Statement of LAAW President Joan Graff Regarding the Recent Wave of Anti-Asian Violence

We are heartbroken for our friends, colleagues, and communities who have been put in harm’s way as the terrifying display of anti-Asian racism sweeps across our country and jeopardizes the wellbeing of members of the AAPI community.

We are at a moment of inflection. We have seen firsthand the scapegoating and denigration of immigrants and their families. We have witnessed assaults on Black communities and murder of its members by law enforcement. And now we see Asian Americans from Atlanta to Oakland are targets of unspeakable violence, including the horrific attack on March 16 near Atlanta, when a white man killed eight people—including six Asian women—at several massage parlors.

It is clear to us that, in these fraught times, there is more at play than the pandemic that is placing the lives of people of color at risk.

We as an organization are committed to working together through our mission to promote justice and through our dedication to diversity, equity, and inclusion to defeat the toxic culture wrought by structural racism that has festered in our nation since our founding.

In Solidarity,

 

 

 

Joan Graff
President

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