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We come together to condemn anti-Asian racism, recognizing that this week's murders in Georgia, along with persistent violence and intimidation directed at Asians and Asian Americans elsewhere, reflect legal, economic, and social exclusions, and U.S. militarism in Asia, which are older than our contemporary moment. We call for social justice, and not the reliance on policing and carceral remedies.

Because leadership matters, we demand that elected officials and others denounce representations of Asian Americans as perpetual foreigners, carriers of disease, sexualized subjects, or racial threats to national homogeneity and national security. Because education matters, we support colleagues who teach and conduct research on racism and anti-racism, especially those in Asian American Studies. And because support and solidarity matter, we stand with family, friends, students, colleagues, and community members most affected by anti-Asian racism.

The racist and misogynist violence of white supremacy has shaped our shared histories, and we know that the violence this week is connected to other violent acts perpetuated against Black, Indigenous, and Latinx communities, and women of color and LGBTQ communities, over many years. Our communities will be organizing a teach-in on racial violence, as well as future events at Yale that gather students, scholars, community members, and others within and beyond our campus. Our linked histories mean that we must work collectively.

  • Professor Sunil Amrith, Chair of the South Asian Studies Council
  • Professor Timothy Barringer, Chair of the Department of the History of Art
  • Professor Jessica Brantley, Chair of the Department of English
  • Professor Tyrone Cannon, Chair of the Department of Psychology
  • Professor Michael Cappello, Chair of the Council on African Studies
  • Dr. Mira Debs, Executive Director of the Education Studies Program
  • Professor Michael Denning, Chair of the American Studies Program
  • Professor Roderick Ferguson, Chair of the Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies Program
  • Professor Aaron Gerow, Chair of the Department of East Asian Languages and Literatures
  • Professor Jacqueline Goldsby, Chair of the African American Studies Department
  • Professor Frank Griffel, Chair of the Department of Religious Studies
  • Professor Erik Harms, Chair of the Council on Southeast Asian Studies
  • Professor Karsten Heeger, Chair of the Department of Physics
  • Professor Vivian Irish, Chair of the Department of Molecular, Cellular and Developmental Biology
  • Professor Matthew Frye Jacobson, Director of the Public Humanities Program
  • Professor Grace Kao, Chair of the Department of Sociology
  • Professor Alice Kaplan, Director of the Whitney Humanities Center
  • Professor John MacKay, Chair of Slavic Languages and Literatures
  • Professor Alan Mikhail, Chair of the Department of History
  • Professor Tavia Nyong’o, Chair of the Theater and Performance Studies Program
  • Dr. Eric Paulson, Director of the Yale Chemical and Biophysical Instrumentation Center
  • Professor Stephen Pitti, Director of the Center for the Study of Race, Indigeneity, and Transnational Migration
  • Professor Ian Quinn, Chair of the Department of Music
  • Professor Douglas Rogers, Director of the Program in Russian, East European, and Eurasian Studies
  • Professor Maurice Samuels, Director of the Yale Program for the Study of Antisemitism
  • Professor Alicia Schmidt Camacho, Chair of the Ethnicity, Race, and Migration Program
  • Professor Jing Tsu, Chair of the Council on East Asian Studies
  • Professor Anne Underhill, Chair of the Department of Anthropology
  • Professor Claudia Valeggia, Chair of the Chair of the Council on Latin American and Iberian Studies
  • Professor Kevin van Bladel, Chair of the Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations
  • Professor Jonathan Wyrtzen, Acting Chair of the Council on Middle East Studies
  • Professor Raffaella Zanuttini, Chair of the Department of Linguistics
  • Professor Harrison H. Zhou, Chair of the Department of Statistics and Data Science