PPAO Stands in Solidarity to #StopAAPIHate

Planned Parenthood Advocates of Oregon stands in mourning and solidarity with our AAPI community after the white supremacist hate crime committed last night in Atlanta. This brutal event reveals how misogyny, harmful sexual stereotypes and white supremacy continue to drive hate and violence against women and communities of color, with devastating impacts. Our hearts are with the loved ones of the 8 people murdered, 6 of whom were Asian American women, and with our AAPI staff, supporters and movement leaders.

People of Asian heritage nationwide are experiencing escalating incidents of racism and discrimination related to COVID-19, and 68% of reported anti-Asian harassment and violence has been toward women. This includes violent attacks, shunning of their businesses, and racist and xenophobic portrayal of COVID-19 as a “Chinese virus” by the media and politicians. Anti-Asian bias in this moment continues a history of scapegoating communities of color during public health crises, while ignoring a legacy of systemic racism, which is intrinsic to the American experience, a continuing reality for communities of color and a tragic force behind the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on these communities.

As advocates for policy change, we must constantly reckon with the ways in which strategies of reproductive oppression throughout American history uniquely harm Asian American women — including economic marginalization, regulation of families and outright violence, as evidenced by the spike in hate crimes against Asian Americans over the past year. Local movement leaders with the Asian Pacific American Network of Oregon, the Immigrant and Refugee Community Organization and other groups today published an important op-ed calling out the disturbing uptick in violence against AAPI Oregonians. We urge PPAO supporters to read it, and follow and financially support APANO’s community organizing work.

We must all commit collectively and continuously to dismantle the systems of white supremacy and patriarchy that create acts of violence like those in Atlanta, as well as the violence created by white supremacist policy.

Artwork credit: Kayan Cheung-Miaw / Forward Together