While this pandemic has affected each of us, its impacts have not been felt equally by all of us.
When COVID arrived, the first businesses in many of our cities to experience the economic hit were those in Chinatown. Over the past year, we witnessed racist rhetoric and disinformation from political leaders attempting to find a scapegoat for the crisis and fear we’ve all been facing. It’s not the first time Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities have been scapegoated in our country’s history—it’s a betrayal that has an ugly echo.
The mass shooting in Atlanta last week was a particularly horrific example of the rise in hate crimes against AAPI communities. And there have been many other incidents, nearly 3,800 in the past year. These hate crimes, which are race-based and xenophobic, often target the most vulnerable among us—immigrants, seniors, and women—who are least able to fight back or seek legal recourse. During an ongoing global pandemic, this violence represents an additional public health crisis for AAPI communities across the U.S.
This racism and violence also poses an affront to Nelson\Nygaard’s mission: to create healthier, more equitable, more sustainable, and more vibrant communities. We are committed to our anti-racist values as a firm, and we stand in solidarity with AAPI communities. We’ve shared a few resources we are learning from and organizations we are supporting below.
Resources:
- The National Asian Pacific American Bar Association’s resources for legal information and hate crime prevention guides and toolkits: https://www.napaba.org/page/HateCrimeResources
- Stop AAPI Hate’s incident reporting tool: https://stopaapihate.typeform.com/to/zhMP3fUx
Organizations to follow and fund:
- Asian Americans Advancing Justice: https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/
- AAPI Women Lead: https://www.imreadymovement.org/
- Red Canary Song: https://www.redcanarysong.net/
- Self Evident: https://selfevidentshow.com/about
- The Untokening: http://www.untokening.org/events(full disclosure: our EDI Director, Naomi Doerner, is a co-founder and national co-organizer)