YP 4 AAPI Support

Statement of Solidarity for the Asian American & Pacific Islander Community

Asian Health Services Youth Program

March 2021

We are the Asian Health Services Youth Program (AHS YP), a department under Asian Health Services since 1974, who primarily focus on providing access to health, social, and advocacy services to everyone, regardless of their background, immigration status, or culture. AHS took roots and inspiration from the civil rights movements due to our history with advocacy. AHS YP will continue to engage in social activism with communities that are constantly oppressed. AHS YP wants to vocalize its support for the API community. The API community should not have to be victims of xenophobia and violence rooted in racism. AHS YP is pledging to educate and to always keep in mind our mission that states we will be dedicated advocates who promote policies that make our communities a safer and healthier place to live.

HXSTORY

Asian and Pacific Islander Presence in the U.S.

Asians and Pacific Islanders have a rich heritage over thousands of years old since their first arrival in the Continental United States. Asian presence in the United States dates back to the late 16th century when the Manila Galleon, which carried indigenous Filipinos, first landed in Morro Bay, California. Over time, larger waves of Asians from China, Japan, India, and Korea began to immigrate to the Americas. Immigration reforms tied to U.S. civil rights legislation enabled an additional influx of Asian communities including Vietnamese, Cambodians, Laotians, Indonesians, Hmong, as well as other people from South and Central Asia into the United States.

Overcoming a History of Persecution

Throughout American history, the Asian and Pacific Islander community have been a highly desired, but also a deeply debased immigrant group. They have both shaped American history in many ways and had their lives influenced by moments in U.S. history. Notable influences exerted onto Asians include the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prohibited Chinese laborer immigration to the U.S, as well as the World War II internment of Japanese-Americans in 1942.

In the late 1960s, activists and community leaders formed coalitions and coined the term “Asian American” as a unifying political identity for Asian ethnic groups in the United States. Leaders believed that this term would connect the different Asian ethnic groups together, combatting offensive and derogatory labels while effectuating a stronger, more united voice.

In 1977, the Office of Management and Budget (OMB) issued Statistical Directive No.15 that defined racial and ethnic categories to be utilized by the federal government for statistical, administrative, and civil rights compliance. As a result, the US census defined the following racial categories: Hispanic, American Indian or Alaskan Native, Asian or Pacific Islander, Black, and White. However, by 1997, the OMB separated the single racial category of “Asian or Pacific Islander” into two separate categories: “Asian” and “Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander.” As defined by the U.S. Census, the category “Asian” includes all individuals who identify with one or more nationalities or ethnic groups originating in the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent and the category of “Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander” includes all individuals who identify with one or more nationalities or ethnic groups originating in Hawaii, Guam, Samoa, or other Pacific Islands.

As of 2018, the number of individuals who identify as Asian alone or in combination with other races in the United States is estimated to be 22.6 million. The estimated number of Native Hawaiian and Other Pacific Islander alone or in combination residents of the United States in 2018 is 1.6 million.

In order for Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders to further advance as a political voice in the United States, it is imperative to address the historical hierarchies, inter-ethnic conflicts, as well as exclusionary and discriminationatory behaviors and policies that stem from an institutional level.

Current Issues

The racial stereotyping of the Asian community in the United States has historically been perpetuated by politicians, the media, and the overarching social hierarchy leading to an overall degrading and condescending attitude regarding Asian culture and heritage. This has created a narrative of xenophobia and sinophobia that is often times overshadowed by the model minority myth, and in recent times, has become an excuse to perform attacks against the Asian community with seemingly little to no consequences.

Since the start of the coronavirus (COVID-19) global pandemic, violent racially motivated attacks both mental and physical in nature against the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander community have sharply increased. Over 2,120 anti-Asian crimes have been reported from March to June 2020, with a 150% increase in attacks within major cities since the start of the pandemic. Alarmingly, the majority of these attacks have disproportionately targeted the elderly and women. Some grievances inflicted on the Asian community include but are not limited to (Trigger Warning: physical violence, murder, mental illness, suicide):

Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old immigrant from Thailand, was walking in the Anza Vista neighborhood the morning of January 28 when he was violently shoved to the ground by a man. Ratanapakdee died in the hospital two days later.
Noel Quintana, a 61-year old Filipino man, was brutally slashed in face from cheek to cheek with a box-cutter knife on February 3 when commuting to Harlem where he works as an administrative assistant at a non-profit that works with mentally challenged people.
Ying Ngov, a 56-year old immigrant from China, was working when three youths allegedly stole beers from her Pizzeria in Norristown, Pennsylvania. After running after them to confront them about their theft, Ngov was shoved into the ground and beat until unconscious.
Christian Hall, a 19 year-old, was facing a mental health crisis on December 30th while on the SR-33 southbound overpass to I-80 in Pennsylvania. The police were called to deescalate the situation, but instead shot and killed Hall. Video footage later surfaced showing Hall with his hands in the air when he was shot.

The incidents of violence against members of the AAPI community are harrowing not only to the families and friends of the victims, but to the broader community as well. They are examples of the devastating consequences of racial discrimination brought on by the COVID-19 pandemic, and are unacceptable in every form, way, and manner.

Proclamation of Support

In continuation to the commitment last year, AHS remains standing in solidarity with the Black community. In striving to uplift the Asian communities around us and combat oppressive systems against minorities, we recognize that the Asian population is part of a larger POC community that faces similar inequities. Accordingly, we will continue to express dedicated support for the unique battles faced in the POC community. We are aware that Asian oppression is not perfectly analogized to that of Black oppression and are not intending to equate individual struggles. The past year has been an exhaustive example of the continued hostility of POC in the U.S.. We recognize that these battles are far from over and we dedicate ourselves to expressing our support through:

Maintaining accountability of where we can each individually and communally make a difference
- While collaborating as a team, our impactful work with AHS should extend to our own individual lives
Emphasis of the communal efforts in the #BLM movement
- The BLM movement is not a “trend” or an aesthetic. The fight cannot be silenced or quieted when it is no longer a social media fad
Amplifying voices of oppressed POC by informing our online communities, families and friends of the biases that contribute to racial inequity
- Targeted communities are often silenced out of fear and thus our efforts do not stop at AHS but will expand to our external communities in hopes to build awareness
Routinely re-educating ourselves on POC narratives
- Empathy will be our foremost method to understanding how to best support the struggles of POC communities that face experiences that we might not be regularly subjected to

Call To Action

We have to learn to understand and support our API community in these moments of crisis. their hardships will not go unheard. For other communities to understand the hardships the API community is enduring, we must educate ourselves on where this anti-Asian sentiment is coming from. We can only do this if we stand together in unity and make our support vocal in whichever way is available to you.

Here in AHS YP, we encourage the API community and other communities to participate and mobilize their support. In unity and love, we owe it to the API community to stand with them just as they’ve done for other POC.

In Community,

Asian Health Services Youth Program | Advocacy Committee Spring 2021

Brittany Liu

Montse Mejia

Amelia Skarupski

Hannah Lu

Sources