Statement of Solidarity Against Anti-Asian Violence

We strongly condemn racism and hate toward all people.

logo

Statement of Solidarity Against Anti-Asian Violence

We are stunned by the anti-Asian mass shootings in Atlanta on March 16, 2021. Our hearts go out to the victims and their families who have suffered from this senseless act. This is not an isolated incident and comes out of the current-day repetition of long-standing racist sentiments targeting various minority communities fueled by political rhetoric. Since March 2020, the former U.S. president and his allies have relentlessly scapegoated people of Asian descent especially Chinese and Chinese Americans under the pandemic, triggering a staggering spike in reported incidents. This current trend shows how racism and xenophobia have been used to justify racist sentiments and actions against people of Asian descent. Such aggressions are not new and are embedded in a long history of racial violence targeting Asians, Asian-Americans and other vulnerable minorities in the United States.

We issue this statement in solidarity with the firm belief that any form of racial discrimination, hatred, bigotry, and violence against any community is an attack on all of us. We stand together to call for solidarity and support across our various communities. We urge everyone to call out racism and violence when you see it in any community, reach out to one another in support and care. In our divided climate, communities are often pitted against one another. We urge everyone to reject any calculus that assumes a hierarchy of human value by race.

We strongly condemn racism and hate toward all people, and we stand in solidarity with those who are being viciously targeted today. We advocate for a critical understanding of how ideas about race and racial difference take shape over time with the larger goal of exposing and dismantling such racist beliefs and attacks against various minoritized groups. As a community of educators, we pledge to continue to teach the histories and legacies of race and racism and speak out against them.

Duke’s Office for Institutional Equity is one local resource for assistance and reporting for those who have experienced discrimination or harassment based upon race, national origin or other protected categories of identity, at 919-684-8222, or oie-help@duke.edu. STOP AAPI HATE and Asian Americans Advancing Justice are national reporting sites. Other resources are available at our partner organization NCAAT. AADS will continue to update our program site with local and national resources for addressing these concerns. Please share these and other available resources to help those who have been the target of inflammatory racist rhetoric and violence.

In Solidarity,

Nayoung Aimee Kwon (Director, Asian American & Diaspora Studies, Duke)

Laura S. Lieber (Director, Duke Center for Jewish Studies)

Mona Hassan (Convener, Islamic Studies Doctoral Program, Duke)

Robin Kirk, co-director, Duke Human Rights Center @ the Franklin Humanities Institute

Erika Weinthal, co-director, Duke Human Rights Center @ the Franklin Humanities Institute

Aarthi Vadde, Associate Professor of English, Duke

Joshua Salaam (Director, Center for Muslim Life, Duke)

Prasenjit Duara (Director, Global Asia Initiative)

Ellen McLarney (Director, Duke Middle East Studies Center; Interim Director, Duke Islamic Studies Center)

Ryan Ku (Postdoctoral Associate, Program in Asian American and Diaspora Studies and Department of English, Duke)

Charmaine DM Royal (Director, Duke Center for Truth, Racial Healing & Transformation)

Giovanni Zanalda (Director, Duke Center for International and Global Studies)

Claudia Milian (Director, Program in Latino/a Studies in the Global South)

Naomi Nelson (Director, Rubenstein Rare Book & Manuscript Library)

Ji-Yeon Jo, Director, Carolina Asia Center, UNC-Chapel Hill

Quinton Smith (Interim Director, Mary Lou Williams Center for Black Culture)

Linda Capers (Director, Center for Multicultural Affairs)

Caroline Robinson (Assistant Teaching Professor of Arabic, UNC Chapel Hill.)

Esther Kim Lee (Professor, Theater Studies, Duke University)

Li-Chen Chin (Assistant Vice President, Intercultural Programs)

Shruti Desai (Associate Vice President of Student Affairs for Campus Life)

J’nai Adams (Associate Director, Center for Multicultural Affairs)

Dwayne Dixon (Teaching Assistant Professor, Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC-CH)

Elmer Orellana (Assistant Director, Center for Multicultural Affairs)

Pamela Lothspeich (Associate Professor, Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC-CH)

Joyce Gordon (Director, Jewish Life at Duke)

Morgan Pitelka (Chair, Department of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC-Chapel Hill)

Luoyi Cai (Teaching Assistant Professor, Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC-CH)

Lisa Giragosian

Lena Wegner (Assistant Director for External Relations, Jewish Life at Duke)

Paige Vinson (Assistant Director, International House, Duke)

