During the pandemic that spanned all of 2020 (and beyond), overall hate-crime decreased by 7% in major U.S. cities — due, presumably, to the lack of interaction in all of the usual places. But according to this fact sheet from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism, anti-Asian hate-crimes in America’s largest cities increased 149%, per an analysis of official preliminary police data.

These abhorrent acts are nothing new — America has a long, ugly history of anti-Asian bigotry; but if you think it began in the 1940s, after World War II, you’re about 100 years off. As this Washington Post piece details, the hatred towards Asians in the United States dates back to the mid-1800s, when Chinese immigrants began coming here to work on railroad construction and in mining.

The latest surge in harassment — at least online — can clearly be traced to the coronavirus outbreak, as John Brownstein, an epidemiologist at Boston Children's Hospital and co-author of this study by the Anti-Defamation League, told USA Today: “The use of racial and ethnic terms to describe the coronavirus is an important contributor to the record-breaking level of severe online harassment against Asian-Americans over the past year," Brownstein said. As The New York Times pointed out, most of the hate, unlike other types of bias crime, has been directed at women.

Indeed, hate can reach farther and wider through social media platforms and other online avenues. One example that has been cited: The week after then-President Donald Trump first posted #chinesevirus on Twitter, the number of people using that hashtag increased more than tenfold, and they were much more likely to include anti-Asian hashtags than those who used #covid19 in their tweets.

Regardless of the etiology or history of anti-Asian sentiment and violence, we need to step up now; THE WELL endeavors to be part of eradicating racism and marginalization through our company's guiding principles and by providing helpful information through our channels. The below list of resources is a starting point for those who care to educate themselves about the problem, actively participate in solutions and offer meaningful support to the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) community — now and in the future.

To Donate to victims’ memorial funds click here.

Organizations for Social Justice

• Hate is a Virus
• Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund
• #TheyCantBurnUsAll
• Chinese-American Planning Council
• Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
• Red Canary Song
• Japanese American Citizens League
• Tsuru for Solidarity
• South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT)
• Empowering Pacifica Islander Communities (EPIC)
• Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian Law Caucus
• Stop AAPI Hate (California)
• Asian American Advocacy Fund (Georgia State)
• Asian American Commission (Massachusetts State)
• CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities (New York, New York)
• Asian Americans For Equality (New York, New York)
• DRUM - Desis Rising Up & Moving (New York, New York)
• VietLead (Philadelphia, PA)
• Anti-Defamation League (ADL)
• Hollaback! and their harassment support movement HeartMob

Organizations for Community Enrichment

• Asian American Resource Center
• Asian American Journalists Association
• Taiwanese Association of America
• Gold House
• 18 Million Rising (18MR)
• W.O.W Project (New York)
• Heart of Dinner
• Mekong NYC
• Apex for Youth
• Nakasec
• Asian Mental Health Collective
• Asian Mental Health Project
• Vietnamese American Community Center of the East Bay (San Francisco, California)
• Filipino Community Center
• Chinese Progressive Association(San Francisco, California)
• Save Our Chinatowns (San Francisco, California)
• Cameron House (San Francisco, California)
• Khmer Girls in Action (Long Beach, California)
• Asian Health Services (Oakland, California)
• Oakland Vietnamese Chamber of Commerce (Oakland, California)
• Asian Pacific Environmental Network (Oakland, California)
• Apicha Community Health Center
• Korean American Coalition (Los Angeles, California)
• Chinatown Community for Equitable Development (Los Angeles, California)
• Southeast Asian Community Alliance (Los Angeles, California)
• Little Tokyo Service Center (Los Angeles, California)
• The Chicago Community Trust Asian Giving Circle (Chicago, Illinois)
• Asian American LEAD (Washington DC)
• Korean American Coalition Metro Atlanta (Atlanta, Georgia)
• Center for Pan Asian Community Services (Atlanta, Georgia)
• Raksha (Atlanta, Georgia)
• Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund
• PrYSM (Providence, RI)

