KRC Statement on Anti-Asian Violence
Tuesday, February, 23rd, 2021
We Must Center Community Building Solutions
Korean Resource Center (KRC) strongly condemns the increasing violence targeting AAPI communities in different parts of the country since the onset of the pandemic. We are sad and exhausted hearing about these incidents especially targeting our elderly and vulnerable community members. We do not know how to alleviate their pains but we are grieving with them and actively thinking of ways to offer support, care and needed resources.
Although anti-Asian hate has a long history in the U.S., the recent spike in reported incidents can directly be attributed to the dehumanizing and hateful comments by the previous administration that was set on labeling Covid-19 as the “Chinese Virus”. This type of racial scapegoating is a cowardly act that has been used to simplistically cast blame on innocent community members in order to frame overly complex phenomena. And unfortunately, diverse communities have fallen prey to this type of machination that breeds fear, mistrust and division, pitting communities of color against each other while uplifting a false notion of hierarchy.
Racial scapegoating at its root is embedded in white supremacy and the systems and institutions built to protect and defend it. This moment calls on us to interrogate this system and all structures that stand in the way of racial and social justice. The solution to these hate crimes is not found in increased law enforcement and punitive measures that perpetuate the cycles of violence. We must advocate for more resources and initiatives that seek to build communities across racial lines and dismantle systems of oppression and violence.
We in the AAPI community must vociferously speak up and name the micro-aggressions and other injustices perpetrated against our communities. We must not minimize our pain and trauma but recognize it, report it and seek to amplify our voices to fight for racial justice. We must continue to stand in solidarity with Black, Indigenous and Brown communities, who continue to disproportionately suffer injustice in this country. Let us move beyond competitive victimhood but seek to reckon with the racial troubles that continue to plague this country. Let us be in conversation with one another for our suffering, our healing, our liberation and our thriving are collectively entangled and mutual.