Messages from the President

President, APIA Scholars, Noel Harmon

This is the Moment

 

I am joined by my governing board to express our grief as we mourn the victims from the shooting in Atlanta last evening. Our hearts are heavy today as we extend our deepest condolences across the AAPI community and to the families of those lost.

The APIA Scholars Board and I are horrified at the aggression and hate toward the Asian and Pacific Islander American community that has only escalated over the past year and we denounce the racist, xenophobic, and fear mongering that has permeated our nation especially in this last year.

Violence and racist action against members of the Asian and Pacific Islander American community must stop and we can be part of the solution and this is the moment.

 

This is the moment to consider supporting draft state and federal legislation to address hate crimes.

This is the moment to empower each other by participating in online bystander training to safely intervene in escalating situations.

This is the moment to reject racist memes, social media posts and casual comments that demean and target APIA people.

This is the moment to call these events and behaviors what they are—racism.

 

In this moment, I call on people to consider their roles in addressing subtle and significant racist behaviors. We have watched as racist sentiment has led to violent behavior. We must work hard across and within communities of colors to dismantle racist institutions and systems.

I am heartened by the support and hope that has been shared by our partner organizations including UNCF, Hispanic Scholarship Fund, and the American Indian Graduate Center. This moment in history exemplifies why the alliance among our organizations, and the many other partnerships we have, are vitally important.

I want to reassure members of our community that I am focused on reaching out to scholars directly to see how my team and I can be of assistance. We are providing our scholars, our alumni and our community with resources to report hate incidents and education for how best to stay safe. To report an immediate incident, please file a report with Stop AAPI Hate.

 

This is the moment that begins a new conversation — a proactive conversation that aims to educate ourselves and others about how we can dismantle racist institutions and systems, elevates the conversation from our personal interactions to a governmental and global platform, and empowers our community to confidently and intentionally choose to call racism what it is and abolish it for all.

 

Join us….in this moment.

 

Noel Harmon
March 17, 2021