A Message to the Stanford Community - Stop AAPI Hate
Dear Colleagues,
On Tuesday, March 16, 2021, an assailant traveled to three Asian-owned massage parlors in Atlanta and senselessly ended the lives of eight people, six of whom were women of Asian descent. The Asian Staff Forum and the Filipino American Community at Stanford express our sorrow and alarm at this tragedy, and our hearts and thoughts go out to the families of the victims.
Although the suspect has allegedly claimed that his attacks were not motivated by anti-Asian animosity, law enforcement are still investigating if these attacks were racially motivated. We know that gendered and racial stereotypes contribute to the hypersexualization and dehumanization of Asian women, leading to alarming rates of violence against them. We also know that this condemnable act of violence is only the most recent in over a year of increasing attacks and incidents of hate directed against the AAPI community.
StopAAPIHate recently released their 2020-2021 National Report from nearly 3,800 reported incidents of hate and violence against Asians over the past year. During our recent conversation with ABC7’s Dion Lim and Fremont Mayor Lily Mei on March 2, 2021, we learned that not every incident is reported, so the actual number of anti-Asian incidents is likely much higher.
We recognize that Stanford’s Asian American community and their allies are distressed by these acts of violence, so we provide specific resources and action steps below. These resources should not be considered exclusive to the AAPI community, and we encourage you to share them broadly. The A3C also provides a comprehensive list of resources that staff and students can access.
- Join Community
- ILLUMINATE: A virtual night of poetry in solidarity with Asian and Asian American communities taking place on Friday March 19, 2021.
- Stand with Asians & Pacific Islanders in Solidarity to Denounce Racism: An in-person event taking place on Saturday March 20, 2021 in Brisbane, CA.
- Educate and Learn
- Start by educating yourself. Today’s upsurge in anti-AAPI violence is not new, but rather part of a long history of anti-Asian violence in the United States. This history includes, for example, the Naturalization Act of 1790, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Geary Act of 1892, and President Franklin Roosevelt's Executive Order establishing Japanese internment camps.
- Move beyond the model minority stereotype that not only limits AAPI colleagues but also prevents us from recognizing the breadth of AAPI experiences in the United States.
- Learn why the trope of Black-Asian conflict in the wake of anti-Asian violence dismisses solidarity.
- Learn how to have conversations around allyship.
- Donate
- Volunteer
- Help escort seniors in Oakland’s Chinatown.
- Compassion in Oakland is looking for additional volunteers to help with their organization’s operations.
- Volunteer at a COVID-19 vaccination site.
- Become a member of Asian Staff Forum, Filipino American Community at Stanford or other Stanford staff affinity groups overseen by the Diversity & Access Office.
- Support
- Reach out to AAPI colleagues to see how they are doing and to stand in solidarity. If you are not sure how to do so, start by acknowledging that the news is distressing and offer specific help. Check out Jennifer Liu’s CNBC article for some suggestions.
- Use and share mental health resources, such as:
- 13 AAPI Mental Health & Wellness Resources for Asian-American Communities
- Asians Do Therapy
- Asians for Mental Health
- Asian Mental Health Collective
- Brown Girl Therapy
- Inclusive Therapists
- Melanin Mental Health
- National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association
- Project Lotus
- South Asian Therapists
- The Allied Minds
- Somatic Specific Therapy Sites:
- Tap into Stanford-provided mental health resources, including the Faculty Staff Help Center and the new MeruHealth resource, a 12-week online program for your mental health needs.
- Create spaces. If you are a manager or instructor, let your AAPI employees know that it’s okay to take time away from work for self-care and offer time to your students to process what is happening or to attend an event.
- Speak up when you hear someone expressing discriminatory ideas about Asians. There have been reports on campus of people referring to Asians by slanting their eyes. Don’t overlook these harmful microaggressions and instead confront them in the moment. Consider joining free workshops on bystander intervention, conflict de-escalation, and how to respond to harassment.
- Order takeout from local Asian food restaurants and support your local Asian- and Asian American-owned small businesses.
- Report
- If you see something, say something! Report an incident with Stop AAPI Hate and Stand Against Hatred.
- If an incident happens on campus, please report student-related incidents to the Dean of Students. Staff are encouraged to approach their Human Resources manager.
- Take Action
- Sign the Stop COVID-19 Disinformation petition.
- Reach out to lawmakers to call for gun safety. Everytown for Gun Safety has a lot of great information/resources about how to advocate in this way.
A major goal of Stanford’s Asian Staff Forum and the Filipino American Community at Stanford is to build a more inclusive and supportive community in which we all share a sense of belonging. We hope this message brings us closer to this goal. Please feel empowered to forward this message to anyone who needs to hear this message and to share the resources, and invite Stanford staff to join our mailing lists if they are interested in joining our groups.
Please let us know if you have any further ideas or questions about how we can take additional action in this direction. We welcome your feedback, and thank you for your allyship.
In community,
Asian Staff Forum
Filipino American Community at Stanford