For Immediate Release
Wednesday, March 3, 2021
CONTACT:
Silvia Lew
Co-Chair, Media & Publicity Committee
Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association
communications@apalaweb.org
The Asian Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) recognizes and strongly condemns the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes that have permeated our country over the past year. Our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities have been deeply impacted by attacks that have caused physical and psychological harm. While reported incidents number in the thousands, recent assaults against our elderly and others include attacks on a 52-year-old woman who was shoved in Queens, an 83-year-old woman punched on public transit in San Diego, a 91-year-old man, a 60-year-old man and 55-year-old woman shoved in Oakland’s Chinatown, a 61-year-old man in Brooklyn whose face was slashed while riding the subway, a 36-year-old man stabbed in Manhattan’s Chinatown, a disabled 51-year-old elementary school teacher’s aide beaten by his own cane in LA County, a 27-year-old Air Force veteran beaten in LA’s Koreatown and the deadly assault of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee in San Francisco. In addition, various press reports and anecdotal evidence point to many more incidents of anti-Asian assaults, violence and harassment that have gone unreported.
In May of 2020, we denounced the rise in xenophobia and racism due to coronavirus-related hostility, disinformation and racism. The violence has only grown worse over the past year. We know that these issues are not new, as our communities have been subjected to violence and stereotyping throughout U.S. history. We will continue to simultaneously call out anti-Blackness in our communities and offer our support to our Black colleagues, while recognizing the intersectional nature of white supremacist culture and oppression. APALA is inspired by and grateful for the work of our activist colleagues who eloquently spoke about these issues in Letter to Asian Diasporic Library Workers.
APALA, one of the six National Associations of Librarians of Color, stands in solidarity with our Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities. We urge our library community to stand with us by publicly condemning anti-AAPI racism through visible actions, which we encourage you to share here. We offer to our communities, educators and library workers our 2021 COVID-19 anti-xenophobia and anti-racist information resources and COVID-19 Anti-Asian Racism Resources for K-12. We call on our partner organizations and allies to join forces with us in battling discrimination, xenophobia, and white supremacy.
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Founded in 1980, the Asian/Pacific American Librarians Association (APALA) is a 501(c)3 non-profit organization. All donations to APALA are tax deductible and support our work for library services, programs, scholarships, awards, and grants related to library services benefiting Asian/Pacific Americans and Asian/Pacific American librarians.