Center for Disability Rights (CDR) condemns the violent murder and what we believe is a hate crime of six Asian women in Atlanta. We also join many people around the world who condemn mass shootings and the taking of all lives. Those murders were not the start of anti-Asian violence in a country founded on white supremacy.  From the earliest Asian immigration to the internment camps of World War II, and through every era of United States history, Asian American and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have had to endure systemic racist violence.

Over the last year with our past president who was more than willing to scapegoat the AAPI community for his own failures in addressing the pandemic and in a country already predisposed to racism and xenophobia, we have seen a surge in anti-Asian hate crime. The rise in the hate was also ignored and not addressed by many with authority to create change, which created an open space to continue the harm and killing of the AAPI community.

Center for Disability Rights recognizes and supports those with disabilities who are part of the AAPI community. We center and engage in the intersectionality of race and disability in our work to end racism and systems of oppression. CDR works for national, state, and local systemic change to advance the rights of people with disabilities by supporting direct action, coalition building, community organizing, policy analysis, litigation, training for advocates, and community education. CDR advocates for the full integration, independence, and civil rights of people with disabilities.  We work closely and are active members of the Leadership Conference on Civil and Human Rights Hate Crimes Task Force where we work to create policy and implement hate crimes laws at a federal level.

CDR condemns this violence and all of the systems, organizations and individuals that have allowed such racism and violence to thrive and not held people accountable for their actions. We are in solidarity with all of the AAPI members of our community and our nation. White supremacy is a threat to all of us and we will not stop our work to dismantle this horrific system, for it must be stopped wherever it exists.

*NOTE: We do not use the term “stand in solidarity” because it is ableist – not all can stand and so we are “with” or we are “in” solidarity with all who are working to end racism and systems of oppression.

For more information on this work go to these websites and support these organizations:

• Asian Americans Advancing Justice and Advancing Justice Atlanta
• Stop AAPI Hate
• Asian Mental Health Collective
• National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum
• Red Canary Song
• Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality

For information on CDR’s work on ending Hate Crimes contact Dara Baldwin, Director of National Policy – dara.baldwin@ncdr.us