March 18, 2021
Dear Pullman Coug Family,
Like so many across the country, we are grieving with the Asian American
and Asian immigrant communities; we grieve for the victims of the horrific
mass shooting in Atlanta that took eight lives, six of whom were identified
as women of Asian descent.
While we grieve, we must also view these recent murders as part of a
pattern of gendered and racialized violence against Asian Americans and
Asian immigrants since our nation’s founding. Attempts to excuse
these acts of violence for any reason obscures the long history of
anti-Asian sentiment and hate crimes, institutionalized racism, misogyny,
and homophobia.
As a community, we must stop relying on the words “hate and bigotry
have no place in our community” and “this isn’t who we are.”
While those are admirable aspirations, we have not reached those ideals.
We cannot begin to heal our common humanity, which is in such desperate
need of repair, until we acknowledge the full spectrum of our history and
consider how we, individually and collectively, participate in reifying the
very system we seek to change.
We ask that you join us in taking time to pause in this moment, reflect,
and consider what we have shared with you. It takes all of us to move
toward the much-needed change in the world.
With thanks to our Vancouver Bias Response team, here is a
resource guide on anti-Asian and Pacific Islander violence. Please feel
free to share with others.
Sincerely,
Elizabeth Chilton
Provost and Executive Vice President
Mary Jo Gonzales
Vice President, Division of Student Affairs
Lisa Guerrero
Associate Vice Provost for Inclusive Excellence and
Professor of Comparative Ethnic Studies
Jaime Nolan
Associate Vice President for Community, Equity, and Inclusive Excellence
