In Support of Our AAPI Communities
By: California Arts Council
Tags: Creativity, Art, Racial Equity, Asian American, California

The California Arts Council stands with the countless members of our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities who have been the targets of physical and verbal violence due to xenophobia and racism in this last year, and beyond. We grieve the eight lives lost to senseless and misogynistic violence in Atlanta in March and the elders who died by recent racially motivated attacks in California. During the past several weeks, we have engaged in a meaningful, phased process within our ongoing staff racial equity practice to take time for inclusion in preparing this statement.

We acknowledge and condemn the violent targeting and othering of our fellow Asian American friends, family members, neighbors, and colleagues. We condemn the dangerous rhetoric and willful ignorance of leaders that embolden white supremacy and encourage an environment of ethnic scapegoating against Asian communities during a global health crisis. We condemn the anti-Asian racism and invisibility that is inextricably linked to harassment and sexualized violence against Asian women, as outlined by the Asian American Journalists Association. Women of Asian descent have reported 2.3 times more incidents of violence than Asian men, according to a new Stop AAPI Hate report of nearly 3,800 hate incidents reported since March 2020. And for our local context, it is important to note that 45 percent of all reported incidents nationwide were based in California.

More than one-third of the AAPI people living in the United States call California their home. Our state’s AAPI community has a great depth and diversity, representative of more than 48 nations worldwide, with strong roots in communities throughout California. And yet throughout history, our AAPI communities have been met with unrelenting racism, hate, and violence that is multigenerational and systemic.

With this in our minds and hearts, we restate our belief that the arts are a tool for liberation that lives within us all. And that through the arts, we can all collaborate and build a better future together. As part of California’s creative community, we celebrate the rich cultural traditions, creative expression, innovation, and heritage of our Asian communities. We center their voices and experiences by uplifting Asian arts and culture and creative works addressing social and racial injustices and lived experiences.

As an organization and individuals that are deeply and openly committed to achieving racial equity, we recognize the continuum of white supremacy and we encourage our community to understand that the historic and current legacy of colonization, violence, xenophobia, and racism in this country includes violence against our Asian communities.

And as a state agency, we acknowledge the government’s role in creating and maintaining systems of oppression. We take seriously our unique responsibility to remove racist policies, to make institutional change, and to ensure racially equitable outcomes for California’s access to arts and culture in order to meet the aspirations we have set for ourselves. We understand our role is to support systemically disenfranchised communities to access healing, to prompt culture and narrative shifts, and to seed creative access. We encourage authentic dialogue and invite our arts community to connect with us on this and other race- and equity-based issues and concerns.

We are here to strive for joy, connection, witnessing, and healing through creative expression. We acknowledge the importance of becoming accomplices in order to achieve liberation for all, and that vigilance and action are crucial to that end.

Culture is the strongest signifier of California’s identity and, undoubtedly, it is a pathway to creating, together, a better and more just California for all.

At the California Arts Council, we continue to learn about and center the intersectional movements for liberation. In this moment, we offer a few resources that we have drawn on for education and support moving forward.