How to Help Stop Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans
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How to Help Stop Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans

News broke Tuesday night that eight people, six of them Asian women, had been shot by a gunman at three spa businesses in Atlanta. Some authorities seem to think the attack wasn't racially motivated, but the clear targeting of Asian workers during a global spike in anti-Asian violence sounds exactly like a hate crime to us.

Not helped by the "China virus" rhetoric of former President Trump, the pandemic has put Asian American and Pacific Islanders at increased risk of physical and verbal attack, due to the obviously false belief that Asian people are responsible for the spread of COVID-19. Stop AAPI Hate, a national coalition aimed at addressing anti-Asian discrimination amid the pandemic, reported 3,800 firsthand accounts of anti-Asian hate crimes between March 2020 and February of 2021.

These racist and xenophobic incidents are coming at a time when Asian-American businesses, many of them first generation immigrant-owned and therefore at a disadvantage when applying for bank and government loans, are already suffering tremendous economic losses.

There are ways you can help: through donating your money and time, educating yourself and your networks, supporting your local Chinatown and donating directly to GoFundMes and other community fundraisers.

Here are some resources to get started.

Reading list

Learn about bystander intervention and sign up for Anti-Asian and Xenophobic Harassment Intervention, Conflict De-Escalation, and Reaction Training.

The YouTube series #AsianAmCovidStories documents the Asian-American pandemic experience.

Two great additions to your bookshelf: Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong and The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origin of the Model Minority by Ellen D. Wu.

Here's an awesome Black and Asian feminist solidarity reading list via Black Women Radicals.

Learn about coded language from the National Education Association's EdJustice.

Support Sex Workers

First up, sign the Declaration of Support for Migrant Sex Workers.

Then check out these orgs:

Butterfly
Red Canary
SWAN

Report Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

Help contribute to data that raises awareness of racism and xenophobia in order to protect Asian American communities:

AAPI Emergency Response Network
STOP AAPI Hate
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Stand Against Hatred

Asian-American Mental Health Resources

Find comprehensive info via the Asian American and Pacific Islander Mental Health Association.
And check out this Asian Health Collective therapist directory.

Photo via Getty

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