As Leaders in communities that are People of Colour, Myself & Ron Josol truly believe in what we want to accomplish with this awareness initiative. We can’t sit and be silent while our community is being targeted for things we didn’t even do.
With all this Asian Hate going on in this world, I believe that it’s not gonna stop anytime soon. Think of a Bully that doesn’t get what it wants. It’s just gonna wanna do it even more. My first initial reaction being a quick witted person was to prepare myself by coming up with counter racist remarks back to those who would dare say anything…
Realizing I was just fuelling hate with hate, I used the 5 second rule I learned from Mel Robbins and stopped myself from going down that Rabbit hole even further. I knew deep down, this isn't the way to handle something like this.
I then asked myself, what would Bruce Lee do..
It was then that I thought that we would need to be more prepared as this situation escalades.
I gave Ron a call and asked him about this awareness initiative, as he’s trained in Martial Arts himself. He loved the idea of getting our community to learn some sort of self-defence to help prepare ourselves for any upcoming situations.
Things we can do to be more prepared is change the way we are portrayed. As Asians, other people will take us as an easier target because we are timid and don’t want any confrontation. We hang our heads down as shy and timid, wanting to be left alone. Thinking that if we don’t do anything, nothing will happen to us.
We gotta stop thinking and acting like that.
After watching videos of the attacks on Asians, I noticed that the victims had their heads down and not being aware of what’s happening around them. Let's all start walking confidently with our chest out and chin up. That way, we are more aware of any present situations in front of you. That one change alone can make a huge difference. With our head up you can see someone approaching you. Most cases you can distinguish if the person is coming in aggressively, if that person is, you have the time to react to at least run or call for help. Also, walking with such confidence and courage will usually deter someone from even trying to pick on you.
It seems easier said than done, but there is a way that with consistent practice you can walk around with confidence and self esteem knowing you can handle anything that’s thrown your way.
The way we want to show you how to obtain this confidence is to actually take some Martial Art Classes.
There are so many styles to choose from and they will all teach you techniques on how to defend yourself and not only that, build your mental muscles and talk your way out of the situation first.
Even if you’re verbally attacked, you’d still have the strength to go home feeling proud of who you are instead of going home feeling unworthy and belittled. Words do hurt sometimes and with martial arts training, you’d learn to feel sorry for those types of people and know that you are great.
Even if you feel you’re not into MMA, Muay-Thai, or BJJ, find a place that offers real street self defence classes. You won’t even need to wear Gi’s or Training wear. Street clothes are practical for these styles classes
Martial Arts was first made for self defence in Asia to help the smaller communities defend from the Big Invaders. Why not get our communities to re-learn self defence to handle all types of situations.
I’ve learned a long time ago that the world doesn’t owe us anything and it’s up to us to make the changes ourselves. Look at the video’s out there for the Stop Asian Hate Rally’s, it’s majority is only Asian people attending. What we gotta do is start preparing ourselves by starting to act with more confidence, speak up, and learn how to defend ourselves whether it be Physical or Verbal abuse.
As a Community, let's show the world how we can overcome this and be proud of who we are!
If you happen to read this and run a Martial Art school that offers Classes for Street self Defence, feel free to leave a comment below to let people know more about your school.
If you currently don’t have a Self Defence Program at your school, maybe look into as there are people out there who want to learn that instead of MMA or other combat sports.
We don't want you to think for the worst, we just want you to be more aware of your surroundings to prevent anything from happening. When Verbal Assaults happen, just know that there are communities out there to stand next to you when you feel small.
Feel Proud & Feel Strong