Image credit: Jon Tyson

We believe everyone should be able to live a secure, peaceful, and productive life. We must work to build a more balanced society and economy that removes obstacles for people struggling to make ends meet, and ensure that all people enjoy basic human rights and freedom from discrimination, violence, and oppression.

A recent analysis that examined hate crimes in America’s largest cities revealed that while hate crimes decreased overall by 7 percent, hate crimes targeting Asian Americans increased by nearly 150% in 2020, mainly in large metropolitan regions like the Bay Area and New York.

Our vision for a just, equitable, and sustainable world is under attack. As the Asian American community contends with high rates of joblessness, wage reduction and illness from COVID-19, they have been cursed with vitriolic words, slashed with box cutters and killed in front of their own homes. Stop AAPI Hate, a project run by a coalition of organizations, reports nearly 3,000 incidents of racism and discrimination against Asian Americans in 2020 alone. 

Donald Trump’s xenophobic rhetoric about Asian Americans in the wake of COVID-19 contributed to the increase of hate crimes in 2020; however, violence and discrimination against the AAPI community is not new. Harmful stereotypes like the “model minority myth” coupled with structural racism continue to erase and make invisible the intergenerational trauma and struggles that the AAPI community has historically faced and continues to face in 2021.

These reprehensible stories and statistics can cause many to lose heart and become discouraged, but as a community committed to supporting movements that will shift power in this country, we stand united and stand up to hate-fueled violence.

As movements, we must transform anger and consciousness and abolish the systems that do not serve us. We must build the world that we need and deserve, rooted in interdependent and mutually beneficial relationships with one another. Please recognize putting people behind bars and more policing of Black and Brown communities is not the answer to the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes. 

The organizations listed below are building powerful defenses to hate and creating safer communities through unity and mutual understanding. We encourage you to explore the organizations and resources to learn more. 

WDN Grantees

• Asian Peoples’ Movement on Debt & Development: A regional alliance of peoples’ movements, community organizations, coalitions, and networks that believe in social transformation that is all encompassing and interrelated: it is economic, political, cultural, and environmental and has class, ethnicity/race, and gender dimensions
• Freedom, Inc: A Black and Southeast Asian non-profit organization that works with low- to no-income communities of color 

AAPI Organizations in California

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice (San Francisco & Los Angeles)
• Asian Pacific Environmental Network (Oakland/East Bay)
• Asian Health Services (Oakland/East Bay)
• AAPI Women Lead (Oakland)
• Chinese for Affirmative Action (San Francisco)
• Filipino Community Center (San Francisco)
• Stop AAPI Hate (California)

AAPI Organizations in New York

• Asian American Legal Defense & Education Fund (New York City)
• CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities (New York City)

Learn More 

Here are some resources to help learn about the history of racism against Asian Americans in the US, as well as the ways that Asian Americans have been integral to our joint movement for equity.

• In her Medium blog, “On Anti-Asian Hate Crimes: Who is Our Real Enemy?”, DEI leader Michelle Kim explains that white supremacy is the real perpetrator of violence against communities of color.
• Listen to Vox’s “Today Explained” podcast episode, “The Surge of Anti-Asian Violence” to learn about the targeted violence against the Asian community and the prevalence of anti-Asian sentiments and discrimination throughout history.
• NBC Now Racism Virus Townhall – This special report focused on the concerning rise in anti-Asian violence during the pandemic and solutions to racism and xenophobia. Special guests include Rep. Judy Chu, D-Calif., basketball star Jeremy Lin and actor Olivia Munn.
• Raising Our Voices: South Asian Americans Address Hate  – Raising Our Voices is the 26-minute award-winning documentary, released in 2002, that community leaders, students, educators, government officials and companies have used to raise awareness and understanding of bias and hate crimes against the South Asian community.
• Check out A Brief Timeline of Racism Against Asians in America
• Watch the 2020 PBS series, Asian Americans