March 4, 2021
Dear LREI Families,
I begin this message by acknowledging that it could have, likely should have, been written earlier. I have many justifications for why it was not – some valid, some less so, all unimportant at this point. The reality is that I joined a still growing group of people who are not paying attention to the significant rise in hate directed at Asians and Asian-Americans, or, as I will write for the rest of this piece, APISA+, which stands for Asian Pacific Islander South Asian+. Thanks to Jessica Hwang, middle school humanities teacher, for sharing this with me. If others have different names for this wide-ranging collective, please share them.
According to a recent article in USA Today, groups tracking APISA+ hate crimes have counted upwards of 3,000 instances since last March as compared to 100 such instances in previous years. In all likelihood these numbers are vastly under-reported. Better tracking of hate-crimes is an essential step as is a more accurate definition of “hate crimes.” As I read in a document shared by Jessica H., “Asian Americans are increasingly becoming victims of bigoted verbal attacks. “Hate speech” is not legally defined and falls into the “awful but lawful” category.”
Clearly, the push is on for all of us to recognize this issue publicly, and with good reason. President Biden signed a “Memorandum Condemning and Combating Racism, Xenophobia, and Intolerance Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States.” In it he wrote:
“The Federal Government must recognize that it has played a role in furthering these xenophobic sentiments through the actions of political leaders, including references to the COVID-19 pandemic by the geographic location of its origin. Such statements have stoked unfounded fears and perpetuated stigma about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders and have contributed to increasing rates of bullying, harassment, and hate crimes against AAPI persons.”
He must now lead the way towards ending the violence – verbal and physical.
It has clearly been all too easy, in this time of fear and sadness, to move from stereotype to suspicion to hate crimes. Layered with the country’s history of anti-APISA+ bias which is often ignored, decades of legal discrimination, and, within the past 12 months, a flame lit and fanned by those in power, this sudden and virulent growth in hatred and violence should not be surprising. As one feels increasingly tired and frustrated with the current situation, they lash out and find those on whom it is all too easy and expedient to assign blame, jumping on the bandwagon of hate, where there seems to be infinite room. Hearing racist claims and untruths, day after day, week after week, for almost a year, they can take hold. The power of this bias is then magnified by our collective silence. The stereotypes and biases directed at our APISA+ neighbors are both ever-present, which has only encouraged the conflagration.
So, what is there to do? There are actions that we each can take to increase our personal involvement, our community involvement, and our systemic involvement.
Personal Involvement:
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Read and learn. A number of resources below and many more easily found.
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Speak with your children, your family, your friends.
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Respond to all utterances of bias that you hear, even if they were meant as jokes – “Hey, you can’t say that!”
Community Involvement:
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Use your social media presence to spread your message of support and respect.
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Support APISA+ organizations and causes.
Systemic Involvement:
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Contact your elected officials – municipal, state, and federal.
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Advocate for increased enforcement of hate crime laws and inclusion of harassment and anti-APISA+ attacks as hate crimes.
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Advocate for better local, state, and federal tracking of hate crimes, in general.
The most effective tools that we have to fight anti-APISA+ racism, and to ensure that it is not allowed to return to a low simmer, there in the background and easy to ignore, are the tools that we rely on always – our voices, education, honesty, truth, and love. Powerful tools when wielded wisely, and once again it is time for all to do so.
Resources:
- Stop Covid Hate Toolkit from NYC
- America’s long history of scapegoating its Asian Citizens – National Geographic
- Asian Americans Then and Now – The Asia Society
- Attacks on Asian Americans Trouble Communities – WNYC – Arun Venugopal
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Video- How you see me (Diversity in the Asian Community)
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IG feeds to diversify, provide information, and to educate:
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StandAgainstHatred.org. This is a website that is run by Asian Americans Advancing Justice for the purpose of documenting anti-Asian incidents.
- Contact your elected officials– click here to find out who they are.
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Parent Education Evening #1
Wednesday, March 10