Thursday, October 10, 2024
Home Women Business News AAPI Voices Are Taking To Social Media To Spread Awareness To #StopAAPIHate

AAPI Voices Are Taking To Social Media To Spread Awareness To #StopAAPIHate


The rise of Anti-Asian hate speech, microaggressions slurs, and crimes have been up since the pandemic began. However recent events from the Atlanta shooting to the assault of a Bay area Uber driver to Teen Vogue’s hiring of Alexi McCammond and an elderly woman being attacked in Brooklyn has sparked Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) voices to speak up on social media to #StopAAPIHate. The hashtag started via the Stop AAPI Hate initiative that was founded by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, Chinese for Affirmative Action and the Asian American Studies Department, San Francisco University. 

Although the organizations came together to launch the Stop AAPI Hate reporting center on March 19, 2020, the hashtag #StopAAPIHate has more recently created a movement across social media platforms to bring awareness, education and resources to the community and its allies. Award-winning journalist and media personality, Xixi Yang, has found that the new generation of AAPI are no longer afraid to speak up about the hate towards their community. “The painful experience of being Asian-American is that we are continuously being asked to “prove” racism. While previous generations have relied on authorities and federal institutions to recognize the threat and enact policy changes, the new generation of AAPI are taking it upon ourselves to “show receipts” by recording hate crimes and exposing the injustice on social media. We’re empowered to use social platforms like Instagram and Clubhouse to organize support groups, provide aid, and pressure those in the position of power to respond. We’re not afraid to rock the boat! We’re not on the “boat” anymore. We’re here and we’re not going anywhere,” shared Yang.

“Throughout the past few months, I have received over dozens of videos and photos per week sent from citizen journalists, asking me to look into each case. Social media not only gives us a chance to ask the public to help us hold individuals accountable for their wrongful actions, but it also helps to dismantle the “model minority” myth by giving people a glimpse of the reality of being Asian-American today.” 

Speaking up on social media to hold individuals and corporations accountable may have influenced why McCammond stepped down from her role and advertisers such as Ulta pulled out of advertising of Teen Vogue in solidarity to the AAPI community. The community is not only holding individuals or corporations accountable for their words or actions but also ensuring that suspects criminal cases are identified. Two suspects in the San Francisco assault case to a Filipino American Uber driver are in custody and the man who assaulted an elderly Asian woman in New York has also been arrested all thanks to social media.

Taking to social media isn’t only about holding people accountable, it’s about actually creating meaningful changes in society. Whether it be grass roots GoFundMe’s organized on Clubhouse to local groups helping the elderly shop for groceries to educational resources, social media has been a positive catalyst. For the first time ever many members of the AAPI community are using their voice to stand up, provide resources and education for their community and allies. These notable AAPI voices share why they are taking to social media to spread awareness.

Chriselle Lim

Digital influencer, content creator, and entrepreneur

“We are in a moment where social media is the modern way we receive the news and word is spreading about all the hate that is being projected to Asians in our country. Debunking the model minority myth by speaking out and amplifying the voices of the AAPI community through social media. This can not stop when the hashtag #StopAsianHate is no longer trending. We need to understand the systemic issues in this country that have brought us to this moment and change them,” shared Lim. “Social media has allowed me to share my own experiences with racism and call on my followers to speak up and stand up against these racist acts. I recently posted on my Instagram of my grandparents and I can’t even fathom them being attacked for no reason other than by the way they look.  Elders won’t speak up about what is going on, so I am. It is time to support and amplify Asian voices and SPEAK UP!”

Tina Craig

Founder and CEO of U Beauty

“We’ve realized our voices need to be heard and we can no longer allow ourselves to be silenced—at this point, to be quiet is to be complicit. Initiating the dialogue helps catalyze change. I’ve reached out to friends so we can work together; for example, Gwyneth Paltrow and goop recently offered their platform, so I did an Instagram Live takeover on #StopAsianHate, but the focus was on education, not blame,” explained Craig. “It’s so important that we don’t point fingers right now. I’m focused on offering ways to help and support, while spreading as much awareness as possible. Now is the time to be constructive, not destructive, and we’re just getting started.”

