ACCS Statement Condemning anti-Asian Hatred and Violence

Association for Chinese Communication Studies
Statement Condemning anti-Asian Hatred and Violence ​

We are shocked and saddened, angered and enraged by the shootings in Atlanta including the killing of eight people and targeting of six women of Asian descent. We grieve with the families and communities across America and internationally, that are affected by this tragic and senseless act of hatred and violence. From March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center received reports of 3,795 incidents of discrimination, which represents only a fraction of the actual hate, harassment, and violence the AAPI community is suffering. 

We stand firmly in solidarity with our AAPI brothers and sisters and allies across America—that have already demonstrated in Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Cincinnati, Denver, Houston, Los Angeles, New York, Pittsburg, San Francisco, Seattle, Washington D.C.—and beyond with the international community and global allies that continue to fight against systematic and everyday injustices including the fight against anti-Asian hate-filled violence, misogyny, xenophobia, sexual discrimination, harassment, and abuse. 

As a scholarly association committed to the advancement of Chinese Communication Studies, we cannot remain silent on this issue. Silence means tolerance and acquiescence, and may possibly invite more, and worse, hate-filled violence—it is time to STOP the targeted racism, misogyny, cis-gendered heteronormativity, and xenophobia that has so often been taken for granted or altogether ignored. Targeted and organized attacks on our community must be addressed by the establishment that works invisibly to set conditions that reproduce those systems of discrimination, marginalization, and oppression. 

As an Association made up of intersectional voices and international positionalities, we strongly condemn anti-Asian racism, hate, and harassment, targeted violence, misogyny, xenophobia, dehumanization, discrimination, and abuse. As scholars, educators, and members of the multicultural and international community, we must continue making efforts to speak out collectively and advocate as allies against the resurgence of hatred and violence, including eradicating all types of hate-filled violence that is racially motivated, xenophobic, and sexually driven. We must do so at both the local and national, international and global levels, to deconstruct and change the systems that reproduce ignorance, prejudice, injustice, and oppression. 

The shootings in Atlanta are the latest indicator of the crisis beyond the scope of one event, one community, one city, and one nation. This sweeping resurgence across America is symptomatic of the systematic racism deeply rooted in and reproduced by the governmental, legal, educational, and mediated systems, networks, and organizations. We call on our local, national, and global leaders across government, legal, education, and media institutions to act NOW—to address the shootings in Atlanta a hate crime, to raise resources for the needs of AAPI communities, to challenge anti-AAPI racism, and to eradicate all types of hate-filled violence. We stand in solidarity with the AAPI community, committed to using our scholarly platform to advocate for justice and enacting change, to Educate, Learn, Support, and Participate.