GEO is in Solidarity with the AAPI Community
The Graduate Employees’ Organization at the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign, IFT/AFT Local 6300, is in solidarity with Asian American and Pacific Islander peoples in the United States and the #StopAsianHate and #StopAAPIHate movement on the rise. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, xenophobia, anti-Asian racism and targeted racial violence have reached alarming heights, exacerbated by hateful rhetoric poured out by the former administration. On the evening of March 16th, a 21-year-old white man shot and killed eight people in Atlanta, six of whom were Asian women. This took place after a series of attacks on elderly and working class Asian immigrants and Asian Americans across the country, and in the context of the U.S.’s long history of targeted exclusion and hostility towards Asian Americans and immigrants. These are racially motivated, hateful attacks which are also inseparable from widespread misogyny and violence against women. As a union committed to social justice, we recognize it is our responsibility to recognize white supremacy and patriarchy when we encounter them, and actively engage in the larger fight to dismantle the systemic structures which support and reproduce them.
The GEO is in unwavering solidarity with all of our Asian and AAPI members, whose contributions are invaluable to our union and everything it does to achieve better working conditions for graduate employees. We are also in solidarity with organizations doing crucial work to advocate for the safety, rights, and working conditions of Asian women and AAPI peoples, such as the National Asian and Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF), Koreatown Immigrant Workers Alliance (KIWA) in Los Angeles, and Red Canary Song. We understand that there is a pervasive, violent stigma that labels Asian Americans as “model minorities,” which fosters an ideology that they do not encounter racial violence and discrimination because of their proximate and stereotypical relationship to whiteness. This is false and dangerous. It is long past due that we acknowledge the threat posed to public safety by white domestic terrorism, and refute the constant excuses white mass-shooters are afforded when they commit such violent acts against marginalized communities.
So too are we in solidarity with sex workers. As laborers, sex workers deserve protections in accordance with their needs and on their own terms. Whether the women killed in Tuesday’s attack actually were sex workers or not, we recognize that anti-immigrant, anti-Asian, and whorephobic sentiments produce racialized, misogynistic violence against Asian women. We condemn these violences and the systems that perpetuate them as well.
The GEO encourages everyone to donate to the organizations mentioned above and learn how to support them. You can do so by using the following links:
The Graduate Employees’ Organization, AFT/IFT Local 6300, AFL-CIO, at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, represents approximately 2,700 Teaching and Graduate Assistants on the UIUC Campus. In November 2009 and in February 2018, over 1,000 GEO members and allies participated in a strike to secure a fair contract and more accessible UIUC campus. With an active presence in the community, the GEO continues to work for high-quality and accessible public education in Illinois.
For more information, please contact geo@uigeo.org. More information can also be found on GEO’s website at www.uiucgeo.org.
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