Many of you have already seen or heard about this act of violence, when eight people were killed at three spas in the Atlanta area. Six of the victims were Asian women. They deserve justice and to be known in their life and not just in their death. Just yesterday, a Chinese woman also had to defend herself against a racist attack here in San Francisco. She was attacked along with another 83-year old Vietnamese man. These are just a few of the stories we have heard about. We know that these events are fueled by the same racist, sexist, xenophobic system that leaves our people feeling more unsafe than ever before. We stand in solidarity with victims, survivors, and families who have suffered loss and pain.

As an organization that has long centered and been powered by female-identified people, the heartbreak over the most recent attacks is especially palpable for those of us who have closely experienced both the power and the vulnerability of being Asian women and leaders in our community. Our members —many of whom are women, mothers living in the SROs, and young women — are risking their safety to go to work, providing childcare and caring for family members, navigating distance learning, and trying their best to preserve their mental health during these trying times. Our Asian American communities are also traumatized, afraid, and outraged during a time when we are also experiencing disproportionate impacts of the pandemic. These include mass unemployment, safety risks to frontline workers, insecure housing, the shuttering of our local small businesses, and a surge in anti-Asian racism.

We recognize that violence affects all of us and all of our communities. We believe that our strength is in unity, not division, and that our histories and our futures are intertwined. All of us, including women and low wage workers, deserve to be safe. We deserve effective and long term solutions that will address the root cause of this issue. We must invest in long-term community-centered solutions that create spaces for cross-racial healing that address underlying causes and create ways for all to thrive. We are committed to working alongside communities of color to stop the violence in all our communities. It is up to us to imagine what real safety could look like for our people, and to build the future we want to see — one that is grounded in accountability, justice, and care for each other.

As people who believe all our communities deserve safety, we demand the following:

• Tending to our survivors’ needs. Ensure victims and survivors of all backgrounds and language abilities receive full supportive multilingual multicultural services so they can recover and heal.
• Repair and heal. Provide resources for cross-community education, dialogue, and healing in Asian American and Black communities that humanizes all of us rather than demonizes or scapegoats any community of color.
• Build and Expand intervention. Expand prevention-based programs that include mental health support, addiction recovery, housing stability, job training, and invest in community-based infrastructure that we know will end the cycle of violence and keep all of us safer.
• Invest in communities of color. We must address long-term systemic racism and extreme inequality - jobs, housing, healthcare, education, and more. To end violence, we must ensure all people have the resources and opportunities they need to lead dignified lives.

Thank you for signing our petition!

Here are ways you can take action in support of this work:

• Share this petition with your friends, family, and communities and ask them to sign on!
• Organizational Sign On against Violence towards Asian American Communities
• Donate to the San Francisco victims and survivors fund
• Donate to the Oakland Chinatown Community Ambassador and Victims Fund
• Follow and support the organizations doing community work on the ground:
  
  • Bay Area, CA organizations:
    • @oakchinatowncoalition (IG) / @chinatowncoalition (FB)
    • @apen4ej
    • @AYPAL (TW), @AYPALPower (IG)
    • @oaklandvnchamber (FB & IG)
    • @trybe (TW), @trybe1122(FB)
    • @chineseprogressiveassociation (IG); @cpasf (TW); @cpasf (FB)
    • @caasanfrancisco (IG); @caasanfrancisco (TW); @caasf (FB)
    • @cyc_sf (IG); @cyc_sf (TW); @cycsf (FB)
    • New Breath Foundation: @newbreathfdn (TW) / @newbreathfoundation (FB)
  • New York & East Coast organizations
    • @caaav (TW), @CAAAVnyc (FB)
    • @DesisRisingUp (TW), @DesisRising (FB)
    • @PrYSMFam (TW), @prysmfam (IG)
  • Midwest organizations
    • @AboutFreedomInc (TW/FB), @freedominc (IG)
    • @apipennsylvania (TW & FB)