Veatch Grantees: Unified Against Anti-Asian Hate

We've all witnessed the terrible pattern of hatred and violence directed towards members of the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. Many of these victims, including most recently and prominently in Atlanta, have been female-identified women. Discrimination and violence against the AAPI community is not new. It is, unfortunately, part of our country's longstanding history of white supremacy culture and racial injustice. 

Veatch grantees across the country are fighting against this violence — and the dangerous and hateful anti-Asian discourse perpetuated by some of our elected leaders — that has helped fuel its rise. John Park, Executive Director of Veatch grantee MinKwon Center for Community Action, told us that the APPI community is living in "a cloud of fear," particularly for their elderly family members. The group is actively working to combat this environment through visibility by speaking out in the media, panels and other events. (They are also planning a vigil to honor the victims of anti-APPI violence on April 11, something we'll keep you abreast of as we learn more details.) 

But like many Veatch grantees, the Minkwon Center is proactively working to combat racial injustice in all its forms — and all year long. For instance, the group is organizing a week-long series of actions to demand Senate Majority Leader Schumer include a path to citizenship for 11 million undocumented residents. (Events are occurring all week long, be sure to visit the group's Facebook page to learn more.) 

Veatch grantees across the country are taking a stand against anti-AAPI violence as well. Two Veatch grantees, the Ella Baker Center for Human Rights and the Asian Pacific Environmental Network, have joined forces on a mutual aid campaign — to help increase services and support for merchants in Oakland's Chinatown. (Read more about that effort here.) 

Black and Asian-led Veatch grantees such as these are also working to push back on a dangerous narrative emerging from the recent increase in violence — that seeks to characterize the troubling trend as a symptom of tensions between these two communities. In joint rallies, op-eds, virtual events and more, Black and Asian-led Veatch grantees are teaming up in powerful shows of solidarity — in cities across the country. As Zach Norris wrote in a recent article for Daily Kos, the media often places communities of color in "musical chairs of oppression... a group that finds its chair today may lose it tomorrow, and all the while the tune of racism plays on."

Below, please see a recent video from MinKwon Center's 2020 gala, discussing more of its work. And through the rest of this update, read more about how Veatch grantees are putting the Congregation’s values and mission into practice every day, toward building a future that is free of the systems of oppression that support racial injustice in all its forms. 

Earlier this month, Georgia Governor Brian Kemp signed into law one of the most sweeping pieces of legislation aimed at restricting voting access in the country. It introduces more rigid voter identification requirements for absentee balloting, limits drop boxes, and expands the Republican-controlled State Legislature’s power over elections. The trend to enact voter restrictions — that disproportionately harm Black and Brown communities — is national. A similar bill was recently passed in Iowa, and efforts in Arizona, Florida and Texas are also gaining steam. 

Veatch grantees are fighting back in Georgia and across the country. LaTosha Brown, founder of Veatch Grantee Black Voters Matter —  a power-building Southern-based civic engagement organization — has been using her growing platform to help draw attention to the need to protect, and expand, voting rights for Black and Brown communities in the United States. (We welcomed LaTosha to Shelter Rock for Veatch Weekend 2020.) 

In recent weeks, LaTosha has been spotlighting the need for voting protections across the state of Georgia, where record voter turnout among Black voters in 2020 — thanks to the work of many Veatch grantees, including Black Voters Matter, Georgia Stand Up, and Southerners on New Ground — transformed the power structure in the state for the first time in a generation, and changed the balance of power in our country.

Along with New Georgia Project, known for its visionary founder, Stacey Abrams — who very likely would be Georgia's current Governor were it not for voter suppression tactics in the state — and the Georgia NAACP, Black Voters Matter is fighting back with an innovative campaign targeting the business community — enlisting their support to help in this fight. “Georgia is backsliding toward a twisted electoral system built on suppressing and manipulating Black votes,”  LaTosha Brown asserted in a recent statement. “This is not only blatant voter suppression; it’s an act of retribution against Black voting power.” 

Among the campaign’s initial plans are: statewide advertisements, phone banking campaigns, and community actions at Georgia-based businesses to encourage the state’s elected leaders to back away from these discriminatory pieces of legislation. 

Veatch grantees working on the national level are pushing for reform as well. Grantees such as Center for Popular Democracy recently helped passed HR1 — a landmark voting rights bill that, if passed, will expand voting access in states across the country and reduce the influence of money in our elections. If enacted, the law would be the most significant expansion of voting rights since the 1960s. To be sure, the legislation faces an uphill climb in the Senate — where 60 votes are currently needed to pass the companion bill. But we are just as sure, with Veatch grantees leading the way, that enhanced protections are coming. It's only a matter of time.  

Veatch grantee United We Dream — the largest immigrant and youth-led organizing group in the country — has been fighting for years to pass comprehensive immigration reform. Recently, the group achieved a major victory with the passage of two important pieces of legislation: the American Dream and Promise Act and the Farm Workforce Modernization Act, which would provide a pathway to citizenship for undocumented people brought to the country as children, and workers in the agriculture sector.

In an email update, the group shared, "Our people power did that!! Our immigrant communities deserve — and expect — Congress to provide a pathway to citizenship - without delay. The House has already taken action. Now, it's time for the Senate to act. Which means the work isn’t over yet!"

The group is encouraging supporters to take action by sending a letter to your Senator and demand they vote yes on these two bills — along with a third, the Secure Act, which would allow Temporary Protected Status recipients to apply for permanent residency. 

You can join the letter writing campaign by finding a draft letter here.

This week, the Center for Disease Control announced an extension of its federal eviction moratorium through June of this year. Veatch grantee United for a New Economy — a Colorado-based group organizing in low-income communities — is fighting to not only extend this moratorium — but expand its purview to include rent and mortgage forgiveness.

The temporary moratorium on evictions extends vital protections to tens of millions of renters at risk of eviction for nonpayment of rent during the global pandemic — and represents an essential relief for struggling renters. Still, the policy merely postpones evictions. It doesn’t prevent them. When the moratorium expires, back rent will still be due, and many renters will be unable to pay.

United for a New Economy is working to change that. As they shared in a recent update,"We need to speak up and continue to advocate for a new change... We need action. Majority Leader Senator Schumer, Speaker Nancy Pelosi, and the Biden Administration MUST take immediate action by enacting a universal eviction moratorium and rent and mortgage forgiveness immediately!"

You can get involved by signing your name to the petition. 

Two members of Veatch grantee Working Partnerships USA — grassroots groups based in Silicon Valley working to enact progressive change — were recently featured in the New York Times on an article about the group's work to combat disinformation about the Covid-19 vaccine. 

The two members, Daniel and Armando, are part of the group's Community Assistance with Resources, Education, and Support team, which was developed to address urgent community needs during the COVID-19 pandemic. This team of 60 community health workers has been conducting outreach for months to get accurate information about the vaccine to communities most impacted by the pandemic. When possible, team members schedule vaccination appointments for eligible individuals on the spot.

As the group shared in a recent update, "communities of color are home to so many of the people doing essential jobs that put them at higher risk, and have been hit the hardest by the pandemic. Latinx residents are a quarter of the County’s population but over half its COVID-19 cases. These same communities face steep barriers to getting vaccinated — from misinformation or lack of information, to lack of internet, to working a job where it’s hard to get time off for a vaccine appointment."

Read the full article here.