Resources for Gender Justice Advocates to Challenge Anti-Asian Hate
Compiled By: Farrah Khan and CJ Rowe
Gendered racism led to the recent murders of six East Asian American women in Atlanta, and in Canada, we have witnessed a disturbing increase in the number of hate crimes against east and southeast Asian Canadians, especially women, since the start of the pandemic. Courage to Act has created a list of resources for gender justice advocates to challenge Anti-Asian hate. We invite you to read, engage and implement action plans with the help of the resources linked here. Any liberation from gender-based violence (GBV) cannot take place without an end to white supremacy and racism including anti-Asian racism.
This is not an exhaustive list, please send us any additions or ideas. We invite gender justice advocates both in community organizations and at Canadian post-secondary institutions to read, engage and implement action plans with the help of the resources below.
To honour the labour that went into curating these resources, Courage to Act asks our community to add resources and share actions inspired by this resource guide. You can send these to anoodth@couragetoact.ca. It is vital that we actively address the intersections of anti-Asian racism and gender-based violence.
Learn More and Speak Out
One Thing We Can Do To Honour The Women Killed In Atlanta by Elene Lam, Chanelle Gallant, Vincent Wong, Chatelaine Magazine
Community Statement by Canadian organizations in the aftermath of the anti-Asian, white supremacist and misogynistic murder spree of Asian Women in Atlanta
Guidance document on Atlanta Shootings by the Asian American Journalist Association. Note: while it was created to guide newsrooms in their reporting, it’s important information to know to help understand some of the history and many complexities related to this case and can help guide our conversation.
A Year of Racist Attacks: Anti Asian Racism Across Canada One Year Into Covid-19 Pandemic report by Justin Kong, Jessica Ip, Celia Huang and Kennes Lin
Learn about Canada’s history of Anti-Asian racism that COVID-19 has amplified by Veronica Appia
The model minority myth hides the racist and sexist violence experienced by Asian women by Jiyoung Lee-An and Ziaobei Chen, The Conversation
Racial Segregation of Asian Canadians by Sarah Isabel Wallace, the Canadian Encyclopedia
The Long History of Sexual and Physical Violence Asian Women Face in the US NPR's Lulu Garcia-Navarro speaks with Yves Nguyen, an organizer with Red Canary Song, about the gender-based violence that Asian and Asian American massage workers face.
Sexual Violence in Asian and Pacific Islander Communities fact sheet created by Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence
Support and Amplify
Project 1907 is a grassroots group made up of Asian womxn. We aim to elevate Asian voices that are underrepresented and undervalued in mainstream political, social and cultural discourse, including amplifying the voices of womxn. Our work is led entirely by volunteer community organizers.
SWAN Vancouver provides culturally-specialized supports and advocacy to im/migrant women engaged in indoor sex work. They have specifically said today that they have staff on standby right now to support im/migrant women who are affected by the massacre and that information can be found here.
Butterfly Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Network: Butterfly was formed by sex workers, social workers, legal and health professionals. It provides support to, and advocates for, the rights of Asian and migrant sex workers. They have 8 calls for justice in wake of the murders in Atlanta and the rise of Asia hate. Learn more here.
Red Canary Song is the only grassroots Chinese massage parlour worker coalition in the U.S. that also organizes transnationally with Asian sex workers across the diaspora in Toronto, Paris, and Hong Kong.
Take Action
Face Race Campaign: #FaceRace, led by the Chinese Canadian National Council for Social Justice, is an open challenge to all Canadians to confront racism amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
Anti-Asian/American Harassment Bystander Intervention Training: To combat the current rise in harassment and discrimination and to also proactively prepare for the future increase of hate incidents, Advancing Justice | Chicago is partnering with New York-based nonprofit Hollaback! and CAIR-Chicago to plan and implement an aggressive scaling up of locally-led bystander hate incident intervention training for community members.
Elimin8hate Mission is threefold 1. To provide an anonymous and safe reporting environment for Canadians of Asian ancestry experiencing anti-Asian attacks. 2. To consolidate public resources in an accessible format to victims.3. To utilize reported data for actionable change.
Fight COVID-19 Racism: Anti-Asian racism is on the rise across Canada. This platform aims to allow individuals to share their experiences of racism and will allow us to track and record instances of Anti-Asian racism during COVID-19. You’ll also find resources and support that you can access. We’ll get through this together.
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Suggested Citation: Khan, Farrah., Rowe, CJ. (2021, March). Resources for Gender Justice Advocates to Challenge Anti-Asian Hate. Courage to Act. www.couragetoact.ca/blog/challenge-anti-asian-racism
Farrah Khan
Farrah Khan spent two decades working diligently to raise awareness about the connection between equity and gender-based violence through education, resource creation, and project management. She is the manager of Consent Comes First Office of Sexual Violence Support and Education at Ryerson University, is the founder of Possibility Seeds Consulting, and is a member of the Government of Canada's Federal Strategy Against Gender-based Violence Advisory Council. Farrah is the recipient of the numerous awards including the Toronto Community Foundation’s Vital People Award.
Dr. CJ Rowe
For nearly twenty years, Dr. CJ Rowe has worked with organizations, developing educational campaigns and research projects. Presently, CJ is Director of Simon Fraser University’s Sexual Violence Support & Prevention Office supporting individuals impacted by sexual violence while developing prevention and intervention educational campaigns. CJ will be leading the creation of the Education toolkit for this project.