LGBTQ+ and Gender-based Organizations

• Asian American Feminist Collective
• AAPI Women Lead #ImReady Movement
• Asian/Pacific Islander Domestic Violence Resource Project (DVRP)
• The Center for Asian Pacific American Women
• National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
• National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance
• API Equality Northern California (San Francisco, California)
• Womankind
• National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF)

Additional Resources:

• 13 Mental Health & Wellness Resources For Asian-American Communities
• Fighting the Stigma: Mental Health among Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
• How to Protect Your Mental Health While Fighting Racial Injustice
• Mental Health Resources for Young People of Color
• Asian American Discrimination and Substance Abuse
• Resources to Help Empower Asian and Pacific Islander Communities
• Anti-Racism College Guide for AAPI Students and Allies

For Further Education:

Podcasts:

• The Post’s: “Race in America: Rise in Anti-Asian Violence”
• The Misfortune Cookies Podcast
• NPR’s All Things Considered: “How to Talk to Your Kids About Anti-Asian Racism”
• Codeswitch: “Screams and Silence”
• The Daily: “A Murderous Rampage in Georgia”

Articles:

• Race in America: Asian Immigration: The “Yellow Peril”
• Five Thirty Eight: The U.S. Has A Long-Standing History Of Vilifying Minority Groups During Times Of Crisis
• Anti-Asian Hate Crime During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Exploring the Reproduction of Inequality
• The Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882
• Executive Order 9066: Japanese Internment camps
• This study on Hate Crimes Against Asian Americans
• The New York Times: How Racism and Sexism Intertwine to Torment Asian-American Women
• ADL: When Women are the Enemy: The Intersection of Misogyny and White Supremacy
• THE CUT: When Asian Women Are Harassed for Marrying Non-Asian Men
• Reappropriate: The Atlanta Shooting: A Boiling Point

Books:

• The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee
• America For Americans: A History Of Xenophobia In The United States by Erika Lee
• Driven Out: The Forgotten War Against Chinese Americans by Jean Pfaelzer
• Contagious Divides: Epidemics and Race in San Francisco’s Chinatown by Nayan Shah
• Serve the People: Making Asian America in the Long Sixties by Karen L. Ishizuka
• Orientals: Asian Americans in Popular Culture by Robert G. Lee
• Vestiges of War: The Philippine-American War and the Aftermath of an Imperial Dream 1899-1999 edited by Angel Velasco Shaw and Luis H. Francia
• To Save the Children of Korea: The Cold War Origins of Korean Adoption by Arissa Oh
• The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority by Ellen D. Wu
• Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning by Cathy Park Hong
• Yellow Peril!: An Archive Of Anti-Asian Fearby John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats
• Myth of the Modern Minority: Asian Americans Facing Racism by Rosalind S. Chou and Joe R. Feagin
• We Gon’ Be Alright: Notes on Race and Resegregation by Jeff Chang
• No Fire Next Time: Black-Korean Conflicts and the Future of America's Cities by Patrick D. Joyce
• Asian American Dreams: The Emergence Of an American People by Helen Zia
• From a Whisper to a Rallying Cry: The Killing of Vincent Chin and the Trial that Galvanized the Asian American Movement by Paula Yoo
• Immigrant Acts: On Asian American Cultural Politics by Lisa Lowe

Movies:

• Asian Americans — Amazon Prime
• Minding the Gap (Bing Liu) — Hulu
• Ulam: Main Dish (Alexandra Cuerdo) — Hulu
• Standing Above the Clouds (Jalena Keane-Lee) — Youtube
• Deported (Sahra V. Nguyen) — NBCNews Youtube
• Halmoni (Anna Oh) — Vimeo
• Leading Asian-American Voices Address Anti-Asian Racism | Brave New Films on YouTube
• Minari (Lee Isaac Chung) — Amazon Prime

To Follow:

@aapiwomenlead
@advancingjustice_aajc
@apexforyouth
@asians4antiracism
@asiansformentalhealth
@chinatownservicecenter
@hateisavirus
@stopaapihate
@protectchinatown

For more anti-racism resources, go here.