Why We Do It
Lifting AAPI Voices
The key political issues of the the current period impact AAPI communities heavily, such as immigration, health care, reproductive rights, the environment, workers rights, national security, and education. However, AAPI perspectives are missing from the larger conversation. The media and oppositional forces tokenize AAPI perspectives to suggest that our communities do not support matters such as immigration reform, affirmative action, and reproductive justice. Our member organizations who work with AAPI populations on a daily basis have seen the evidence to prove this wrong. Polls have consistently shown AAPI voters to be support of social justice policies, yet a vocal minority have cased our communities as being self-interested. We must build a platform for our community members to raise their voices and make our values known.
Building Strong Alliances
We are stronger together than alone. Within the broader social justice movement, our organizations believe that AAPI leadership and voices are needed as part of a winning coalition with other people of color and allies, including the LGBTQ, immigrant rights, workers’ rights and environmental justice movements. This belief in alliance building is reflected in our participation with a range of local, state and national alliances. In our efforts of building AAPI electoral power, it’s also going hand in hand with building a large statewide alliance of People of Color led integrated voter engagement organizations through the Million Voters Project, where we are working to create a more diverse and engaged electorate. Our work to mobilize AAPI voters include mobilizing them on shared goals and agenda with Black/brown communities.
