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The past year has witnessed a horrifying surge in anti-Asian racism and hate crimes across the United States, from Oakland to Atlanta. The Center for Asian Studies condemns these attacks and the systemic racism, xenophobia, misogyny, and oppression that fuels them. 

While recent racist rhetoric in the context of the pandemic has undoubtedly emboldened those who commit these attacks, anti-Asian racism is not a new phenomenon. It has its own lengthy and shameful history in the United States, a history that is intertwined with the white supremacy, colonialism, dispossession, and marginalization that other BIPOC and immigrant communities have experienced in this country since its founding. Not confined to any given border, anti-Asian racism is also produced and perpetuated by global histories of imperialism, invasion, occupation, and exploitation.

As scholars, we know that many of our own disciplines have historically participated in these colonial projects, and we are committed to exposing this history and to undoing its legacies in our own respective fields. As teachers, we seek to educate our students about the deep roots and profound effects of imperialism, racism, and xenophobia on Asian societies in the past and present. As mentors and colleagues, we are dedicated to supporting students, faculty, and staff whose own lives and communities are affected by all forms of racism and violence, whether experienced on campus or off.

We at the Center for Asian Studies stand in solidarity with Asian, Asian American, and Pacific Islander students, faculty, and staff across CU Boulder. We recognize and share in their grief, fear, exhaustion, anger, and frustration at not only the news of these horrific attacks, but also at the ways in which such attacks – and anti-Asian racism more broadly – have been consistently ignored, downplayed, and misrepresented in most media coverage and public discussion. We support robust conversations and meaningful actions around anti-Asian racism and its impact on the wider CU Boulder community, and we applaud the critical work that is already being done in this regard by student groups and faculty members across the university.