Dean Pak Statement on Violence Against Asians and Asian Americans in the US
March 18, 2021 – I write with grief and with anger. Just three days after the anniversary of Breonna Taylor being shot to death in her apartment by police—say her name!—our nation continues to struggle to name the violence. Does it need to be said that I detest the violence against Asian and Asian Americans in the United States not only within a larger history but more specifically over the past year? It seems obvious that such violence must be rebuked. Even as I write now, literally just three weeks from my statement on February 25, the number of reported anti-Asian violent acts has risen to 3800—a thousand more reported incidents in just three weeks’ time. Does it need to be said that just because the perpetrator of the murders in Atlanta claims his acts were not racially motivated that, in fact, race is most definitely a factor? It appears—sadly—that it does need to be said! In addition to the pain of the violence and the profound fear these murders evoke, there is the additional layer of pain and rage of long-standing stereotypes of Asian and Asian-American women that the perpetrator’s violence lays bare.
Please stand in solidarity with Asians and Asian-Americans—and particularly members of our community—that we are here with them and for them, that we utterly reject such violence and stereotypes, that we feel their pain and grieve their growing fears, that we see past all the rationalizations that try to name the events in Atlanta as “not racially motivated,” that we see the ‘hidden’ truths of the matter and we stand steadfastly in a posture of shared advocacy for the dignity of each and every one of us.
– G. Sujin Pak, dean
please review our anti-racism resources here.
Dean Pak’s Feb 25 Statement Against Anti-Asian Violence