Statement: Asian Organizations Across the Bay Area Join Forces to Demand Action Against Violence
We, the undersigned organizations, denounce violence against members of Asian American communities in San Francisco, Oakland, and the greater Bay Area. We stand in solidarity with victims, survivors, and families who have suffered loss and pain.
These violent assaults have made the especially difficult circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic even more painful. From our Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese elders to our youth, our Asian American communities are traumatized, afraid, and outraged during a time when we are also experiencing disproportionate impacts of the pandemic. These include mass unemployment, safety risks to frontline workers, insecure housing, the shuttering of our local small businesses, and a surge in anti-Asian racism.
In the past year, we have seen an escalation of violence and other incidents against Asian American communities. The Stop AAPI Hate reporting center documented 2,808 hate incidents in 2020. Over 700 of these occurred in the Bay Area. And while we should not make any assumptions about the reasons behind these recent incidents — whether racially motivated or not — they have profound impacts on our Asian communities across the country and internationally. Our elderly community members, along with their families, are fearful of being in public alone, simply going for a walk, and living their daily lives. And survivors of interpersonal violence and their families have historically not received enough culturally-competent and language-accessible support across government systems.
We recognize that violence affects all of us and all of our communities. We must invest in long-term community-centered solutions that create spaces for cross-racial healing that address underlying causes and create ways for all to thrive. We believe that our strength is in unity, not division, and that our histories and our futures are intertwined. That is why we are committed to working with Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Pacific Islander communities for long-term shared vision and solutions to stop the violence in all our communities.
We also recognize that it is up to us to keep our communities accountable and to holistically respond to generational trauma and violence. It is up to us to imagine what real safety could look like for our people, and to build the future we want to see — one that is grounded in accountability, justice, and care for each other.
As the Lunar New Year approaches, we must all come together to protect the safety of our community members who are feeling vulnerable during what should be a celebratory time. The cities of San Francisco and Oakland leadership must immediately increase culturally-relevant and trauma-informed investments that:
- Ensure victims and survivors of all backgrounds and language abilities receive full supportive services so they can recover and heal.
- Expand intervention- and prevention-based programs and invest in basic needs and community-based infrastructure that we know will end the cycle of violence and keep all of us safer.
- Resource cross-community education and healing in Asian American and Black communities that humanizes all of us rather than demonizes or scapegoats any community of color.
As organizations with a long history of protecting and advancing the rights of communities of color, we know that an over-reliance on law enforcement approaches has largely been ineffective and has been disproportionately harmful to Black communities and other communities of color. We believe the solution to violence is to empower our communities with resources, support, and education — this is how we make all of our communities safe.
93 organizations that have signed our statement.
1990 Institute, A3PCON; AACI; AAPIs for Civic Empowerment Education Fund (AAPI FORCE-EF); AAPI Women Lead; APA Family Support Services; APALA, Alameda County Chapter; APALA, Inland Empire Chapter; APALA, San Diego Chapter; APALA, San Francisco Chapter; APALA, Orange County Chapter; APAPA, San Francisco Chapter; API Equality — Northern California; Asian Americans Advancing Justice — Asian Law Caucus; Asian American Women Artists Association; Asian Health Services; Asian Immigrant Women Advocates; Asian Pacific American Democratic Caucus of Alameda County; Asian Pacific Islander Council of San Francisco (API Council); Asian Pacific Islander Cultural Center; API Equality Northern California (APIENC); Arab Resource & Organizing Center (AROC); Asian Immigrant Women Advocates; Asian Law