I want to offer words of inspiration, resiliency in this moment. But truthfully? I keep hearing the same thing, which echoes what I’m feeling—we are fearful, we are heartbroken, we are exhausted. This, on top of a pandemic.

It’s hard to find the words to express our feelings and concerns at this juncture of race relations in our nation. We recognize that there is a long history of violence and racism against Asians in the United States that has been ignored by most. In the spirit of continuous learning and listening to long-overlooked stories of what it means to be Asian in America, we are sharing resources to which our team has turned for education, comfort, and inspiration.

Words are seeds. May we plant the seeds of transformation toward a respectful, multi-racial democracy; a society free from violence based on hate, brutality based on racial profiling, and countless other manifestations of harmful prejudices against the varied communities of our country.

One day, Asians will be neither invisible nor in the fleeting spotlight, portrayed as victims. One day, we will be seen as the valued members of society that we are, our belonging as natural as anyone who comes to mind when you hear ‘All-American.’ Our rich culture and history will be woven into our country’s history, and the gold will gleam brighter than the grime.

*Quotations were contributed by Asian/American staff at the Center for Good Food Purchasing.

RESOURCES

Organizations:

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice
• Asian Americans/Pacific Islanders in Philanthropy
• Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, AFL-CIO
• Hmong American Farmers Association
• Stop AAPI Hate
• Other organizations to follow and support by Nina Ichikawa, Executive Director of Berkeley Food Institute (Twitter)

Trainings:

• Bystander Intervention Training to Stop Anti-Asian/American and Xenophobic Harassment by Hollaback and Asian Americans Advancing Justice

Articles & Podcasts:

• Asian in America: Reflections on the meaning of being American by our Co-Founder & Board Chair, Paula Daniels (Christian Science Monitor)
• Call it Covid-19 (spoken word, Wieden+Kennedy)
• Column: The roots of anti-Asian violence can be found in California history, by Michael Hiltzik (LA Times)
• Farming Behind Barbed Wire: Japanese-Americans Remember WWII Incarceration by Lisa Morehouse (NPR and Food & Environment Reporting Network)
• Grapes Of Wrath: The Forgotten Filipinos Who Led A Farmworker Revolution (Weekend Edition, NPR)
• How to support Asian American colleagues amid the recent wave of anti-Asian violence by Jennifer Liu (CNBC)
• Twitter compilation of articles by Asian/Asian American writers by Timothy Yu (Twitter)
• On ‘For Every Voice That Never Sang,’ Kishi Bashi Is Confident For A Changing World (Morning Edition, NPR)
• Op-ed: A hate crime law is a start. But it will take much more to make Asian Americans feel safer by Stewart Kwoh, Connie Chung Joe and Connie Rice (Los Angeles Times)
• Op-ed: ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype Obscures the Food Insecurity Asian Americans Face by Teresa Mok (Civil Eats)
• Overcoming anti-Asian hate: Can the US learn from its past? by Curtis S. Chin (Christian Science Monitor)
• Repairing Generations of Trauma, One Lotus Flower at a Time by Elizabeth Dias, photographs by Rozette Rago (The New York Times)
• Screams and Silence (Codeswitch, NPR)
• ‘Tip of the iceberg’: Mapping the pandemic jump in anti-Asian hate by Noah Robertson (Christian Science Monitor)
• The long, ugly history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the US by Gillian Brockell (Washington Post)
• What ‘Minari’ is doing for Asian American farmers like me by Mai Nguyen (CNN)
• Why It Is Important to Know the Story of Filipino-American Larry Itliong by Gayle Romasanta (Smithsonian Magazine)

Books & Documentaries:

• Asian Americans, a 5-part documentary (PBS)
• The Color of Success: Asian Americans and the Origins of the Model Minority by Ellen D. Wu
• Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong
• Books about anti-Asian racism in America by Jae-Yeon Yoo & Stefani Kuo (Electric Literature)

Header image: Artwork by Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya for New York City’s “I Still Believe in Our City” campaign to combat anti-Asian discrimination, harassment, and bias as a result of Covid-19.