On March 16th, a 21-year-old white man killed eight human beings, six of whom were Asian women. We are heartbroken for the families of the victims and outraged by these increasing acts of violence targeting Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Racism, misogyny, and xenophobia are urgent public health issues that we must act upon as a community with shared values and a vision to end hate.
This act of hate is not an isolated event. Stop AAPI, a project run by a coalition of organizations received nearly 3,800 reports of racism and discrimination against Asian Americans between mid-March and the end of 2020. Stop AAPI also noted that women reported hate incidents 2.3 times more than men.
More than 23 years ago, Cast was founded in response to the El Monte human trafficking case where 72 Thai garment workers were held for eight years in debt bondage. A strong community coalition resulted, and today API immigrants and Asian Americans are the third largest community of survivors we serve.
We join with the same community partnerships we have sustained for 23 years, and we will fight with our shared values and tireless advocacy to dismantle White Supremacy that fuels racial and gender violence. Our work is intersectional, and our shared approaches are collaborative. Injustice has no place in our community, or the world, and we stand with our AAPI partners and survivors in full solidarity.
There is no time to waste. We urge you to support anti-hate legislation and seek resources for healing and health.
AB886 – Combats Recent Surge in Hate Attacks
Stop Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) Hate
Asian Pacific Policy & Planning Council – API Human Trafficking Task Force (includes links to multilingual resources)
Asian and Pacific Islander American Health Forum
National Asian American Pacific Islander Mental Health Association
Cast’s mission is to end human trafficking through education, advocacy, and empowering survivors.