With greater attention on the historical inequities faced by Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities, CAA is redoubling its efforts to build a progressive AAPI movement. For us, this work began more than 52 years ago, and we are excited to continue our fight for racial and social justice.
Read on to learn more about how CAA is meeting the present moment.
Preparing Immigrant Families for Back to School
CAA’s virtual workshop about the SFUSD re-opening plan attracts 100+ immigrant parents.
To address the concerns of immigrant families regarding the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD) reopening plan, CAA organized an in-language information session for Chinese immigrant families on August 20th.
More than 100 concerned parents and family members came to the event, bringing with them pressing questions about on-campus health and safety measures and virtual learning opportunities. A video recording (in Cantonese) is available here.
As part of our ongoing series, CAA’s immigrant rights team is hosting a follow-up workshop on pandemic relief. Tune in on Friday, September 17 at 6:30PM. Community members can sign up at bit.ly/caasept2021.
Facilitating Access to Economic Assistance
CAA successfully advocates for improved regulations to ensure more families can access economic assistance.
CAA joined economic justice advocates in pressing for a change in state regulation to allow more flexibility in the documents required from unemployment insurance benefits applicants. Because of delays in driver’s license and passport renewals, state agencies should accept expired forms of government-issued identification.
After communicating with state officials at the Employment Development Department (EDD), our demands were met, and EDD changed its application guidelines to accommodate both expired and non-expired forms of identification.
In combination with increased investments in EDD language access, this change will make it easier for immigrant communities to apply for and access economic assistance.
CAA Remembers Chinese American Artist Hung Liu
Hung Liu was a trailblazing artist best known for her portraits of the Chinese diaspora.
CAA mourns the loss of trailblazing artist and long-time supporter Hung Liu.
Best known for her larger-than-life portraits of the Chinese diaspora, Liu was responsible for the Reading Room, a mural installation in CAA’s San Francisco Chinatown office. Organized as a horizontal scroll, the mural depicts the evolution of the Chinese language from the Neolithic Period to the present day.
In addition to the major contributions of her art, Hung Liu has been a friend, source of inspiration, and cultural and community leader for decades.
Read our blog post about Hung Liu’s life and career.
Demanding Protections for AAPI Communities
Ahead of the COVID-19 origins report, CAA calls on Biden to protect AAPI communities.
Ahead of the federal investigation into the origins of COVID-19, the Stop AAPI Hate coalition (which CAA co-founded), the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA), and 21 national AAPI organizations wrote a letter to President Biden urging him to redouble efforts to protect AAPI communities. U.S.-China relations have long influenced how other Americans have treated those of Asian and Pacific Islander descent.
Most recently, U.S. rhetoric on China’s role in the origins of the pandemic has fomented hate, racism, and violence towards our AAPI communities. To address the surge of anti-China animus, the letter called upon the administration to invest in civil rights and human rights initiatives; increase federal funding for culturally-competent mental health services, and more. Click here to read the full letter.
Documenting the Rise of Anti-AAPI Hate
In our latest report, Stop AAPI Hate documented 9,000+ incidents nationwide.
On August 12, Stop AAPI Hate published our latest national report, which documents the rise of hate incidents reported to us in the sixteen months between March 2020 to June 2021. Altogether, we counted 9,000+ incidents nationwide — with 4,548 incidents occurring in 2020 and 4,533 incidents in 2021.
- Verbal harassment is the most common kind of hate reported to us, and accounts for 63.7% of incidents.
- Most reported incidents took place outside of the home in public streets (31.6%) and businesses (30.1%).
- 48.1% of hate incidents included anti-China and/or anti-immigrant rhetoric.
Introducing JusticePatch.org
CAA launches a Chinese-language news and fact-checking website.
CAA has launched JusticePatch.org, an online platform to help counter disinformation and right-wing propaganda in Chinese-language online communities. Justice Patch will serve as an extension of our Chinese digital engagement on WeChat and Weibo, where we have published 300+ justice-oriented articles and organized hundreds of Chinese progressives. It will host a combination of original and translated content for Chinese audiences throughout the United States. You can check it out at JusticePatch.org.
