Stop AAPI Hate

Written By Unconscious Bias Project

Stop AAPI Hate logo from Stop AAPI Hate

Throughout the pandemic, Americans have turned their attention to increased incidences of racism and xenophobia directed against Asian Americans, and Asian American Pacific Islanders. In spring of 2020, we had a series of videos (Part 1, Part 2) and sent a list of resources to our mailing list regarding current events surrounding Stop AAPI Hate. In summer of 2021 we also hosted a panel and workshop Stop AAPI Hate & Activate.

Violence against AAPI communities has always existed, whether through erasure, physical or verbal violence, and microaggressions. At the outset of the COVID-19 pandemic, political figures like Trump and major news outlets discussed news of the coronavirus pandemic in a way that directly and inaccurately connected the virus to Chinese people, shifting blame onto Chinese people. This purposeful connection ignited a sharp rise in violence against AAPI communities. In particular, the “Stop AAPI Hate” movement grew in response to the Atlanta shootings in March 2021. Between March 2020 and December 2021, 10,905 incidents of hate were reported to Stop AAPI Hate, with 2,000 more incidents reported in 2021. 

With this increased attention, we are also made aware that the media have focused on harm against East Asian and Southeast Asian Americans, often ignoring the realities faced by a broader spectrum of Asians, including multi-racial Asians and/or with Pacific Islander ancestry, especially Black and Indigenous AAPI, including police violence and racial profiling.


We also recognize that media continues to parrot the false narrative that there is a Black vs Asian conflict that seeks to bury the long history of Black, Asian, and Black Asian partnership in civil rights movements.

The Unconscious Bias Project supports the Stop AAPI Hate movement.

We support and engage in anti-racism. We unconditionally condemn racist, xenophobist, sexist, and violent acts perpetrated by anybody, including police, against Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders.

This is a symptom of a much larger problem.

The history of Asian immigrants and Asian Americans in this country reflects centuries of xenophobia, stereotyping (both positive and negative), marginalization, erasure, and discrimination at the personal, interpersonal, institutional, and systemic levels. While there is recent attention to this issue, there are deeper roots to this problem beyond awareness that are intersectional in nature and must be addressed at all levels.

What does unconscious bias have anything to do with it? 

Unconscious bias is one of many symptoms and perpetuators of injustice. Unconscious bias is defined as unintentional discrimination (bias) against a person or group usually in a way considered to be unfair. Unconscious bias doesn’t magically appear, it is rooted in the same systems of oppression and white supremacy that influence everything we consume in our world and thus influence our own upbringing, thoughts, and actions. Unconscious bias and overt bias, such as intentional acts of racism, can manifest themselves in actions as subtle as shunning, damaging as the model minority myth, unfair like discrimination in business, and as irreversible as a life lost.

No one is immune to bias. 

This is why we teach persistence and long term commitment to acting against bias. We teach that even if you are affected by bias in one or several aspects of your life, you could still benefit from these ingrained systems of oppression in others. For example, our Executive Director, Dr. Linet Mera, is a Latina woman and has been the subject of discrimination due to both these identities. She is also lighter skinned, able bodied, cis-gender and benefits from these factors, for example in job interviews and in interactions with law enforcement. They are not the only identities and factors at play in her life, but these serve to illustrate the issue.

If you haven’t started, join UBP in acting. 

At UBP, we know that committing to fight racism can take many forms and we encourage everyone to join in. At UBP we act against racism when we march, donate, call elected officials, sign petitions, vote, amplify voices of those affected, and lift up solutions from those affected. We advocate for equitable and inclusive policies, use our workshops to teach evidence-based approaches for personal, interpersonal, and institutional bias, and we encourage people to become bias buddies (“real” allies), to learn from people different from us, to engage in bystander intervention, and to teach our children how to act.

Stop AAPI Hate must be intersectional.

When advocating for increased awareness and tactics to reduce violence against AAPI communities, we support solutions that are not police-dependent and that are intersectional including age, religion, skin color, ability, sexual orientation, gender, and socioeconomic status. Why? Because we recognize that increased policing will negatively impact Brown and Black members in and outside of the AAPI community. Because working against systems of oppression and colonialism ultimately creates a more just and equitable society for ALL people experiencing oppression.

Sustainability

Lastly, we want to urge readers to see that the protests, the petitions, donating, voting, acting, advocacy, and learning are not a single moment but are part of a long-term commitment. We all must come to the table with every intention of sustaining engagement, action, and learning into all movements and in our daily lives. While there have been gains in policy and awareness, there is still a long way to go. 

To this end, we have compiled a few resources:

If you are at the beginning stages of learning about the issue, we recommend:

If you are looking to learn how to intervene in moments of bias:

Resources for Community & Individual Trauma, Mental, and Physical Health

  • SEAD Project Health Pack - Resources that encompass physical, mental and emotional wellbeing in English, Burmese, Hmong, Khmer, Lao and Vietnamese.

  • The Lawyer’s Committee - Pro bono legal assistance

  • Trauma Stewardship Survival Guide - suggestions for ways to resource yourself after experiencing trauma and to help buffer the effects of trauma before it happens. 

  • Dynamic Empowerment Assessment resource by Emily Santiago at Lyrah to assess workplace burnout

  • Pod-Mapping resource to help us reimagine safety by Mia Mingus

  • The Social Change Ecosystem Map by Deepa Iyer for folks to figure out where in the movement they belong. You don’t have to be on the front lines to participate! This is a great resource for folks to figure that out based on their talents and what brings them joy.

Additional Foundations, Organizations, and Groups to Support

If you are protesting (articles & downloads):

We of course are happy to support you in this journey as UBP and there are many folks and resources out there who can help you. We recommend looking for ones that fit you and your needs the best.

Especially at this time, we encourage everyone to not ask AAPI folks to help in your process, unless they are welcoming paid engagement requests or actively seek out doing so themselves. 

If you would like to contribute any other resources, please send them our way. 

We are with you,

The UBP Team.

Unconscious Bias Project
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