There has been an exponential rise in Anti-Asian hate incidents reported throughout the United States. The Graphic stands in solidarity with the Asian American Pacific Islander community and our AAPI peers against anti-Asian racism and hate.
Nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents took place amid the pandemic between March 19, 2020 to Feb. 28, according to a report released by Stop AAPI Hate — a reporting center for Asian American Pacific Islanders. This number represents only a fraction of the total number of incidents that occur regularly in the United States.
Asian women, in particular, reported 2.3 times as many hate incidents as men, reflecting the intersection of racism and sexism, according to the Stop AAPI Hate report. The incidents of hate include verbal harassment, physical assault, shunning, avoidance, being coughed and spat on, refusal of service, being barred from an establishment, vandalism and online harassment.
Earlier this year, during Lunar New Year, we also witnessed attacks and violence directed at the Asian American elderly captured on video.
On March 17, police charged a white gunman with killing eight people at three businesses in Atlanta on Tuesday. Six Asian women died.
“While the details of the shootings are still emerging, the broader context cannot be ignored,” Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Atlanta said in a statement. “The shootings happened under the trauma of increasing violence against Asian Americans nationwide, fueled by white supremacy and systemic racism.”
The Graphic stands with the AAPI community in grief and solidarity against anti-Asian racism and violence. We are here to listen to and support the AAPI community.
We recognize that hate incidents and crimes against AAPI are not new and that PGM and news media in general need to do better to report the experiences of AAPI while redefining what is deemed “newsworthy” enough. The hate directed at Asian Americans should not be silenced in the rapid news cycle.
It should not take thousands of explicitly reported and recorded incidents of violence against the AAPI community for the community to notice, listen, engage and enact change. The Pepperdine community is not excluded from enacting the microaggressions, xenophobia and violent acts of racism demonstrated toward AAPI daily and needs to acknowledge the hurt of their peers.
In a challenge to do better, the Graphic urges all community members to self-educate on Asian-American culture, incidents of xenophobia toward Asians and more. Below we, the PGM staff, have included some of our reporting to provide a start on understanding the Pepperdine AAPI experience.
The Graphic commits to standing in solidarity with and for the unheard voices of the community. We see and hear the pain of our peers and we will not let the experiences of the AAPI members of the Pepperdine community go unshared.
Resources To Educate Yourself:
- Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice
- Asian American Journalists Association
- The New York Times – AAPI fear for their safety
- NBC News – Attacks against older AAPI
- National Geographic – History of racism against AAPI
- The Cut – Spike in anti-Asian hate crimes
- PBS – Asian American history
PGM Coverage of AAPI Racism:
- “‘Racism Against Asian Americans has Never Gone Away’: A Pandemic Seen in Racial Terms” by PGM alumni Kayiu Wong and Allison Lee
- “Opinion: Reclaim ALM — Asian Lives Matter” by Perspectives Editor Anitiz Muonagolu
- “Opinion: A is for Asian, and S is for stereotype” by Justina Huang
Resources To Donate:
- The National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association — provides affordable care, translated resources and cultural competency for professionals
- Send Chinatown Love — supports restaurants, many of which are immigrant-run
Resources for Support :
- Pepperdine Counseling Center
- Pepperdine’s Office of the Chaplain
- Intercultural Affairs
- Asian Mental Health Collective
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Email Pepperdine Graphic Media: peppgraphicmedia@gmail.com
