The Department of African American Studies at Penn State University is committed to racial justice for all people. We know that AAPI (Asian American and Pacific Islander) communities in the U.S. have faced a long history of legal, social, and racial exclusion that extends back two centuries. The pandemic has reignited anti-Asian racism and gendered and sexualized racial violence that are older than our contemporary moment. 

We invoke and remember the lives lost this past week in Georgia, just as we remember Vincent Chin, taken almost 40 years ago.* We stand in solidarity with Asian and Asian American students, staff, and faculty in our community who are facing racial threats and violent hate incidents, both physical and verbal.

African American studies is a field that formed as an intellectual center and as a refuge not only for African American students, faculty, and staff but for everyone seeking a just and liberated world. We offer our solidarity with Asian and Asian American students, faculty, and staff because we know that freedom and justice are indivisible and that our collective futures are inextricably intertwined.

*At the time of this writing we know the names of some of the victims from Atlanta, GA, including Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng.

(Responses or inquiries should be directed to the Acting Head at afam@psu.edu).