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The first National Asian Narrative Resource Center presented with interactive data, the hate faced by the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, with the objective of collecting key information that allows generating functional tools that can protect this population.
Since the COVID-19 pandemic, there has been an increase in hate and violence against the AAPI community, so a group of experts met at an information session held by Ethnic Media Services, to introduce the first National Asian Narrative Resource Center.
Connie Chung Joe, CEO of Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California, commented that the Asian Resource Center is a direct response to the discrimination the community has experienced during and because of the COVID-19 pandemic, as there is a need today It is crucial for AAPIs to find verified, language-accessible, and culturally competent resources when and where help is needed.
As part of the fight against acts of hate in the Asian community in the United States, the first digital resource developed by AJSOCAL, Advancing Justice – AAJC, was created and with the support of Microsoft, data collection was carried out by StopAAPIHate. org, StandAgainstHatred.org, the US Census Bureau, reports from the FBI, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, local law enforcement, and other sources, to raise awareness and foster a deeper understanding of the challenges these communities face.
By taking into account the narrative context, the topic can be delved deeper, since the narratives of events are key resources to promote debate around the fight against hatred, discrimination and racism against Asians, he noted.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice – AAJC (AAJC) is a nonprofit organization that works to advance the civil and human rights of AAPIs through policy advocacy and community education, while AAJC is the largest national Asian American policy advocacy organization based in Washington DC
For its part, Asian Americans Advancing Justice Southern California (AJSOCAL) is a national organization that advocates for the civil and legal rights of the AAPI community.
Meanwhile, AJSOCAL supports more than 15 thousand people and organizations annually, offering free legal assistance and working for the necessary policy changes for Asian communities.
And the demographic data reflects the continuous growth of the AAPI community in the United States, which has gone from 18 million in 2010 to more than 25 million in 2020, which represents almost 8 percent of the US population.
The Pew Research Center study The Asian-American population is expected to exceed 45 million in 2060, making it necessary to begin preparing safe and healthy spaces for current communities and those that will be consolidated in the future.
The Asian-American community grew almost 40 percent in the last decade, and the community of Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders almost 30 percent, showing how the American population has changed due to the constant growth of these communities that today are already They generate an impact and demand a voice on sensitive issues.
John C. Yang, of Asian Americans Advancing Justice commented that there is an absence of quality data that reflects hate incidents and experiences suffered, so the Asian Resource Center will seek to close these gaps and provide information and data that allow the AAPI community to confront and overcome these. challenges.
Just as the number of Asians has grown, cases of hate have also increased where many are not reported and those who try to do so face many obstacles, such as the classification of incidents, language barriers, fear of being discriminated against, mistrust in institutions, cultural stigma and lack of information.
The legal part is not clear and most incidents of hate and discrimination do not meet the legal criteria to be considered crimes or crimes and those that do meet are not always presented to the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) by of local authorities.
However, it is key that complaints are made in safe spaces and in their own language, with members of their community, to file a report in case of being a victim of any aggression; In this way, a record and data collection can be kept to generate reports that help prevent acts of hate and improve the system, for the benefit of Asian communities.
Merisa Heu-Weller of Microsoft assured that, through this effort, it is possible to provide clarity in the data, as well as material that favors the collection of information and a national directory to help fight against incidents against the AAPI community, helping to understand what happens in it.
Finally, a directory of resources and services has been made available to the community, with the aim of bringing the necessary help to each need of the community with direct, low-cost or free, culturally competent and linguistically appropriate services.
The list has more than 60 organizations that provide various services such as legal assistance, social services, civic engagement opportunities and much more.
Access to the center is free asianresourcehub.org
This publication was supported in whole or part by funding provided by the State of California, administered by the CaliFornia State Library.
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