The Apeel Team would like to express our heartfelt solidarity with the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community who has, for a long-time, grappled with the painful effects of racism perpetuated throughout the United States and beyond.
The AAPI community has seen a sharp increase in violent racially-targeted hate crimes as a result of racist rhetoric surrounding the COVID-19 virus. Our Black Lives Matter Task Force was formed with the intention that we would support, uplift, protect and celebrate our diverse identities and communities.
When we stand together for one, we stand together for all who are victims of systemic racism, prejudice and injustice.
We recognize our powerful ability as an industry that reaches all communities across the globe to speak up on behalf of others and respond to anti-BIPOC rhetoric, misinformation and violence in a meaningful way that invokes progressive change.
Much of this starts with educating ourselves on these moments. In the following blog, you will find a list of resources available to help you learn more about the issues, how to navigate them, and most importantly how to strengthen your own allyship.
Before we begin, this blog post is dedicated to those who lost their lives in the horrific and racist act of violence on March 17th, 2021. Know their names: Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Julie Park, Hyeon Jeong Park, as well as the two still un-named victims. You will be missed.
Mental Health Resources
Asian Mental Health Collective
Crisis Line: 1-800-273-TALK
Asian Languages Crisis Line: 1-877-990-8585
Crisis Text Line: Text “Connect” to 741741
Donate
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Organizations to Support
Asian Pacific Environmental Network
And, as always, be sure to support your Asian-owned local businesses
Books to Read
Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
Asian Americans in Dixie: Race & Migration in the South edited by Khyati Y. Joshi & Jigna Desai
Sour Heart: Stories by Jenny Zhang
Against Citizenship: the Violence of the Normative by Amy L. Brandzel
Na Wahine Koa: Hawaiian Women for Sovereignty and Demilitarization edited by Noelani Goodyear-Kaopua
The Joy Luck Club by Amy Tan
Transpacific Antiracism: Afro-Asian Solidarity in 20th-Century Black America, Japan, and Okinawa by Yuichiro Onishi
Interior Chinatown by Charles Yu
If They Come for Us by Fatimah Asghar
We shared this sentiment last summer, and it still rings true today: “This is a moment that truly has become a movement and it’s up to each of us to help be a part of that movement both individually and collectively.”