Greetings,
This May, we celebrate our 29th annual Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. Our nation’s fastest growing racial group represents more than thirty different nationalities and ethnicities, enriching our complex culture and history. This month, we also recognize the impermissible and recent increase in Asian hate crimes.
We, the Associated Students of Ocean, feel the need to denounce the racist attacks against Asian American communities. Across the nation, Asians have been targeted due to ignorance and unfounded fears surrounding Covid-19. Over 3,700 attacks have been publicly reported this past year, but the mistreatment of Asians and other minorities have been occurring for decades. For a long time, white supremacist beliefs have allowed authorities to overlook and even encourage verbal assaults, physical attacks, and systemic racism. We must honor and reflect on the experiences of Asian Americans, while reexamining our nation’s deeply embedded racial issues to seek a more equitable future.
Here, we look back and acknowledge some of the bigotry against people of Asian descent that spans over 170 years.
In 1854, the California Supreme Court ruled that people of Asian descent could not testify against a white person in court, and for over a hundred years this was the case - a form of systematic racism to disparage the Asian community.
On February 19th 1942, President Franklin D. Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 into action, mandating all Japanese Americans on the West Coast to be incarcerated in internment camps. The Japanese community suffered from severe civil rights violations, were forced to sell all their belongings, lived in overcrowded conditions, and worked for little to no pay.
In June 19, 1982, the horrific murder of Vincent Chin brought on a wave of unsettlement across Asian American community. Chin was violently beaten to death by two white men who mistook him to be Japanese. His murderers were ordered to pay a fine and received no jail time, an inconceivably lenient sentence for manslaughter.
The rise in racist attacks against Asian communities is nothing but a continuation of a long standing problem in this country. Unfortunately, the racism Asians face are historically shared by other marginalized minorities. We must recognize the unjust similarities between Anti-Asian Hate and the Black Lives Matter Movement. Collective liberation is dependent on the solidarity we show when our peers seek support. To remain silent is to condone the injustices against our fellow Americans - so speak up. Acknowledge the relation between Asian attacks and our nation’s systematic racism, recognize that other minorities face similar racist assaults, and attend rallies to support each other.
The violence and incidents of hate speech directed at Asians and Asian Americans across the nation have been deeply affecting our students’ capacity to learn. Asians represent the largest ethnic group at our college, accounting for roughly 32% of our students, but they are experiencing fear and worries over their safety and the safety of their loved ones. A productive learning environment requires our students, faculty, and administrators to embrace our diversity and differences in race, culture, and ethnicity. As members of the CCSF community, it is our responsibility to create an environment where students can safely learn and reach their academic goals. ASCO hopes that our entire community will stand in solidarity with the anti-Asian hate movement to condemn and discourage all physical and verbal attacks based on race.
Here, we applaud some of the dedicated efforts made by CCSF faculty and students to address Asian bigotry.
Former CCSF faculty John Tateshi founded the Japanese American Citizens’ League that led a successful campaign to nationally recognize and provide reparations to the thousands of Asian Americans incarcerated in internment camps.
Our Philippines Studies department was established in 1970, becoming the second ethnic studies department at CCSF and remains the only one of its kind in the United States.
Our Asian American Studies department has worked to educate students and shown explicit support for the Black Lives Matter movement, displaying the solidarity we need to dismantle systemic racism in our institutions.
The Family Resource Center has been hosting events to create spaces where AAPI voices and experiences can be discussed, celebrated, and shared in a safe environment.
Our Interdisciplinary Studies department is home to a permanent art exhibit honoring over 200 students of Asian descent whose education was abruptly ended by their forced internment.
