APAICS Statement On Deadly Attacks Against Asian American & Pacific Islanders
WASHINGTON — The recent uptick of hate crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) have made headlines again. Instead of slurs and harassment, this targeted hatred has become fatal. The issue of discrimination and racism against AAPIs has been an issue that has been long overlooked by the country at large.
Last year, Congresswoman Grace Meng passed House Resolution 908, condemning all forms of anti-Asian sentiment with the support of her tri-caucus colleagues in the Congressional Hispanic Caucus and the Congressional Black Caucus. Last year, we urged the President and members of Congress to address the rampant xenophobia at the start of the pandemic. Last year, Stop AAPI Hate implemented their hate crimes reporting center and found over 2800 self-reported incidents of crimes against Asian American and Pacific Islanders. Our fellow coalition partner OCA implemented their AAPI Hate Incident Reporting Form and was inundated with several accounts of violence against AAPI community members. Additional resources were created by our friends at Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC where they created StandAgainstHatred.org, a website dedicated to collecting the stories of AAPIs and tracking hate incidents across the United States. In September of 2020, APAICS led a discussion on Building Allyship Across Communities of Color during our Legislative Leadership Series along with countless other webinars and opportunities to discuss discrimination and xenophobia across our platforms.
From verbal to physical assaults, the AAPI community stands strong. For us at APAICS, we are committed to condemning all forms of racism, bigotry, and violence against AAPIs and we will continue to make it part of our mission to uplift AAPIs. Supporting the AAPI community is not mutually exclusive and does not hinder our ability to stand in solidarity across other communities of color. We reject racism and it must be addressed whether it’s our community or someone else’s.
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The Asian Pacific American Institute for Congressional Studies (APAICS) is a national non-partisan, nonprofit 501(c)(3) organization dedicated to promoting Asian Pacific American participation and representation at all levels of the political process, from community service to elected office. APAICS programs focus on developing leadership, building public policy knowledge, and filling the political pipeline for Asian Pacific Americans to pursue public office at the local, state, and federal levels.