The roots of anti-Asian sentiment in the U.S. can be traced as far back as the concept of “yellow peril” and the Chinese Exclusion Act that treated Asian immigrants as threats to national security in the 1880s. But they surfaced on a large-scale level last year, after reports traced the origins of the coronavirus back to China. This section provides a list of organizations and resources that offer information for victims of anti-Asian violence and to counter violence against Asians.
Organizations
- 18 Million Rising
18 Million Rising (18MR) brings Asian American communities together online and offline to reimagine Asian American identity with nuance, specificity, and power. - Asian American Writers’ Workshop
The Asian American Writers’ Workshop (AAWW) is devoted to creating, publishing, developing and disseminating creative writing by Asian Americans, and to providing an alternative literary arts space at the intersection of migration, race, and social justice. Since our founding in 1991, we have been dedicated to the belief that Asian American stories deserve to be told. At a time when migrants, women, people of color, Muslims, and LGBTQ people are specifically targeted, we offer a new countercultural public space in which to imagine a more just future. - Asian American Federation
Established in 1989, with the mission to raise the influence and well-being of the pan-Asian American community through research, policy advocacy, public awareness, and nonprofit support, AAF is the largest umbrella leadership organization in New York serving diverse Asian American communities that make up the fastest-growing population in the city, state, and country. - Asian American Feminist Collective
Engages in intersectional feminist politics grounded within our communities, including those whose backgrounds encompass East, Southeast, and South Asian, Pacific Islander, multi-ethnic and diasporic Asian identities. - CAAAV
CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities works to build grassroots community power across diverse poor and working class Asian immigrant and refugee communities in New York City. - DRUM
DRUM was founded in 2000 to build the power of South Asian and Indo-Caribbean low wage immigrant workers, youth, and families in New York City to win economic and educational justice, and civil and immigrant rights. - Freedom, Inc.
Freedom, Inc. (FI) is a Black and Southeast Asian non-profit organization that works with low- to no-income communities of color with the mission to achieve social justice through coupling direct services with leadership development and community organizing. - Indo-Caribbean Alliance
Our mission is to unify and advance Indo-Caribbean and South Asian interests by fostering joint and collaborative actions among different peoples, organizations and businesses. With a booming population, especially in New York City, we act as a liaison and an advocate to government agencies, elected officials and other non-profit organizations to create specialized educational, arts and social service programs. - Mekong
Mekong NYC aims to improve the quality of life of the Southeast Asian community in the Bronx and throughout New York City by achieving equity through community organizing and healing, promoting arts, culture, and language, and creating a safety net by improving access to essential social services. The Southeast Asian community in the Bronx primarily consists of Cambodian Americans and Vietnamese Americans. - NAPAWF
NAPAWF is the only organization focused on building power with AAPI women and girls to influence critical decisions that affect our lives, our families and our communities. Using a reproductive justice framework, we elevate AAPI women and girls to impact policy and drive systemic change in the United States. - New York University Asian/Pacific/American Institute
A/P/A Institute aims to promote discourse on Asian/Pacific America defying traditional boundaries, spanning Asia, to the Americas, through the Atlantic and Pacific Worlds. A/P/A Institute works to dispel socio-cultural and political misconceptions, provide cultural and scholarly connections, lead collections building, and encourage innovative research and interdisciplinary exploration. A/P/A Institute’s goal is to serve as an international nexus of interactive exchange and access for scholars, cultural producers, and communities from New York to beyond. - Nodutdol
Through grassroots organizing and community development, Nodutdol seeks to bridge divisions created by war, nation, gender, sexual orientation, language, class, and generation among Koreans and to empower our community to address the injustices we and other people of color face here and abroad. Nodutdol works in collaboration with other progressive organizations locally, nationally and internationally as part of a larger movement for peace and social change. - Red Canary Song
Red Canary Song centers base building with migrant workers through a labor rights framework and mutual aid. We believe that full decriminalization is necessary for labor organizing and anti-trafficking. - Q-Wave
Q-Wave is a grassroots organization of lesbian, bisexual, and queer women and trans women, trans men, and gender non-conforming/non-binary/trans folks of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. We seek to build a strong and belonging community, create awareness around social justice issues, increase queer Asian visibility, and seek to uplift marginalized voices through our programming. Our community building has been and will be fueled by delicious food. - Stop AAPI Hate
The center tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States. - The National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQPAIA)
A federation of lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) Asian American, South Asian, Southeast Asian, and Pacific Islander (AAPI) organizations.
Related Articles, Publications, and Multimedia
- Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties, Karen Ishizuka
- The Making of Asian America, Erika Lee
- Entry Denied: Controlling Sexuality at the Border, Eithne Luibhéid
- Treating Yellow Peril: Resources to Address Coronavirus Racism
- Asian Americans (five part documentary series)
- Densho Encyclopedia
- Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center
CUNY Resources
- Asian American / Asian Research Institute, The City University of New York
The Institute is a university-wide scholarly research and resource center that focuses on policies and issues that affect Asians and Asian Americans. - AAARI Statement Regarding Anti-Asian Violence
- Building Asian American Studies across the Community College Classroom
Hosted by BMCC’s Center for Ethnic Studies, and funded by the NEH, the aim of this project is to cultivate discussion of the vibrant array of academic and community-based scholarship, literary works, and other artistic/cultural productions that are emerging by and about Asian American communities in New York City. Reading list - CUNY Chancellor’s Statement on Deadly Shootings in Atlanta
- HCAP
Hunter College AANAPISI Project (HCAP) is a program funded by the U.S. Department of Education’s Asian American and Native American Pacific Islander-Serving Institutions (AANAPISI) Program to enhance academic and student support services for Asian American and Pacific Islander and other high-need students at Hunter College, including first-generation college goers, English Language Learners, and students from immigrant families.
