Statement of Solidarity: Crimes Against Humanity: Decrying Xenophobia and Anti-Asian Racism

Over the course of a year, we have witnessed a growing campaign of violence targeting citizens of Asian descent in America. Hate speech from the highest office in the land helped to cultivate such violence resulting in fatalities and propagating stereotypes that threatens to pervade generations. Hate speech, a normalized culture of violence, xenophobia and unchecked racism harms us all. Mayor Keisha Lance Bottoms of Atlanta, GA rightly reminded us in a press statement on Tuesday, March 16, “A crime against any community is a crime against us all.” Mayor Lance Bottoms was expressing grief over a fatal mass shooting in the Atlanta area that claimed the lives of eight people, which included six Asian women.

Public officials have not formally linked the shootings to racism. Yet, we cannot ignore the fears, threats, or glaring realities we are facing as a society in this moment. Just two months ago, nationalist sensationalism resulted in an insurrection at the US Capitol. Further, over the course of a global health pandemic, the 45th US Commander-in-Chief used divisive and racist language from numerous White House platforms in an attempt to disgrace a race of people and incite his base. The remnants of such irresponsible patterns of accepted behavior has dire consequences. 

The number of grieving families due to racialized violence did not begin with these recent losses. Nearly 4,000 anti-Asian racist crimes have occurred in this past year alone, largely targeting women. Sadly, the acts of violence range from stabbings of small children and their families, public beatings of elderly persons, to racial slurs in the workplace and bullying of youth. The NBA (National Basketball Association) is probing an incident where a G-league player called American NBA champion Jeremy Lin “coronavirus” during a game. We should be outraged and it should be our resolve that “a crime against any community is a crime against us all.”

The Community Renewal Society denounce these recent fatalities and the innumerable acts of racialized violence across the United States over the course of the past year and for centuries, including a US Presidential 1942 Executive Order to incarcerate people to “Japanese” internment camps, the passage of the 1943 Chinese Exclusion Act, and the 1965 Hart-Celler Act. We cannot ignore the prevalence of racism targeting Asian Americans. We offer solidarity in this movement affirming Asian lives matter. We reject patterns and practices of xenophobia, and normalized violence. 

Here we are with an opportunity and duty to reclaim this moment and counter hate with a message of inclusion, justice, and love. The common threads of our beautiful humanity connects us and so does the interconnectedness of our shared struggles. Thus, we must break the protocol of silence and be for our neighbors what we seek for our own communities, block, families, and friends. That may involve speaking truth to power, bearing witness to their lament, and sharing in the collective work and responsibility to decry bigotry in all of its forms. 

In Solidarity and Hope,
Rev. Dr. Waltrina N. Middleton
CRS Executive Director

Watch the panel discussion on recent anti-Asian/Black racism, it’s history in Chicago, and unity through inter-minority solidarity.

We invite you to learn more about peace advocacy resources to support Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.