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This is a slide presentation of Stop AAPI Hate by Manjusha P, Kullkarni, Executive Director of AAPI Equity Alliance on March 17, 2022.

Key Takeaways

• Racial discrimination affects all Asians and Pacific Islanders.
• Intersectionality matters.
• Most hate incidents are not hate crimes
• No one-size-fits-all solutions.
• There is no one profile of perpetrators and contrary to popular belief Blacks do not make up the majority of those causing harm
• Racism: Not only interpersonal attacks, but also structural decisions and policies

Read the slide presentation.

Stop AAPI Hate is an initiative of:

• Chinese for Affirmative Action
• AAPI Equity Alliance
• San Francisco State University

From March 19, 2020 to December 31, 2021, a total of 10,905 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons were reported to Stop AAPI Hate. Of the hate incidents reflected in this report, 4,632 occurred in 2020 (42.5%) and 6,273occurred in 2021 (57.5%).

This national report features:

(1) the overall descriptions of 10,905 hate incidents from Stop AAPI Hate data; and

(2) the gender-specific descriptions of hate incidents.

It also highlight policies and recommendations to address experiences with hate, including policies from Stop AAPI Hate’s recently released California State Policy Recommendations to Address AAPI Hate report, which can be adopted in states around the country. Information about our standard data cleaning procedures and more detailed tables can be found in the Technical Appendix at the end of this report.

According to Stop AAPI Hate data, verbal harassment (63.0%) continues to make up the biggest share of total incidents reported.

Overall Key Findings:

• AAPI women report more harassment (69.8%) than AAPI men (63.0%) and AAPInon-binary people (56.3%).
• AAPI non-binary people report more deliberate avoidance or shunning (21.4%), being coughed at or spat on (13.9%), denial of service (8.3%) and online harassment (12.1%) than AAPI women and men.
• A higher percentage of hate incidents experienced by AAPI women occurred inpublic streets (34.5%) compared to AAPI men (32.1%) and AAPI non-binarypeople (29.5%).
• Higher percentages of hate incidents experienced by AAPI non-binary peopleoccurred online (13.9%), at school (11.8%) and at university or college (7.8%).
• Higher percentages of AAPI women (19.1%) and AAPI non-binary people(23.1%) identified gender/gender identity as one reason for discrimination compared to AAPI men (5.5%).

Read the report.

Stop AAPI Hate is a national coalition addressing anti-Asian racism across the United States. The coalition was founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council(A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) and San Francisco State University’s Asian American Studies Department

Background

The City of Santa Rosa Public Art Program issued a Request for Qualifications seeking an artist or team of artists to design, fabricate, and install site-specific public art at the north end of Old Courthouse Square in Downtown Santa Rosa. The deadline to submit qualifications was in January 2020.

The Goal

The goal of this completed project is to provide the entire Santa Rosa community with a prominent artistic symbol that reflects the uniquely Santa Rosa values of innovation and cultural inclusivity. This art installation should inspire people living in, and visiting, our city to reflect on what is special about our community and encourage them to gather downtown to experience it first-hand.

Selection Process

A selection panel was formed representing arts professionals, downtown business and property owners, downtown residents, and the Art in Public Places Committee (APPC). After narrowing down from 140 submissions from artists across the country to 5 finalists, Blessing Hancock of Tucson, Arizona’s sculpture Unum was selected as the winner.

Words and Languages to be Included:

At the meeting of the APPC on January 10, 2022, the words in 17 languages on the Unum sculpture were recommended and adopted. This list was selected based on census data that identified the most commonly spoken household languages in the community, and added Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok as suggested by the advisory board.

Languages originally approved for the sculpture at the January 10 APPC meeting included:

1. English
2. Spanish
3. Chinese
4. Tagalog
5. Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian
6. Vietnamese
7. Thai
8. Khmer
9. Amharic, Somali
10. French
11. Swahili
12. German
13. Korean
14. Italian
15. Persian
16. Southern Pomo
17. Coast Miwok

Outcry Over Hebrew and Japanese Languages Omission

The omission of Japanese and Hebrew in list of languages triggered an outcry from the Jewish and Japanese communities. See Press Democrat article on January 21, 2022.