Nick Antonicci (Director, Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity)

Angel Collie (Assistant Director, Center for Sexual and Gender Diversity)

Christina Chia (Associate Director, John Hope Franklin Humanities Institute, Duke University)

Elana Friedman (Campus Rabbi, Jewish Life at Duke)

I Jonathan Kief (Assistant Professor, Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC-CH)

Ana Vinea (Assistant Professor, Dept. of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, UNC-CH)

Krystal George (Interim Director, Women’s Center)

Tuania Wright (Women’s Center)

Sheila Broderick, (Duke University Women’s Center Office of Gender Violence Intervention)

Anne-Maria Makhulu (Associate Professor, Dept of Cultural Anthropology and African & African American Studies, Duke University)

Frances S. Hasso (Associate Professor, Gender, Sexuality, and Feminist Studies, History, and Sociology, Duke University)

Anti-Asian Violence Resource Guide

If you find other resources, feel free to add to this doc!

Resources on the History of Anti-Asian Violence:

  1. The Muddled History of Anti-Asian Violence from the New Yorker
  2. A Literary Guide to Combat Anti-Asian Racism in America
  3. Duke ASA Anti-Asian Discussion Guide
  4. DUKE AADS Anti-Asian Harassment Resources Guide
  5. University of Colorado Anti-Asian Racism and Covid-19 Guide

 

Mental Health Resources:

  1. Racial Trauma Toolkit by Boston College
  2. Asian Pacific Islander Desi American Therapist Directory
  3. @AsiansforMentalHealth
  4. @SubtleAsianMentalHealth on Facebook: Offering free 1:1 supportive listening sessions
  5. @LaichienTherpay: Offering Asian Pacific American Pay-as-you-wish group therapy
  6. Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK; Asian Languages 1-877-990-8585; Crisis Text Line TEXT ‘CONNECT’ to 741741

Fundraisers & Organizations to Support:

  1. Longer active list of Asian-American Community Resource/Donation Lists
  2. Welcome to Chinatown
    1. Provides financial support to NYC Chinatown’s small businesses
  3. Heart of Dinner
    1. Delivers care packages of food to NYC’s elderly Asian American community
  4. NAPAWF*NYC
    1. Builds Asian, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander women & gender nonbinary power in NY
  5. GAPIMNY
    1.  Empowers queer and trans Asian Pacific Islanders
  6. MinKwon Center
    1. Protecting Flushing, NY from gentrification & displacement
  7. Collection of GoFundMe’s directed toward support Asian/American communities
    1. https://www.gofundme.com/c/act/stop-aapi-hate
  8. Oakland Asian Health Collective Fund
    1. https://asianhealthservices.org/donate/
  9. Filipino Community Center in San Francisco
    1. https://www.filipinocc.org/
  10. Los Angeles SE Asian Community Alliance
    1. https://www.seaca-la.org/
  11. Asian Prisoner Support
    1. https://www.asianprisonersupport.com/
  12. EPIC - Empowering Pacific Islander Communities
    1. https://www.empoweredpi.org/
  13. APIEquality - APIENC’s role is to build alternatives—real solutions—that are centered in our communities, build self-determination, and promote healing and restoration for the land and the people. All of our programs are led by QTAPI members who are directly impacted by the issues we address.
    1. https://apienc.org/
  14. AAPI Women Lead focuses on fighting for Asian women and girls right through their #ImReady movement (which was inspired by the #MeToo movement).
    1. https://donorbox.org/racial-solidarity
  15. Dear Asian Youth
    1. We are a group of Asian youths striving to uplift marginalized communities through education, activism, and celebration.
  16. Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
  17. Red Canary Song - Grassroots collective of Asian and Migrant sex workers, organizing transnationally
  18. Asian American Feminist Collective

Past statements (feel free to add others)

https://today.duke.edu/2021/03/message-president-price-condemning-violence-against-asian-and-asian-american-communities

https://ncaatogether.org/2021/03/17/statement-on-anti-asian-hate/

https://asianamericanstudies.duke.edu/news/aads-mourns-victims-shooting-atlanta-ga

https://carolinaasiacenter.unc.edu/2021/03/17/statement/

https://asianstudies.unc.edu/dames-statement-on-anti-asian-violence-and-discrimination/

https://oie.duke.edu/resources-understanding-and-confronting-racism-and-its-impact

https://aac.unc.edu/2021/02/letter-on-recent-anti-asian-violence/