Much of our work in the Office of Advising and Co-Curricular Programs is guided by NACADA — the Global Community for Academic Advising — and our partners in this professional organization. We wanted to share this important statement that was released today:
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Last Tuesday evening, six Asian women — Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Soon Chung Park, Xiaojie Tan, and Yong Ae Yue — were among eight people murdered in three locations in the Atlanta area. This horrible tragedy is only one recent incident of violence against Asians, Asian-Americans, and Pacific Islanders in the United States and throughout this nation’s history. Nearly 3800 incidents were recorded by Stop AAPI Hate’s reporting center from March 2020 to February 2021, and hate crimes against the AAPI community increased nearly 150% in 2020 according to the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino. Each act of violence reminds us again that we have not moved past injustice and cruelty against the AAPI community.
Since the beginning of the pandemic, members of the Asian community and individuals of Asian descent have faced amplified hate, violence, and aggression demonstrating how the response to COVID-19 has been deeply racialized. It is not enough to only acknowledge and decry this increase in violence, but also condemn all forms of identity-based violence, including those that are anti-Asian, anti-woman, and anti-immigrant. As members of the NACADA community, we condemn all acts of racism and hate. We stand in solidarity against hatred, racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and all forms of discrimination and violence.
We reaffirm our commitment to work towards positive and sustained change, as declared in NACADAʻs June 2020 statement on racial violence and police brutality. We understand that each member of our NACADA and campus communities has different needs at different times and places. We want to create spaces for people to feel heard, supported, and loved, and spaces for people to learn to be better allies, advocates, and supporters. We urge you to not lose hope or believe we are powerless to demand and create change. Each of us can take action now – in NACADA, in our institutions, and in our local communities.
NACADA recognizes the value and power of diversity among our members and the students who entrust us with their educational experiences. We know full inclusion and engagement is the ideal we have not yet reached, and we are taking continual steps to do better. As an advising community, we must come together from all our different institutions, different roles, and different places of understanding and desire to be better and through our unifying work create a better association so we can better serve our students who need us.
As each of us continues to process the senseless deaths and other acts of violence stemming from systemic racism, we hope you will reach out to one another, share your feelings and experiences, engage in healing activities, and actively participate in antiracism and community building efforts in our institutions and communities. We have highlighted resources below, which we hope you find helpful as you navigate the days ahead.
Resources: