WGQS Statement on Anti-Asian Racism and Violence
March 18, 2021
WGQS at Cal Poly:
Statement on Anti-Asian Racism and Violence
In the wake of yet another horrifying act of white supremacist violence involving the murder of eight people—six of them Asian women—by a 21-year-old white man in Atlanta, Women’s, Gender & Queer Studies at Cal Poly is compelled to reaffirm our commitments to dismantling white supremacy, settle colonialism, and racist violence against the Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander communities locally, nationally, and around the world.
Considered in conjunction with recent reports documenting the exponential increase in violence and hate crimes against Asian and Asian American communities since the outbreak of the coronavirus pandemic— crimes that have been reported by Asian and Asian American women at twice the rate of men—the murders in Atlanta make it imperative that those of us engaged in WGQS teaching, learning, scholarship, and activism reassert and intensify our efforts to interrupt and dismantle the intersecting forces of white supremacy, misogyny, structural racism, and cisheteropatriarchy, among other forms of structural inequity.
In particular, it is important that those of us engaged in WGQS work reject any and all claims that the recent murders in Atlanta were not shaped by the pernicious conjunction of structural racism and sexism (as was suggested in some initial reports). Indeed, these recent events demonstrate, in all-too-familiar and appalling ways, the co-constitutive nature of white supremacy, settler colonialism, and cisheteropatriarchy. In WGQS, we stand against these destructive, malignant, and dehumanizing forces and their long histories of denigrating and fetishizing Asian and Asian American people, and especially Asian and Asian American women.
It is also important to acknowledge that, for some of us, these forms of hatred, violence, and murder are an active threat in our daily lives.
For those of us who do not endure the daily lived experiences of these threats, we have a particular responsibility to educate ourselves and those around us on these matters and to contribute to efforts to disrupt and prevent hatred and violence against the AAPI community. Some resources that can assist us in these efforts include (but are by no means limited to):
• To report an incident of hatred against the AAPI community: Stop AAPI Hate
• The "STOP AAPI HATE NATIONAL REPORT," authored by Russell Jeung Ph.D., Aggie Yellow Horse, Ph.D., Tara Popovic, and Richard Lim
• Statement on Anti-Asian Violence from Cal Poly’s Asian Pacific Islander Desi American (APIDA) Faculty-Staff Association
• Statement from the Association of Asian Studies
• Statement from the NWSA condemning anti-Asian Violence and Racism
• Statement by the Circle for Asian American Literary Studies (CAALS) Co-Chairs Regarding Atlanta Shootings
• The CCC-USS statement in solidarity with the Asian Immigrant and Asian American Communities.
• Educational resources on combating hatred against the AAPI community created by Dr. Russell Jeung, Chair of Asian American Studies at SFSU
• Asian American Feminist Collective
• Black and Asian-American Feminist Solidarities: A Reading List, compiled by Black Women Radicals
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice - Atlanta
Finally, as articulated in previous statements, WGQS at Cal Poly stands against all forms of oppression, and we recommit, both individually and collectively, to supporting all actions necessary to create a more just and equitable Cal Poly and world. If you would like to receive announcements from the Women’s, Gender & Queer Studies Community at Cal Poly, please email wgqs@calpoly.edu to join us.
Women’s, Gender & Queer Studies at Cal Poly
Download the pdf of this statement here.