Michelle Lee

Editor in Chief, Allure

“Social media attention was the first step in bringing awareness to what was happening in our communities and the #StopAsianHate movement. It helped create a necessary groundswell since one of the big issues was that there had been a widespread erasure of our stories in the mainstream. So it was important that we let people know that this cannot be ignored. But that was just the first step,” Lee explained. Unfortunately, after this year of increased discrimination and attacks, and now the tragic loss of life in Atlanta, there is a lot of hurt and anger. So it’s important that Asian Americans and our allies don’t look at awareness as the solution when it’s just a step toward getting there. Social media can be an excellent tool for education. I posted something recently about how what they teach in school is often laced with euphemisms to hide the true horrors of what happened.”

“For example, how Japanese “internment” was truly “incarceration” and how the government referred to it at the time as a “relocation of Japanese people” when it was an imprisonment of Japanese Americans. After that, I had people reaching out saying they had never even learned anything about it in school. So social media can serve a purpose in educating,” Lee added. “We can share more about the past and present discrimination that Asians have endured in this country so that others understand more of our cultural context. But the true work happens off of social platforms. We need to spend our time, energy, and money helping AAPI based social justice organizations like Stop AAPI Hate and AAPI Women Lead; and continuing to build solidarity with others. There’s a lot of work ahead and it can’t be accomplished with just a few Instagram posts.”

Daniel Martin

Makeup Artist and Global Director of Artistry & Education at Tatcha

“After the events of BLM and George Floyd last summer, I found my courage to speak up. I couldn’t sit silent or in denial anymore,” Martin explained. “Seeing Alexi McCammond resign, it was a great feeling to know that justice was serviced because of the people. To know that mobilization and raising your voice does matter nowadays.”

Yu Tsai

Celebrity and Fashion Photographer, Host

As part of LGBTQIA and AAPI community, I have never been shy to use my social media to speak up for the rights and equality for what we deserve. My motivation truly comes from seeing results when the solidarity and allyship coming together from different communities when we speak up,” Tsai shared.

Sarah Lee and Christine Chang

Co-Founders & Co-CEOs of Glow Recipe

“We’re seeing more and more brands and influential leaders speak up and hope that not only awareness but also action continues to spread. It’s crucial to shed light on the Asian American experience and self-educate in order to enact lasting change. The AAPI community, and all minority groups for that matter, need to feel safe, seen, and supported from their workplace to their homes and everywhere in between. Social media has the power to amplify, and we hope it continues to fuel change in a positive way,” the co-founders shared. “As Asian-American women, we have been distraught about the recent surge of hate crimes targeting the AAPI community. It is so important to use your platform and take action to help the AAPI community – and all minority groups for that matter – feel safe, seen, and supported from their workplace to their homes and everywhere in between. 

“From our own positions, we’ve worked to share our stories across social, while amplifying voices from fellow Asian American founders and beauty industry experts to create a safe space for these necessary conversations. Education is key to breaking down stigmas and we’ve provided resources and links on ways our followers could contribute to the cause,” Lee and Chang added. “We are fortunate to have a platform from which we can raise awareness of these issues while sharing the core values upon which we built our company. We plan on continuing to leverage our platform to speak up and having meaningful and deeper dialogues with our community.”

Aimee Song

Entrepreneur and digital influencer

“Social media gets a bad rep; however, it can be a real catalyst for change. It brings people together and enables a powerful collective voice of the people. A collective voice that wasn’t possible to the same extent pre-social media. Social media has allowed me to use my platform to educate, raise awareness + funds, and crowdsource information. We most recently saw this with the identification of the man who pushed the elderly Asian woman in New York City; this man was identified via social media. I’m fortunate enough that I have a powerful community online; a community that continues to spread the information that I push. This enables me to reach people I would never normally be able to reach. Social media has also given me the power to build a community of other like-minded people whose core values align with mine, further amplifying my voice to create increased awareness and impact,” song shared. 

“Since the beginning, it’s been important for me to use my platform for social-good and positive change. I’ve done this in raising funds for water wells in Ethiopia, raising awareness of the Black Lives Matter movement following the murder of Trayvon Martin, my mental health experience, and most recently to raise awareness and educate surrounding AAPI hate. It is also important for me to leverage my community to amplify my messages to their large communities,” she added.  

