We, the undersigned organizations, denounce violence against members of Asian American communities in San Francisco, Oakland, and the greater Bay Area. We stand in solidarity with victims, survivors, and families who have suffered loss and pain.

These violent assaults have made the especially difficult circumstances of the COVID-19 pandemic even more painful. From our Chinese, Thai, and Vietnamese elders to our youth, our Asian American communities are traumatized, afraid, and outraged during a time when we are also experiencing disproportionate impacts of the pandemic. These include mass unemployment, safety risks to frontline workers, insecure housing, the shuttering of our local small businesses, and a surge in anti-Asian racism.

In the past year, we have seen an escalation of violence and other incidents against Asian American communities. The Stop AAPI Hate reporting center documented 2,808 hate incidents in 2020. Over 700 of these occurred in the Bay Area. And while we should not make any assumptions about the reasons behind these recent incidents — whether racially motivated or not — they have profound impacts on our Asian communities across the country and internationally. Our elderly community members, along with their families, are fearful of being in public alone, simply going for a walk, and living their daily lives. And survivors of interpersonal violence and their families have historically not received enough culturally-competent and language-accessible support across government systems.

We recognize that violence affects all of us and all of our communities. We must invest in long-term community-centered solutions that create spaces for cross-racial healing that address underlying causes and create ways for all to thrive. We believe that our strength is in unity, not division, and that our histories and our futures are intertwined. That is why we are committed to working with Black, Indigenous, Latinx, and Pacific Islander communities for long-term shared vision and solutions to stop the violence in all our communities.  

We also recognize that it is up to us to keep our communities accountable and to holistically respond to generational trauma and violence. It is up to us to imagine what real safety could look like for our people, and to build the future we want to see — one that is grounded in accountability, justice, and care for each other. 

As the Lunar New Year approaches, we must all come together to protect the safety of our community members who are feeling vulnerable during what should be a celebratory time. The cities of San Francisco and Oakland leadership must immediately increase culturally-relevant and trauma-informed investments that: 

1. Ensure victims and survivors of all backgrounds and language abilities receive full supportive services so they can recover and heal. 

2. Expand intervention- and prevention-based programs and invest in basic needs and community-based infrastructure that we know will end the cycle of violence and keep all of us safer.

3. Resource cross-community education and healing in Asian American and Black communities that humanizes all of us rather than demonizes or scapegoats any community of color. 

As organizations with a long history of protecting and advancing the rights of communities of color, we know that an over-reliance on law enforcement approaches has largely been ineffective and has been disproportionately harmful to Black communities and other communities of color. We believe the solution to violence is to empower our communities with resources, support, and education — this is how we make all of our communities safe.

See below for a list of the 93 organizations that have signed our statement.

1990 Institute