This Has Got to Stop: 10 Ways You Can Push Back Against Anti-Asian Violence
Violent hate crimes against Asian-Americans have risen since the beginning of the pandemic. Stop AAPI Hate, which was launched on March 19, 2020, to track incidents against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, reported that a horrific 3,795 hate incidents have occurred from March 19, 2020, to February 28, 2021. Of course, not all incidents of anti-Asian violence are reported, so the real number may be much higher.
On Tuesday, March 16, a domestic terrorist killed eight people in three shootings at multiple Atlanta-area spas. Most of the victims were Asian women.
Here’s what you can do as an ally. Here are 10 ways to push back against the anti-Asian violence currently plaguing the United States:
1. Donate
Donate directly to Georgia’s Asian-American communities through Asian Americans Advancing Justice.
You can donate to Stop AAPI Hate, Butterfly (provides support for Asian and migrant sex workers), NAPIESV (supports programs that assist victims of sexual violence from the Asian and Pacific Islander communities in the U.S., U.S. Territories in the Pacific, and Asia) and the AAPI Community Fund (issues grants to AAPI organizations).
You can find even more groups and organizations to donate to here.
2. Understand the factors at play
Although the heinous language used by the media, high-ranking government officials and the former president’s actions tying COVID-19 to Asians certainly has not helped — and has certainly exacerbated the situation — racism and violence against Asian Americans goes back much further than the pandemic.
We can’t talk about March 16 without specifically talking about how Asian women, especially those working in sex trades, have historically been targeted.
Something that is not talked about enough re: racial violence against Asians is the type of sexualized violence Asian women face, how interconnected that is to violence against those in the sex trade + how that violence has been so deeply shaped by American imperial wars in Asia
— free them all (@hyejinhere) March 17, 2021
Red Canary Song, a collective of Asian sex workers and allies, is the “only grassroots Chinese massage parlor worker coalition in the U.S.” (Donate to them here.)
Co-director Esther K. said: “Removing the anti-sex-work component really removes the crux of what this specific kind of racism is about: the fetishization of Asian women’s bodies, the objectification of their bodies and the assumption that Asian women are obviously going to be providing sexual services at massage parlors. The conflation of massage parlors and sex workers without any nuance is very specific to anti-Asian racism against Asian women.”
Stop the casually racist jokes, interlaced with sexism and sexual violence, that are made at the expense of Asian women who work in places like massage parlors and nail salons. These jokes are not harmless. Dehumanization leads to violence.
— Helen Shangdavision (@helenshang) March 17, 2021
He didn't have a "sexual addiction" – he had racist sexualized fantasies about dominating Asian women. In other words, he had fantasies of white supremacy and acted on them. Name it.
— Minh-Ha T. Pham (@minh81) March 17, 2021
The hypersexualization of Asian women plays a HUGE part in the violence we face. I've been cornered on the street as men say "me love you long time." I've been offered money for a "happy ending massage." I've been hit on because I'm Asian and told it's a "compliment."
— Christine Liwag Dixon (@cmliwagdixon) March 17, 2021
3. Sign up for bystander intervention training
These are free, and only one hour long. Sign up here.
4. Continue to educate yourself even in times when anti-Asian violence isn’t in the forefront of the news
In order to dismantle systems of oppression that have been deeply ingrained into this country since its inception, we must continually do the work. The surge of outrage those of us who are witnessing but not directly impacted by hate-fueled violence feel should never cool.
Listen to what Asian-American lawmakers, academics and experts have to say.
5. Push back when needed
Push back against the idea that violent hate crimes like the most recent incident in Georgia were not hate crimes, or were not racially motivated.