Samuel Hyun

Chairperson of the Massachusetts Asian American Commission, Member of @HateIsAVirus

“I’ve always been vocal on social media. Being silent has never been a part of who I am. However, I’ve had to learn a lot about advocating correctly and always making sure to be conscious of impact. The courage comes from understanding that so much sacrifice came before to pave the way for us to have a larger platform to speak up. But I’ll be honest, I do feel the gravity of using my voice. Making sure to be really intentional and speak truth to power,” shared Hyun. “I’ve seen activists, especially women refuse to accept harmful or poor journalism. To ensure the victims and those most impacted are centered. But I do want to be clear that there is so much powerful work being done in the community by grassroots organizers that isn’t covered or shown on social media. That it is critical that we take conversation and awareness into action led by the work being done by community leaders.”

Daniel Nguyen

Actor

“In my younger years, I allowed the microaggressions and bullying to happen. But as I grew into my adulthood, I finally had the courage to stand up and speak out. Being the butt of jokes and being pigeonholed into a stereotype was no longer acceptable,” Nguyen shard. “I love being Asian and I love my culture. Allowing bullying and hate only leads to more harm in our society.  The motivation behind the drive of my fight for the AAPI community is the future of our world. I want my community to feel protected and I hope that in the near future we can all protect each other and live as one.”

Mai Quyhn

Celebrity Makeup Artist

“When I was younger, I was really shy and soft-spoken. People often took advantage of that. The perception was that since I didn’t speak up, I didn’t have a voice worth listening to,” Quyhn explained. “Ultimately, I had to change that. I learned that I have to stand up for myself because no one else will. As an Asian woman, there’s an expectation that we are subservient above all else. I refused to submit to that terribly ignorant paradigm and taught myself to raise my voice.  Otherwise, people would walk all over me.”

Ann McFerran

Founder and CEO of Glamnetic

“Social media has allowed for Asian Americans to share their intimate stories from the victims and their families which has created a sense of relatability which propels the stories further and gives them more power and voice. Social media has also been used as an outlet to raise money for the victims and their families but also for the greater cause at hand. Social media also brings a level of awareness towards the issue more than anything else has, in the same way the BLM movement has. If it wasn’t for social media, not many people in the world would be educated about the important matters going on and would fail to understand the value and significance for change and anti-racism,” shared McFerran.

“I was able to use social media to my advantage to create awareness of APPI by participating in conversations being held in Clubhouse rooms. I also posted Instagram stories on my personal social media account to further educate my followers and to shed light on the situation,” she added. “The employees at Glamnetic also took initiative to the matter and posted resources on how one can unite and fight against Anti-Asian racism. Because nowadays, social media is such a huge part of everyone’s lives, it is so important for us to use social media as leverage to voice and educate those around us about the important matters going on and to call for change.”

Nadya Okamoto

Founder of August

“For me, social media has been an outlet to share more about my experiences, find community with others who relate, and identify pathways to take action — and I continue to do just that now with the #stopasianhate movement. Social media has been the primary way that I heard about the breaking news of the Atlanta mass shooting — and I felt like I had a community of people that i have really looked up to who are AAPI that i could process openly with,” shared Okamoto.

“I’ve been really inspired by how people have mobilized to take action by fundraising for the families of the victims shot in Atlanta, and support local organizations working to serve AAPI communities on the ground. With the gofundme campaign, more than 37,000 people have contributed to the ‘AAPI community fund’ — totaling almost $4 million dollars. Another fundraiser created by the son of one of the victims from the Atlanta shooting has been shared almost 80,000 times and is going to soon reach $3 million dollars raised. We’ve seen social media also be used as an incredible tool to elevate and educate the issues around anti-Asian violence throughout history and share the call-to-action to unite together against racism,” Okamoto explained. “In times where it feels like we cannot rely on mainstream media and police authorities to properly pay respect to the victims of anti-Asian violence and hold people accountable for these hate crimes, social media often feels like the next best opportunity to try and demand accountability.I’ve used social media to find opportunities to donate and support organizations and to share my own experiences with and reflections on anti-Asian violence.”

