemic sot: reed-"very disheartening when you have leaders and individuals who refer to the pandemic as the 'kung-flu' or the 'china virus' because that's only going to make the hate continue and make individuals within our entire globe think it's okay to say those things."

The site gaining support from prominent leaders, offering resources and providing an outlet for others to share their stories of faced racism reed-"i had an individual tell me to go back to china.

Another to stay out of massage parlors like other females."

The organization raising over $10,000 so far in an effort to pass legislation against hate crimesreed hopes by putting the spotlight on this growing epidemic change.

Sot: reed- "i encourage them too to use their platforms, use their voice.

I think we're really at a point where silence is violence, if anything.

Speak up and look out for the rest of us.

We're all in this together."

Reporting in st joseph, kilee thomas kq2 news if you want to support the movement or donate,go online to asians-do-matter- movement-dot-org