Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD)
Media contact: info@muslimalliance.org
No more violence: #StopAsianHate
The Muslim Alliance for Sexual and Gender Diversity (MASGD) is appalled and heartbroken to learn about the murders of eight people, six of whom were AAPI women, by a white man at massage parlors in Atlanta, GA. We see that this is not an isolated incident, but part of a history of attacks on Asians around the country, emboldened by the previous administration’s racist anti-Asian rhetoric around COVID-19. We know that this history sits within a larger narrative of disdain and disposal of Asian women, undocumented people, working class people, and sex workers. We remember Yang Song, killed during a police raid in New York in 2017. We remember Jennifer Laude, killed in 2014 by a Marine stationed in the Philippines. We cannot separate these violent acts from this country’s violent history that includes the Chinese Exclusion Act, the invasion and occupation of the Philippines, the overthrow of the Hawaiian government, the Japanese internment, and the Korean and Vietnam War. We send love to the East Asian and Southeast Asian women and sex workers in our communities, and recognize and appreciate their voices and leadership during this time.
We stand in solidarity with community leaders like Red Canary Song and others who have rejected the call for increased policing in response to this violence. We will always stand against calls for an increase in ‘security’ by a violent, racist state. The police will only ever be a PR campaign for white supremacy; they will never protect us.
We recognize that many of us are dealing with grief in its many forms, and that this racist violence as well as the excuses for it feel like one more day in the United States. We cannot and will not accept a narrative that blames the victims, erases or excuses white supremacy, or expands the police state.
Please join us in taking action.
Please sign this petition by the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum condemning hate and violence against Asian American women.
This resource list discusses the root causes of anti-Asian racist violence and has a number of educational resources:
This list includes many organizations that may need donations:
In Solidarity,
MASGD