Contact: Johanna Kichton, press@peoplesaction.org, 202.660.0605
WASHINGTON, D.C.—In the middle of a month dedicated to uplifting the Asian-American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) community, People’s Action was joined by St. Paul Council Member Nelsie Yang to host a teach-in in response to the rise of targeted violence against AAPI, fueled by anti-Asian rhetoric in politics and anxiety about the COVID-19 pandemic. During the virtual event, speakers explored origins of anti-AAPI sentiment from the Page Act of 1875 through the Atlanta shootings this March, and discussed how to take action together so communities everywhere can feel safe.
“Every day when we wake up, we must make the choice to fight for racial, social, and gender justice. We must reject the ways in which the systems we live in work only for the few while the rest of us are barely scraping by,” First Hmong-American woman and youngest person elected to St. Paul City Council Nelsie Yang said. “We need to redream safety in our communities because we can and we deserve so much more.”
“The rise today of anti-Asian racism is in part a product of growing China-bashing in U.S. politics, and that is something that goes beyond Trump,” Justice is Global Director Tobita Chow said. “U.S. politicians do this for a reason, and that’s particularly true of Republicans and a lot of corporate-friendly Democrats. It is very convenient for them if they can point to China and blame China for problems in the U.S., because that allows these politicians to avoid any criticism of how they have been hurting their own constituents.”
Watch the full teach-in here.
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People’s Action is a national network of 40 state and local grassroots, power-building organizations in 30 states, united in fighting for justice. We operate the largest progressive rural organizing project in the country. People’s Action and its member organizations coordinated one of the biggest distributed organizing programs in rural areas this past election season.