Beyond #StopAsianHate: Building an AAPI-Inclusive Workplace Culture | BSR Blog
- Aimee Bataclan
- May 14, 2021
- 1 min read
“Our community is being attacked. We are dying to be heard.”
In February 2021, civil rights activist Amanda Nguyen went viral. In a social media video—which has received more than 52,000 likes—she called on mainstream media networks to cover violent attacks on elderly Asian Americans.
It worked.
Major news outlets drove attention to the spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans over the past year, noting that advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate received reports of more than 3,800 hate incidents since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Yet as the #StopAsianHate movement garnered support from business, policymakers, celebrities, and the wider public, the violence continued. In March, a shooting rampage in Atlanta targeted Asian-owned businesses and killed eight people, six of them women of Asian descent.
Groups have attributed the sharp increase in hate crimes against the Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community in part to the xenophobic rhetoric of former U.S. President Trump. However, AAPI racism is not new.
As the U.S. celebrates AAPI Heritage Month this May, there is an opportunity for business leaders to learn more about the AAPI experience and help to build a more just, sustainable, and inclusive world—beginning in the workplace.
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