Alliance; Asian Pacific Environmental Network; Asian Pacific Fund; Asian Pacific Islander Legal Outreach; Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council; Asian Refugees United; Asians 4 Black Lives; AYPAL: Building API Community Power; Bay Rising; Cal-Nev Philippine Solidarity Task Force (UMC); Center for Empowering Refugees and Immigrants (CERI); Chinatown Community Development Center (CCDC); Chinese for Affirmative Action; Chinese Culture Center of San Francisco; Chinese Health Initiative San Mateo County; Chinese Progressive Association; Communities as One; Community Youth Center; CSU East Bay Ethnic Studies Department; Donors of Color Network; East Bay Alliance for a Sustainable Economy (EBASE); East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation (EBALDC); Family Bridges; Filipino Advocates for Justice; Filipino Americans in Science Technology Engineering Arts and Mathematics (FASTER); Filipino Community Center; Hella Heart Oakland; Hmong Innovating Politics; Japanese American Citizens’ League (JACL), Berkeley Chapter; Japanese American Citizens’ League (JACL), Contra Costa County; Japanese American Citizens’ League (JACL), Eden Township; Japanese American Citizens League (JACL), NorCal-W. Nevada-Pacific District; Japanese American Citizens’ League (JACL), Sacramento Chapter; Japanese American Citizens’ League (JACL), San Francisco Chapter; Japanese Americans For Justice; Inner Eye Arts; Interfaith Movement for Human Integrity; Korean American Community Foundation of San Francisco; Korean Community Center of East Bay; Legal Assistance to the Elderly; The Lunar Project; Malaya Movement SF; Mujeres Unidas y Activas; NAPAWF Bay Area; New Breath Foundation; NICOS Chinese Health Coalition; Nihonmachi Outreach Committee; North East Medical Services (NEMS); Oakland Asian Cultural Center; Oakland Rising; Parent Voices Oakland; Pin@y Educational Partnerships; Pine United Methodist Church — San Francisco; Prism Foundation; Project by Project; Rose Pak Democratic Club; Rotary Club of San Francisco Chinatown; San Francisco Committee for Human Rights in the Philippines; San Francisco Rising; Santa Clara County Asian Law Alliance; SFSU: Department of Asian American Studies; Silicon Valley Rising; SOMA Pilipinas: Filipino Cultural Heritage District; South Bay Youth Changemakers; Southeast Asian Development Center (SEADC); Stand.earth; Stop AAPI Hate; Tuff Love Self-defense; Urgent Action Fund; West Coast Children’s Clinic
Shared February 17, 2021
This weekend, we safely gathered outside and online to grieve and reaffirm our commitment to loving our people and condemning all forms of violence that uphold white supremacy. Speakers from many walks of life shared their stories of hardships and renewed purpose in community:
Oakland Day of Action (February 13, 2021):
“Change has always started with young folks. I look to the youth for inspiration. They’re inheriting this world and I don’t want them to have to fight for the same things that we’re fighting for today: to be seen, to be heard, to feel safe.” Rhummanee Hang, AYPAL: Building API Youth Power
“We ask that all of our ancestors come together for healing purposes, to continue to hold us up from above and below, the sides of us, in front of us, from the back of us and above us. We ask that you help us to find compassion with each other and healing in the work that we are doing. That our communities come together and are resilient and continue to be strong as our ancestors have for many many thousands of generations.” Corrina Gould, Ohlone Leader, Sogorea Te’Land Trust, and Indigenous People Organizing for Change
“We understand what it is like to feel vulnerable, to grieve, and to be angry. We understand the pain of being targeted and yet invisibilized. No one is safe unless all of us are safe. We pledge to walk in solidarity with your grandmothers and grandfathers, and we ask to use this as an opportunity to really see each other, and to build on what has been broken.” Jackie Byers, Black Organizing Project
San Francisco Day of Action (February 14, 2021):
“Individually, we are all ambassadors to someone. Can we do that as a community, to be ambassadors to each other?” Eddie Zheng, New Breath Foundation
“There is no collective universal culture that instills, nurtures, perpetuates, and puts an importance on respect, kindness, and humility. Until we have that, no matter what type of systemic changes we make, at the end of the day we are still going to keep recycling these toxic and negative behaviors if we do not evolve. And we must evolve to survive. We must survive to evolve.” Max Leong, San Francisco Peace Collective