Todd Inoue April 1, 2021Updated: April 2, 2021, 11:48 am
Lyrics Born and DJ Cutso Photo: Eugene Kim
In the past year, the pandemic permanently upended our lives. And for Asian Americans like Tom Shimura and Paolo Bello, escalating anti-Asian violence agitated by a churning political landscape compounded what was already a tragic and worrisome year.
“That adds an entirely new, extremely heavy layer of burden on us,” said Shimura, better known as rapper Lyrics Born.
Following increasing reports of hate crimes toward the Asian American and Pacific Islander community in the Bay Area and throughout the country, a tipping point came on March 16, the day of the Atlanta mass shooting that targeted Asian-owned businesses and killed eight people, six of whom were Asian women. This tragedy was different and deeply affected both Shimura, who is Japanese American, and Bello, a Filipino American DJ. Bello reduced his social media intake to focus on his mental well-being. Shimu