| Resources

AAPI Task Force | Resources and Information

The Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) Task Force was designed to better document and track incidents of AAPI hate, understand the impacts of these incidents on U-M’s AAPI community, and build community and offer support. The Task Force coordinates efforts among U-M faculty, staff and students including the United Asian American Organizations (UAAO), Asian/Pacific Islander American (A/PIA) Studies, Asian Pacific Islander Desi/American (APID/A) Staff Association, Association of Chinese Professors (ACP), and Indigo: the LSA Asian/Asian American Faculty Alliance, among others.

What you should know 

  • Hate incidents targeting AAPIs have risen due to the association of coronavirus with Asian people. For example, the Stop AAPI Hate Center reported that between March 19 and April 15, it received nearly 1500 reports of anti-Asian, coronavirus-related hate incidents, which include verbal harassment, shunning, and physical attacks. The FBI has warned of a rise in hate crimes targeting Asian/Pacific Islander Americans.
  • Although COVID-19 originated in Wuhan, China, its transmission around the world has been multinational and does not discriminate based on race, nationality, gender, class, religion, or other identities. 
  • The association of the novel coronavirus with China has also produced a surge in anti-China and anti-Asian rhetoric, including among elected officials who have described the novel coronavirus as the “Chinese virus.” This rhetoric continues longstanding Yellow Peril discourses that have stigmatized Asian people as a foreign menace. 
  • Blaming an entire group of people for a disease is xenophobic and racist. History shows that this kind of blame can lead to the tragic destruction of entire neighborhoods and the loss of individual freedoms.
  • This pandemic exacerbates preexisting conditions of racial, economic, and social inequality.
  • The increasing stigma around COVID-19 undermines public health efforts by making people less likely to seek medical attention.
  • Racism against one community impacts all communities of color and it is important to intervene and take action.

How is the campus responding?

  • A grassroots Task Force consisting of U-M faculty, staff and students have come together to coordinate efforts and develop tools for reporting hate incidents, providing support, and fostering community. Email: StopAAPIHate@umich.edu. 
  • The U-M United Asian American Organizations (UAAO) organized a campus-wide event in early February called “From Fear to Reality: Teach-In to Address Yellow Peril Anxieties over Coronavirus.”  
  • UAAO has developed a social media campaign to collect narratives and raise awareness on ways that AAPI members of the U-M community are experiencing hate and bias. The campaign is called U-M Against AAPI Hate (UMAAAPIH), and the platform is on Twitter, Facebook, and Instagram (username on all three platforms: @umaaapih). U-M students, faculty, and staff can submit narratives through this form.
  • UAAO has also developed an informational poster to raise awareness (see Resources below), which is now being translated into multiple languages. 
  • Melissa Borja, Assistant Professor in A/PIA Studies, is helping to lead “Stop AAPI Hate”, a national reporting center to collect and track incidents of anti-Asian American and Pacific Islander hate violence, adult harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying throughout the country. U-M student researchers are supporting this project, which not only documents and analyzes hate incidents, but also works with community partners to provide resources to victims and advocates for responsible public policies to address the rise in anti-Asian discrimination and hostility.
  • The National Center for Institutional Diversity (NCID) is publishing a series authored by diversity scholars focused on the racialization of pandemics or other public health phenomena, and the social consequences that follow, particularly related to Asian/Asian American communities. [updated 6/24/20] NCID Spark series, Unmasked: Anti-Asian Violence Amid the COVID-19 Pandemic with an introduction by series curator Melissa Borja, U-M faculty in American Culture.

What you can do

What resources are available?

Contact

Email:  StopAAPIHate@umich.edu