Sharon Pak

Co-founder of INH

“As Asians, we are taught at a young age to turn the other cheek. Our culture encourages us to be quiet and go unnoticed. Sudden social media attention forces us to rethink what we’ve been taught. It’s hard to be passive when we see how THE SILENCE is perpetuating the divide within the country we call home. I read the story of Hyun Jung Kim, one of the Atlanta spa shooting victims, on her son Randy Park’s instagram. My heart fell to the floor, because that could have been my mom – an immigrant who came to America with nothing but the American Dream. She learned a new language and adopted a new culture. She worked wherever she could find work: liquor stores, dry cleaners, nail salons, massage parlors. Sacrificing everything for her children,” Pak emphasized.

These shared stories and emotions have been echoed and amplified throughout the country. It could not have been done without the power of social media. I have been told to go back to my own country many times, yet this moment sparked by the Asian community is different. It has lit a fire and anger within me, I have never felt before. I am grateful that I have a platform to share the stories of Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Sun ChaKim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yuan, Paul Andrew Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, and others affected,” Pak continued. “It has been an eye opening period to see that most of my peers lack the education and knowledge. I am teaming up with some of my fellow Asian American friends in the influencer space to raise awareness and money for non profit organizations such as victims of crime, NAPAWF.  Overall, I’ve found that connecting it to my own journey has helped translate the message, providing insight to those looking for understanding.”

Sonja Rasula

Founder, Unique Markets

“Never before in mankind have we had such access to one another, at our fingertips, with the ability to post and tweet and connect in real time. All that community, social media interaction then becomes a form of massive mobilization, which is so powerful and amazing. You know that saying, We’re all in this together? Social media platforms truly allow that to come to life around the globe, so alienated-feeling Asian kids in the midwest (who may be the only Asian kids in their entire schools), now have a sense of community and access to others with the click of a button. Asian women and WOC allies are connecting through the hashtag #stopasianhate and supporting one another and becoming friends. And I’m noticing a lot of people post about Asian American history on the hashtag which is HUGE progress since we’ve been written out of the history books.The power of social media is so profound!” exclaimed Rasula. 

“Because I have always used my voice on Instagram to talk about social issues such as being BIPOC and a female founder, the wage gap, lack of diversity, my community is thankfully very receptive to real talk and activism. I have been posting and sharing personal stories on my platforms whether it be about my experiences as an AAPI or my ancestors stories. I think it’s important to be honest and vulnerable when talking about issues, to help humanize them, to help others connect and therefore be more open to learning and supporting,” Rasula added. “I have also been actively organizing and curating talks on the Clubhouse app centered around this issue, and it’s been really, really amazing. And very emotional because you can actually hear people’s pain and/or crying in the moment, which has also been surprisingly healing. I have also been showcasing Asian excellence and sharing ‘success stories’ and interesting AAPI people in discussions because I think a big part of moving forward is celebrating and raising others up. Not just posting when traumatic events happen.”

Candice Kumai

Writer, Journalist, Director, Best-Selling Author

“We as a culture are taught not to stand out or speak up plus to be of no trouble to anyone. But as the lives of so many vulnerable and elderly AAPI are being harmed we can no longer be silent. Being open about our suffering in silence and sharing our personal and family history here in the US and sharing our experiences together is powerful. We would love for others to also appreciate culture, and not appropriate, as Asians, many take from us, but they do not give back. Educating to appreciate is key,” Kumai stated. “We want our black and other marginalized communities to know we stand together with them in solidarity and we are all in this, together #OneLove. Recently, myself, Ally Maki, Jamie Chung, Erin Lim, Shanina Shaik, Liv Golding, Kristina Rodulfo, Shadai McSween, Jamie Chung, Nadya Okamoto and Aya Kanait created a Clubhouse room to help with education, awareness, facts, cultural statistics and to amplify our voices. It’s so important to uplift and support these AAPI women as they are all talented, brilliant, pioneers who take risks and are brave!”





Source link

- Advertisement -

Must Read

Related News

- Supported by -