18 Mar NYSCASA Responds to Violence Targeting AAPI Women and Communities in Georgia and Across the Nation
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For Immediate Release: March 18, 2021
Contact: NYSCASA Staff, info@nyscasa.org
NYSCASA Responds to Violence Targeting AAPI Women and Communities in Georgia and Across the Nation
ALBANY, NY — On March 16, 2021, eight people were killed at three spas in North Georgia. Six of the people killed were of Asian descent and all but one were women. The New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault sends our care and condolences to their families and loved ones. We grieve and mourn this loss with you. We stand in solidarity against this injustice with you.
This horrific event is symptomatic of a larger problem, and its broader context must be understood before we can move forward. Anti-Asian violence is deeply embedded in the history of the United States. The U.S. has deployed anti-Asian racism as a weapon of imperialist expansionism and war in the Asia-Pacific from the mid-nineteenth century to forced relocation and incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, through the post-Cold War period and contemporary conflicts with China. Anti-Asian racism has also been deployed in domestic U.S. policy, including immigration restrictions, race-based citizenship laws, and anti-miscegenation laws.
In the last year, we have witnessed increasing violence against Asians, Asian Americans, and Pacific Islanders across the nation, fueled by racist, nativist, and xenophobic sentiments surrounding the COVID-19 pandemic. Major cities across the country have seen spikes in anti-Asian violence and Stop AAPI Hate has received more than 3,700 reports of anti-Asian incidents since March 19, 2021, with a disproportionate number of attacks directed at women.
Violence against Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander women and people of marginalized genders is rooted in multiple, intersecting systems of oppression, including racism, patriarchy, white supremacy, and imperialism. When women and people of marginalized genders are targeted by Anti-Asian violence, the harassment, discrimination, and assaults they experience are often simultaneously gendered, racialized, and sexualized. In order to truly end sexual and gender-based violence, we must work to dismantle all forms of oppression and the ideologies, myths, and practices that uphold them.
As an organization committed to ending sexual violence and oppression in all of its forms, we denounce and condemn the violence of white supremacy and patriarchy. We join calls for justice and meaningful accountability for those who perpetuate anti-Asian violence and those who enable it. We echo calls from Georgia’s Asian American leaders for a community-centered response that addresses the root causes of violence and hate. We encourage each other and our communities to reflect on the difficult truths of our complicity and the ways all violence is interconnected, and to begin to repair the legacy of white supremacy and its relations, imperialism and patriarchy.
About NYSCASA
The New York State Coalition Against Sexual Assault is a private, non-profit coalition of community-based rape crisis programs located throughout New York State. NYSCASA’s mission is to end all forms of sexual violence and exploitation, and to address the impacts of sexual assault.
Get Assistance
If you are in need of assistance in New York, call on experienced and caring professionals in your community.
Call the New York State Hotline for Sexual Assault and Domestic Violence for 24/7, free, and confidential support: 1-800-942-6906
Text or chat with a professional at the Office for the Prevention of Domestic Violence. New Yorkers seeking help can text 1-844-997-2121 or chat on OPDV’s new confidential website at www.opdv.ny.gov.
Find culturally specific sexual and domestic violence support services:
- Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander survivors can contact the following organizations for support:
- Arab-American Family Support Center (Brooklyn, NY) – Call 1-800-980-6114 or visit www.aafscny.org
- Domestic Harmony Foundation (Syosset, NY) – Call 1-516-385-8292 or visit www.dlhfny.org
- Garden of Hope (Flushing, NY) – Call 1-877-990-8595 or visit www.gohny.org
- International Institute of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY) – Call 1-716-222-3890 or visit www.iibuffalo.org
- Korean American Family Service Center (Flushing, NY) – Call 1-718-460-3800 or visit www.kafsc.org
- Mohawk Valley Resource Center for Refugees (Utica, NY) – Call 1-315-738-1083 or visit www.thecenterutica.org
- Saathi of Rochester (East Rochester, NY) – Call 1-585-234-1050 or visit www.saathiofrochester.org
- Sakhi for South Asian Women (New York, NY) – Call 1-212-868-6741, text 1-305-204-1809, or visit www.sakhi.org
- Sanctuary for Families (New York, NY) – Call 1-212-349-6009 or visit www.sanctuaryforfamilies.org
- Turning Point for Women and Families (Flushing, NY) – Call 1-718-262-8722 or 718-262-8744 or visit www.tpny.org
- Womankind (New York, NY) – Call 1-888-888-7702 or visit www.iamwomankind.org
- Black survivors can contact Black Women’s Blueprint: 1-646-647-5414
- Deaf and hard-of-hearing survivors can contact IGNITE: DeafIGNITE@gmail.com or 1-585-286-2713
- Latina/o, Latinx. and Spanish-speaking survivors can contact Casa de Esperanza: 1-651-772-1611
- LGBTQ and HIV-affected survivors can contact the Anti-Violence Project: 1-212-714-1141
- Native survivors can contact the StrongHearts Native Helpline by calling 1-844-7NATIVE (1-844-762-8483), or Seven Dancers Coalition: sevendancerscoalition.com/resources-in-nys
- Transgender and gender non-conforming survivors can contact the Trans Lifeline Peer Support Hotline: 1-877-565-8860
- Survivors whose primary language is not English can call Womankind’s 24-hour multilingual helpline: 1-888-888-7702