We are witnessing increases in acts of violence, discrimination, harassment, and hate speech that have harkened us back to a time when vitriolic language targeting this community first led to horrific injustices. These events are steeped in a long legacy of bias and stereotypes towards people of Asian descent dating back hundreds of years including the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1850, a mass lynching of Chinese people in Los Angeles in 1871, the Japanese Internment Camps of the 1940s and ongoing attacks on South Asian people - like the 2017 fatal hate crime against Srinivas Kuchibhotlato - rooted in deeply Islamophobic ideology. We recognize that communities of Asian peoples do not exist in a monolith – in addition to the grief and stress of navigating and surviving the global COVID-19 health pandemic, Asian peoples continue to struggle against the structural oppressions that disproportionately impact those of us on the margins.

We invite all individuals who wish to further explore how to build solidarity within Asian communities and as allies to these communities to join us for a special dialogue between Amer Ahmed and Lydia X.Z. Brown facilitated by Gabe Hall.