Summary: Joint Statement Condemning Anti-Asian Violence
March 2021
The MLA Executive Council joined with fellow American Council of Learned Societies (ACLS) members in a statement condemning anti-Asian violence. This statement follows the violent acts against Asians and Asian Americans in Georgia on 16 March 2021.
- The horrific events in Georgia and increased acts of violence linked to the COVID-19 pandemic over this past year are reminders of the deep prejudices affecting Asians and Asian Americans in this country.
- The humanities and social sciences provide essential learning needed to unlock understanding of our historical pasts, good and bad, and help us all cultivate knowledgeable empathy in the present and the future.
- The work of the ACLS is firmly grounded in the values of inclusivity and anti-racism.
- We encourage educators, lawmakers, and community leaders to take this moment to listen closely to Asians and Asian Americans and work with them in stemming this latest scourge of prejudice and violence. The ACLS has launched a new scholarly resource page focused on histories of anti-Asian bias, as well as on the movements that have stood against it. This new page appears as part of the “Race and Society” resource page first published in summer 2020.
- We commit to learning more and we encourage you to learn more about ways to support efforts to counter anti-Asian violence and hate with these and other resources:
- Our thoughts are with the families and communities of the victims, some of whom belong to our ACLS family, which includes many scholars and students of Asian history and life. We recognize the burden carried by the victims and their loved ones, who must process these hateful events personally while being asked to operate normally on other fronts.