Two executive team members of the Asian and Pacific Islander Caucus for Faculty and Staff in the University of North Carolina (UNC) System spoke out against anti-Asian racism this past week.
Dr. Anthony Chow, Chair of the Caucus, was interviewed on WRAL News. He described why and how the Caucus was formed: “After the Atlanta shootings, and in particular, increased attacks on Asian seniors, many of us decided that we had to speak out.” He also discloses major themes from personal accounts of racism and discrimination shared by AAPI faculty and staff, especially microaggressions. From a Caucus survey, about one out of three AAPI faculty had experienced some form of racism on campus in the past year, two-thirds had experienced it off campus, and 90% said that family or friends had experienced some kind of discrimination.
Watch the 2-minute recording here for more detail from Dr. Chow.
Dr. Yiqing Yang, who serves as executive team member of the AAPI caucus at the University of North Carolina (UNC), has published an Op-Ed in the local newspaper Citizen times. Written by three sociologists, the article is titled “What it Means to be Asian and Asian American” and describes how people from East, Southeast, and South Asian diasporas in the United States have been oppressed throughout history.
Read the full article here, or see the Citizen Times page here.
The UNC AAPI caucus was one of the sponsors for UCA’s Op-Ed workshop. Dr. Yang says that she and her co-author found it very helpful in the process of writing and publishing. You can watch the full recording or read a summary of the workshop here.