Community Climate and Care Committee Statement on Anti-Asian Violence

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The Community Climate and Care Committee at the UT Austin School of Nursing unequivocally denounces the hateful and shameful killings of 8 individuals on March 16, 2021, in the greater Atlanta area, 6 of whom were Asian/Asian-American/Pacific-Islander (AAPI) women. We also condemn the long history of anti-Asian racism, misogyny, and white supremacy in the United States that allows such atrocious, hateful, racist, gender-based, and dehumanizing crimes to continue. As nurses, we are called to integrate the principles of social justice (PDF) into all we do. Motivated by this imperative, we want to let all in our community who identify as AAPI know that we stand with you in solidarity and support. The increase in anti-Asian sentiment during the pandemic is unacceptable, inhumane, and in direct conflict with our professional values and basic human decency. As nurses, we must leverage our position as trusted members of society to speak out against actions and attitudes that endanger the lives and dignity of members of the BIPOC community. In particular, we want to advocate for those with intersectional identities for whom the risk for being victims of hate crimes is compounded. We must not be silent or make excuses for those who perpetrate such hateful acts. Complicity enables hateful acts and fails to acknowledge the hurt, fear, and danger that our BIPOC communities continue to face.

The Community Climate and Care Committee encourage each member of the UT Austin School of Nursing community to join us in supporting our AAPI community during this difficult time. We must all engage in the difficult but necessary task of personal self-growth in order to understand and confront the problem. We must never take our eyes off of the challenge that remains before us in dismantling attitudes and systems that perpetuate hate and uphold inequities.