The following message was posted on the Vice President for Diversity’s Instagram account

Our Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) community is hurting after the intensity and prevalence of anti-Asian hate and the violence enacted on the Asian community in Georgia yesterday. While this hate is not new, it has been further fueled over the past year by racist rhetoric inaccurately tied to the COVID-19 pandemic. To our AAPI community, we see you, value you, and will continue to work next to you to address the racism and violence in our own communities and beyond. Our office is stepping up to further educate our CSU community on AAPI hate, both individual and systemic. For allies, we invite you to take action now and put your solidarity into practice.

Some ideas:

• Give to the CSU Asian Pacific American Cultural Center (https://advancing.colostate.edu/APACC)
• Support local Asian-owned businesses, many of whom have seen a decline in business since the start of the pandemic
• Interrupt racist behavior in your communities, including jokes, the fetishization of AAPI women, xenophobic and racist language about the COVID-19 pandemic, the perpetuation of the “model minority”, and more
• Support non-profits like Stop AAPI Hate, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, and more
• Hold your departments, units, and college leadership accountable to anti-racist policy and actions
• Educate Yourself – Our VPD Educate Yourself blog is featuring information on Trans communities this week and we have planned to launch a week of AAPI support and anti-Asian hate education articles beginning on Monday. In the meantime, check out today’s post from NPR (direct link) for an overview of the rise of Anti-Asian attacks during the pandemic.