Dear NRDC Activist,

We here at NRDC are disturbed, enraged, and heartbroken to hear about the most recent incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes. At the same time, we recognize that they are not anomalies and they fit within a troubling and escalating pattern.

NRDC stands in solidarity with the Asian community across the country and abroad. We condemn all xenophobia and hate crimes.

Our colleague Kimi Narita published a very personal blog about her own process of coming to grips with — and continuing to work through — these very disturbing incidents. We hope you'll read an excerpt from her impactful blog below.

I'm Asian, I'm Angry, and I Count
By Kimi Narita
Senor Strategic Advisor, American Cities Climate Challenge

As the violence against Asians continues to rise across America, it is crucial that our community be seen and heard — including in the environmental space.

I'm supposed to be working on a slide deck on how cities can advocate on climate change at the federal government. But I need to share a burden that I — and many others at NRDC — have been silently facing since the beginning of the pandemic. It came to a breaking point for me two nights ago: Asian and Asian American hate in our country.

Three nights ago, eight people were murdered in the Atlanta metro area at three Asian spas. Six are Asian women. A single murderer with a history of hate speech online against Asian people. When I first heard the news, I doom-scrolled for two hours and finally needed to write this out.

Kimi goes on to say:

Immediately before the murders in the Atlanta metro area, Stop AAPI Hate issued a report stating that 3,795 incidents were received by the organization between March 19, 2020, and February 28, 2021. While there has rightfully been a lot of — but still not enough — media coverage about Asian elders attacked and killed on the street (the most recent this week in Oakland), the Stop AAPI Hate report revealed that 65 percent of reported attacks were of people between the ages of 26 and 60, and 68 percent were female.

But these are just the reported attacks. And we know that most violence goes unreported, especially when it intersects with immigration, leading to an invisibility of the true scope and scale of the attacks against Asians and Asian Americans. This invisibility is nothing new for us. In data collection, we are lumped together as a monolith that erases the disproportionate impacts on communities like Pacific Islanders, Vietnamese, and Filipino communities.

Kimi concludes:

We are all dealing with a lot right now and remember: Elevating the issues facing one community should never be interpreted as minimizing the plight of others. We rise together.

To my Asian and Asian American sisters and brothers, I see you, and I give you big virtual hugs. We are expected to be resilient because society expects us to minimize our pain. That needs to end. It is okay to be unapologetically angry and hurt and still be driven to work on climate change every single day.

To our allies, please educate yourselves, amplify Asian and Asian American voices, and check in on your Asian and Asian American colleagues. Don't expect responses, but it feels good to be thought of.

I'm still angry and sad and hurt. And I got that slide deck done.