The different languages are meant to represent the diversity in the community. There is roomfor more languages and adding a few additional languages will not displace any of thelanguages already approved. It will only add to the diversity.

Phyllis Tajii of Sonoma County JACL (Japanese American Citizens League) and a core member our AAPI Coalition of the North Bay, alerted us to the omission. She wrote, “While JACL is grateful that many different Asian languages are included (as too often distinctions are not made between the different Asian ethnic groups), there seemed to bean omission of the Japanese American population who have been in Santa Rosa since the 1800’s, and the same with the Jewish community (as represented by the Hebrew language).

“It is admirable that the APP Committee recognized the different populations that are so often overlooked, but if languages are meant to represent the diversity of the community, JACL would like them to go a step further and look at populations who speak English in the household and do not need translation assistance but who still identify with a specific ethnic group and have had a long history in the area.”

Several community organizations have already expressed support to re-examine the languages to be used. They include Sonoma County Interfaith Council, United in Kindness, the Jewish community. A request to add Hebrew and Arabic were also voiced.

APPC Meeting Decision Nullified

Public outcry over the omission of Japanese and Hebrew from the languages to be featured on the sculpture prompted inquiries by the Santa Rosa’s Economic Development Director about how the public could appeal the committee’s decision. At subsequent meetings with the city attorney and clerk’s office determined that the three affirmative votes cast on Jan. 10 were insufficient to pass the motion.

A press release was issued on February 1 that the City will revisit languages for the Unum sculpture which stated “Given this new information, the item will again be placed on an upcoming agenda for consideration…

“As the original motion for this item was invalid, there is also the opportunity to provide as lightly modified staff recommendation. After careful consideration of then process through which the original languages were identified, it is now recommended that the list from which the original 15 languages were identified be expanded to include the top 30 languages spoken in Santa Rosa, based on US Census Bureau data. This allows for more inclusivity while respecting the original process recommended by the community advisory group. The recommendation will incorporate the original selection of words as previously included.”

Words to be considered include the following out of 400 total responses from public engagement processes:

1. Unity
2. Community
3. People
4. Diversity
5. Kindness
6. Neighborhood
7. City
8. Safety
9. Respect
10. Love
11. Peace
12. Care
13. Resilience
14. Family
15. Equality
16. Equity
17. Belonging
18. Friendship

Recommended Languages now expand to the 30 most commonly spoken languages in Santa Rosa, plus Southern Pomo and Coast Miwok to acknowledge and respect he Southern Pomo and Miwok land and existing communities in Santa Rosa:

1. English
2. Spanish
3. Chinese (incl. Mandarin, Cantonese)
4. Tagalog (incl. Filipino)
5. Ilocano, Samoan, Hawaiian
6. Vietnamese
7. Thai
8. Khmer
9. Amharic, Somali
10. French
11. Swahili
12. German
13. Korean
14. Italian
15. Persian (incl. Farsi, Dari)
16. Laotian
17. Cambodian
18. Russian
19. Swedish
20. Japanese
21. Portuguese
22. Gujarati
23. Hungarian
24. Hindi
25. Miao, Hmong
26. Arabic
27. Tigrinya
28. Hebrew
29. Polish
30. Greek
31. Southern Pomo
32. Coast Miwok

The new recommendations were considered and adopted at the Art in Public Places Committee on Tuesday, February 22, 2022.

Increased efforts by the U.S. government to racially target and profile Asian Americans and Asian immigrants have incited fear among the Asian American and immigrant community across the country. Mass surveillance and unjust investigations and prosecutions of scientists, researchers, and scholars of Asian and Chinese descent have increased at an alarming rate.

