On March 16, after the anti-Asian racism tracking project @StopAAPIHate released a report documenting nearly 3,800 incidents of anti-Asian hate during the pandemic—the majority reported by Asian women—a white man shot and murdered 8 people. Six of the eight killed were Asian women. In the shootings of Asian-owned businesses, an eyewitness heard the man shouted he wanted to “kill all Asians,” as reported by the Korean newspaper Choson Illbo. The murders took place the same evening that Trump used the slur “China virus” on air, and have increased fear among the AAPI community, 76 percent of whom had already expressed worry about Covid-related anti-Asian hate crimes, harassment, and discrimination.

We at Columbia’s Center for Ethnicity and Race (CSER) mourn for the victims and their families, and invite you to take a moment to read their names. We will add more as we learn more.

Daoyou Feng
Paul Andre Michels
Hyeon Jeong Park
Julie Park 
Xiaojie Tan
Delaina Ashley Yaun

As an interdisciplinary group of scholars, we understand that race, class, gender, sexuality, and ableism are inseparable. Last night’s tragedy reflects the long and continued history of colonialism in the United States and abroad, and is rooted in white supremacist and misogynist violence that began with the very first exclusionary laws in the United States. We must continue our work forward with a sense of history, and with an intersectional and relational approach.

We offer two concrete ways to help move forward:

1.       Sign up for this free bystander training
https://www.ihollaback.org/bystanderintervention/

2.       Learn more and become involved with these two groups that organize Asian and Asian American/Canadian sex workers, who understand the connections among migration, gender, class, policing, and empire:
https://www.redcanarysong.net/
https://www.butterflysw.org/