The Professional Staff Organization condemns the abhorrent violence against Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community members. The horrific shootings in Atlanta, Georgia, on Tuesday March 16, that claimed the lives of eight people, six of whom were of Asian descent and seven of whom were women, exemplify the intersectional oppression that so many minoritized people face: racism, misogyny, classism and beyond. We recognize that these murders punctuate the context of a sickening increase in anti-Asian violence, harassment and bigotry around the country as well as locally, as President Cauce and others have noted. Over the past year, Asian diasporic people have been targets of nearly 4,000 reported hate incidents in the United States, and in King County these reports have risen from 39 in 2019 to 59 in 2020. Even before the pandemic started, Asian Americans were the third most targeted race/ethnicity group, following Black Americans and Jewish Americans. Such violence is a particularly despicable aspect of the deep, tangled roots of bigotry and xenophobia in our society. The myth that the AAPI community has not been impacted by white supremacy and systemic racism dismisses and ignores people’s experiences and stories and has sometimes left AAPI community members out of the anti-racism conversation.
The PSO stands in solidarity with the communities under attack right now, and holds space for the grief in this moment. We are with you. We see you.
We encourage all those who can to take action. This may include the following (thank you to The Revolutionary Love Project and Common Power for posting these ideas):
- Learn the names and stories of those we lost. Six names have been released so far. Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33; Paul Andre Michels, 54; Xiaojie Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Julie Park, 70’s; Hyun-jeong Park Grant, 50’s.
- Check in with family and friends in the AAPI community, listen to their stories, for as long they want to talk about it.
- Contact your representatives and advocate for policies that thwart hate crimes and violence, and that support progress toward institutional anti-racism and justice for all.
- If you see racism, say something. Strong allyship behavior needs to be modeled over and over again.
- Donate to stopaapihate.org. Historically, less than 1% of philanthropic resources go to AAPI communities.
- Donate to napawf.org, the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, specifically their Atlanta chapter.
- Get involved with groups like the Revolutionary Love Project who are helping to direct resources to victims’ families and organizers on the ground.
Other resources:
- Reporting anti-Asian hate activity, provided by the Seattle Chapter Japanese Americans Citizens League (JACL)
- President Cauce’s statement against anti-Asian violence
- Bias Reporting Tool
- Washington State Human Rights Commission Complaint Form
- Let’s Talk (Seattle campus)
- Hall Health and the UW Counseling Center (Seattle campus)
- UWB Counseling Center (UW Bothell)
- Counseling & Psychological Services (UW Tacoma)
- UW CareLink (UW employees)
- Resources to talk to children about racism
