Baldi Families,

As we read news of the recent tragic killings in Atlanta, we all recognize the tremendous rise – particularly over this past year – in racism, profiling, hateful rhetoric, and violence towards people of Asian descent. While we know that this is not new, there has been a continued increase in harassment and bullying of Asian Americans since the COVID-19 pandemic began. However, it often does not get highlighted in the same way in our media or discourse. At Baldi we have a beautifully diverse school and service many Asian American students and families. There is a real fear in our local Asian American community as many elders are scared to walk alone in their communities and students are being targeted, harassed, and bullied since the pandemic began.

The killings in Atlanta were racially motivated and these women were targeted. I want to be clear, the suspect was NOT “having a bad day” as it had been recently portrayed by some officials in the media. There has been a continual rise of anti-Asian racism that ranges from verbal harassment to physical assault against Asian Americans since the Covid-19 pandemic began last March. Asian American women, youth, and elders are particularly vulnerable groups and almost 70% of the incidents documented were reported by women – as noted in a recent article on NPR and on the Stop AAPI Hate webpage: https://stopaapihate.org/

The goal of this message is to bring about awareness and support for our Asian students, families, and community members. We must continue to advocate and amplify their voices for them. I have attached some resources to support in addressing the recent events with your children and celebrating the contributions of Asian Americans. These resources can help build our understanding as a community about what is happening.

Stop Asian American Hate: Report a Hate Incident
https://stopaapihate.org/

1 in 4 Asian American students experience racist bullying:
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/25-percent-asian-american-youths-racist-bullying-n1240380

Responding to Anti-Asian Violence:
https://www.learningforjustice.org/magazine/responding-to-antiasian-violence-and-georgia-shootings

Contributions of Asian Americans
https://video.whyy.org/show/asian-americans/

We are stronger together!

Photo credit @rogacheva_illustration