The escalation of anti-Asian violence and bigotry in America over the past year—brought on as an unfortunate side-effect of the COVID-19 pandemic and culminating in the deadly Atlanta spa-shooting on March 16—has led to a national call for reform and an end to Asian American hate. With this latest tragedy being so close to home, various New College faculty and staff have responded by organizing a town hall for April 1. “United We Stand: A Conversation on Race, Gender and Class-Based Violence” aims to offer support and strengthen allyship with Asian Americans within our community.

The town hall will run from 7 to 8:30 p.m. as a Zoom Webinar and will feature a series of New College faculty and staff as well as a handful of invited speakers, including Riverview High School faculty member and co-creator of the local parenting workshop, “Raising Anti-Racist Children,” Sarah Hu and recent New College alumna Jennifer Lin (’20). United We Stand will be moderated by Associate Professor of Chinese Language and Culture, Jing Zhang.

“It is painful to talk about racism and violence,” Zhang said. “But we have to do it. The mass shootings in midtown Atlanta on March 16 were a wake-up call.”

Zhang also cited the 2020-2021 national report from Stop AAPI Hate, which states that between March 19, 2020 and Feb. 28, 2021, nearly 3,800 “hate incidents” were reported by Asian Americans—including verbal harassment, physical assault and civil rights violations.

“Experts believe the number reflects only a fraction of such incidents, and that it will rise after the pandemic, when we are back to schools and workplaces,” Zhang added.  “We put together this town hall in order for the whole community to support each other through a very rough time. We want to look at the hate and violence in larger contexts.”

Students can register for United We Stand here, and are encouraged to take part in the conversation and show solidarity during these difficult times.