The violent attacks last week in Atlanta, as well as the rising anti-Asian violence in Canada and the US during the COVID-19 pandemic, call on us to reaffirm our commitment to confronting the deeply rooted racisms and sexisms that affect Asian, Black, immigrant and Indigenous people. Everyone connected to the Asian Institute has personal and academic ties to people affected by violence across Asia and North America.

As an institution, we reaffirm our transnational commitments to anti-racism, gender equity, and non-violence. We condemn and denounce the continued violence that marginalizes people through intersecting forms of race, class, gender, and international injustice.  As a public sector institution, we are obligated to the public good of equitable and diverse education. As a public place of engagement and learning, we embrace our duty to cultivate and share knowledge that transforms systems of oppression. Our responsibility is to support students and produce knowledge aimed at improving our campus, our workplaces, and our diverse ties to Asia.

This is not the first time in history that geopolitical tensions have coincided with economic crises to heighten inter-group scapegoating. However, the rise in anti-Asian and gender-based violence worldwide requires us to more deeply center diversity, equity and inclusion in all of our efforts, to reaffirm our public educational roles, and to root our work in priorities of care and equity.

Read our resources guide on responding to Anti-Asian racism.

Read our joint statement with the Munk School.

If you think there is more the Asian Institute can do, do be in touch at ai.coordinator@utoronto.ca.

Asian Institute Faculty, Lecturers, Staff and Students