By now, you have likely heard of yet another tragic mass shooting in Atlanta that has left eight people dead. Our hearts go out to the victims’ families and all those who loved them, and we ask that you remember them in accordance with your personal beliefs.

This tragedy in Atlanta is currently under investigation as a hate crime. Of the victims, six were Korean-American women. It is believed the perpetrator of all these murders is under arrest, and has been identified as a 21-year-old White male. Sadly, while hate crimes and xenophobia are realities that the AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) communities have had to endure throughout our nation’s history, there has been an alarming increase in these trends in recent years, especially during the pandemic.

Members of AAPI communities across our nation, and Washington state have good reasons to be afraid for their safety, and at Children’s Home Society of Washington, we must stand in solidarity with victims of White supremacy, xenophobia, and hate. We must remain vigilant to the many ways that anti-Asian prejudice and bias affect us and continue working as an organization to identify effective and actionable ways to address this and all forms of prejudice, stigmatization, and racism. Stop AAPI Hate recently released a national report measuring anti-Asian hate incidents from March 2020 to Feb 2021. In the report, AAPI have tracked 3,795 hate incident reports from APIs in all 50 states and Washington, D.C.

At Children’s Home Society of Washington, our mission is to nurture and create healthy environments where children and families are able to thrive. Racism and White supremacy are a real and ever-present public health danger to the Black, Indigenous and People of Color (BIPOC) employees and families we serve, and we must join with others so that all BIPOC children and families can thrive in our nation.

If you would like to learn more about how to combat hate against the AAPI community, I encourage you to visit Stop the Hate. Also, Asian American businesses are especially hurting as a result of false information regarding COVID-19, and we can support them and other BIPOC businesses by giving them our patronage. You can visit https://intentionalist.com/ to locate BIPOC businesses in your neighborhood.

We believe that diversity is our nation’s greatest strength, and I know that with your help, we can use tragedies like this one to ensure that BIPOC families and communities can live without fear wherever they call home.