Stop Asian Hate

Words by: Maggie Laubscher | Music by: Abby Yemm

This week’s racially motivated shootings left eight people dead, including six Asian-Americans. The horrific crime brought into sharp focus the upward trend of Asian-American hate. 

While police are hesitating to call the killings racially motivated, all evidence points to that. Trevor Noah succinctly summed it up when he said, ‘This guy blamed a specific race of people for his problems and then murdered them because of it. If that's not racism then the word has no meaning.’ In addition, the police’s focus on humanizing the gunman rather than the victims has rightfully been met with outrage. 

Over the past year -- especially once the pandemic hit -- Asian-American hate has been escalating. Since last March, for example, there have been nearly 3,800 hate incidents towards Asian-Americans, according to Stop AAPI Hate. 

Paralleling this rise was our former president’s casual hate speech towards Asian-Americans. His ignorant, hateful words were sprinkled into speeches, tweets, and asides. And they helped fuel people’s fear and ignorance. Karthick Ramakrishnan, founder AAPI Data, told NBC Asian America, ‘Trump's rhetoric helps set a certain narrative in place — and presidents have an outsized role in terms of shaping narrative.’

It’s a reminder that there is power and very real consequences to our words. It’s also a reminder that using our voices to stand up for others is sometimes a life and death matter. 

We stand with our Asian-American community, including the over 45,000 Asian-Americans living in Kansas City. ‘I have sort of just been sitting on my hands waiting for something to happen,’ said PaKou Her, a Kansas City metro diversity and inclusion trainer/facilitator, to KSHB. And this from Cafe Cà Phê’s Instagram, ‘We are scared to operate today. We are scared to operate tomorrow… What if on the news it was, ‘Two Asian women at Cafe Cà Phê were murdered because they were Asian?’’

And finally, from a powerful statement by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), ‘The coronavirus has been weaponized against us.’ Go here to sign the organization’s petition. 

In addition, here are some AAPI-owned bookstores to support. And to help diversify your Instagram feed and stay informed, here are some accounts to follow: @annie_wu_22, @weijia, @kimsaira, @angryasianfeminist, and @stopaapihate.

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An Abby Yemm playlist for you…

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maggie laubscher