WCAPS NY Chapter: Standing in Solidarity with Asian Diasporic Communities

Standing in Solidarity with Asian Diasporic Communities March 24, 2021 The New York Chapter of Women of Color Advancing Peace and Security (WCAPS-NY) fights alongside Asian diasporic communities across the world, whom have long been and continue to be subjugated to the senseless crimes of hate, discrimination, xenophobia and sinophobia, which have led to economic instability, lack of access to healthcare, and tragic death. Violence comes in all forms - in the microaggressions, the laws pushed to drive communities further into poverty, and the horrific crimes of hate that have ended the lives of countless Asian Americans. Racism, discrimination, and violence towards Asian diaspora are not new. While this is a response to the significant rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, we also write to acknowledge the multi-faceted struggles of Asian Americans, a community whose voices have long been silenced.

For example: in New York City alone, Asian American unemployment claims rose 6,900% in April 2020, by far the largest percentage increase of any racial group. In mid-April 2020, Asian Americans who account for 9% of New York State’s workforce had filed 14% of the state’s unemployment claims. Asian deaths in the city have risen by 112% in the past year, the second-highest behind Hispanic Americans. 2,800 anti-Asian hate crimes have been reported from March 2020 to December 2020 nationally.

Not a single anti-Asian hate crime has been prosecuted in 2020.

These crimes are underpinned by a long history of Western imperialism and the Othering of the East. We are currently relishing in Cold War nostalgia as seen through our adversity towards The People’s Republic of China, which here in the West, translates to adversity against anyone deemed to be “Chinese-looking” by racist attackers. From the Opium Wars and the Chinese Exclusion Act, to the Red Scare, the Japanese internment camps and Asian-American Erasure in Buddhist practices, to the gentrification of Chinatowns, inhumane deportations, and multinational corporate exploitation of factory workers in Myanmar, Cambodia, Vietnam, China, Sri Lanka, and Bangladesh amongst other nations across the world, we bear witness to the West’s uprooting of the livelihoods of Asians and Asian Americans time and time again.

The Asian diaspora are subjected to hate crimes for being the face of the “Other” while routinely being ignored for their struggles under the model minority myth. In turn, Asian immigrants arrive in a country of “opportunity” with the price of being forced to shed the skin of their culture to inhabit a post-colonial mentality of self-hatred, never fully accepting oneself yet never being accepted by society either.

WCAPS-NY stands alongside our fellow women and people of color, grounded in the belief that any form of injustice is a threat to peace, prosperity, dignity, and beauty in the world. We are committed to marching alongside women of all colors, amplifying voices unheard, and leaving the world better than we found it.

WCAPS-NY will continue to stand in solidarity with the Asian diasporic community.

We see you. We are you.