This webinar with OCA-Asian Pacific Americans consists of a two-part panel with the first section providing a comprehensive overview of the anti-racial profiling movement and the current state of play, including the end of the U.S. Department of Commerce’s security unit Investigations and Threat Management Service (ITMS) and the upcoming trial of Dr. Feng ‘Franklin’ Tao, the most recent case under the “China Initiative“. The latter half of the panel looks into ways you can be involved with Advancing Justice | AAJC’s and OCA’s week of action.

Speakers highlight important policy and advocacy priorities, community-led grassroots organizing efforts, and outline how to build narratives with the media to lift up the voices of impacted people and increase public awareness

10 Key Moments in this Video: (Watch Webinar)

1. Overview of the Anti-Racial Profiling-from00:49 mins
2. John C Yang President and Executive Director,AAJC-from 01:19 mins
3. Anti-Racial Profiling Project-from 05:04 mins
4. Where Are We Now-from 10:10 mins
5. Historical Racial Profiling-from 14:25 mins
6. Issues with Media Coverage-from 15:14 mins
7. Impact on the Academic Community-from 31:29 mins
8. The Tennessee Chinese American Alliance-from 34:44 mins
9. Asian Pacific American “Advocates-from 54:43mins
10. Additional Resources-from 01:16:10 hrs

Jon M. Chu is known for his visually stunning blockbuster films, as well as his kinetic work across various genres, from groundbreaking series to commercials and films. Chu directed the worldwide phenomenon Crazy Rich Asians, which has earned more than $175 million in the United States alone. The film is the first non-period studio picture in more than 25 years to feature an all-Asian cast, and it represents a new chapter in Chu’s 10-year career.

On the heels of the breakout success of his film Crazy Rich Asians, director Jon M. Chu reflects on what drives him to create-and makes a resounding case for the power of connection and on-screen representation. Watch video.

California Poets in the Schools, a nonprofit that amplifies young creative voices in California, has named Ella Wen as Sonoma County’s new 2021 youth poet laureate. Ella, 16, a sophomore at Maria Carrillo High School, developed a passion in poetry growing up with her Grandpa reading and writing Chinese poems with him. One of three poems she submitted was “Written in Words” which explores racism, prejudice, and bias.

Written in Words

By Ella Wen

And the more I feel this array of alphabetical assault seeping deep within my skin, aimed at me like antagonistic arrows

telling me to say less

and then to say more

to dress less

and then to dress more

to be less

and then to be more

it’s then I begin to realize that words are powerful

and they hurt

but they can heal too

and I, we

I know words too

I too have a pen

my pen is infinite

the ink seeping within pages

I know how to write, I just didn’t know until now

My body, my mind, my soul is so much more than what you wrote your narrative

so clothed with ignorance and facades of apologies

I, experience, am experiencing all the pain there is

don’t write my story

for me.

Read more in the Press Democrat..

The 2020’s Youth Poet Laureate Zoya Ahmed, a Maria Carrillo High School student, the first in Sonoma County, is first-generation American, with roots in Pakistan and India.

“This colorful heritage is her drive. Every day, Zoya is empowered to work hard towards achieving her goals, humbled by the opportunities she is given, and inspired to give back to the community. Her biggest motivators are her parents and her family, who encourage her each and every day. They are her muse; they symbolize the meaning of sacrifice in her life. Their stories, especially those of the women in Zoya’s family, are what give her writing a spark of creativity and perspective,” noted in the California Poets in the Schools website.

“Poetry gives me confidence and allows me to be more than just a person,” Ahmed said. “It allows me to embrace my individuality and heritage. It gives me a story.” Read more in the Bohemian.

The Sonoma County California Poets in the Schools aims to acknowledge a student who has achieved excellence in poetry between the ages of 13 and 19 and must be a Sonoma County resident. They should also have demonstrated their commitment to literacy arts and community engagement through participation in volunteer and community services, clubs, after school activities, and extra academic activities