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A champion figure skater’s new pursuit: fighting racism

Michelle K. Hanabusa spent 14 years as a competitive figure skater through high school, training with Olympian Mirai Nagasu and twice meeting her childhood sports hero, Michelle Kwan.

“That was such a different chapter of my life,” Hanabusa, a 29-year-old from Southern California, says now.

She co-founded Hate is a Virus last spring. What started as a grass-roots social media movement to combat xenophobia and racism against Asian Americans, fueled by the coronavirus pandemic, became a nonprofit that has raised more than $400,000. The goal is $1 million.

The money is earmarked for organizations fighting for racial justice and programs that directly support the AAPI community.