Standing with Our Asian and Asian American Community
Open Door Legal’s ongoing commitments to justice
At Open Door Legal, we are committed to making an enduring difference in our community, and our community includes clients, partners, and staff of Asian descent. As a legal aid organization striving to create universal access to legal representation, we believe the law belongs to all of us. This means we recognize the law is unequally applied when racism is allowed to exist.
Since March 2020, the reporting center Stop AAPI Hate has tracked 3,795 incidents including hate, violence, discrimination, and harassment against Asians and Asian American Pacific Islanders. Of that number, 45% took place in California.
We grieve these injustices, like the fatal attacks of Vicha Ratanapakdee, the 84-year-old Thai American man shoved to his death in Anza Vista, and Pak Ho, the 75-year-old man from Hong Kong who was robbed and fatally assaulted in Oakland. Just as we stood with those protesting the unjust killings of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor, we also stand with those protesting the deaths of Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Xiaojie Tan, and Daoyou Feng, as well as Delaina Ashley Yaun and Paul Andre Michels, all shot in Atlanta last Tuesday.
We also grieve the ongoing experiences of discrimination and violence that threaten the lives of our own neighbors, and we loudly condemn these acts. We are grateful to stand with the thousands of people who have rallied around the nation to protect and support our Asian community members.
To all of our clients, and the entire Bayview, Excelsior, and Fillmore AAPI communities: we are here for you. Whether that is helping you navigate an issue with immigration or housing, talking through the difficulty of the past weeks, or helping you navigate resources you can use, please feel free to reach out to us.
Children will go to sleep tonight without their mothers because of the Atlanta shooting; Monthanus Ratanapakdee must move on without her father. Families will experience the deafening silence of the empty seat at their table.
We are devastated by these losses. In times like these, we will double down on our mission of eliminating preventable injustices. And we will continue to work until our vision — that the law truly does belong to us — becomes a reality.
Resources:
- Report a hate incident or read reports from Stop AAPI Hate
- Attend free training for How To Respond to Harassment for People Experiencing Anti-Asian Harassment or Bystander Intervention
- Read about Bay Area rallies condemning attacks on the Asian community
- Listen to NPR’s “The Intersection of Race, Misogyny, and the Experiences of Asian Americans”
- Watch the Congressional Hearing with Daniel Dae Kim addressing Anti-Asian Hate.
- Read the White House Memorandum Condemning Xenophobia and Intolerance against AAPI Community
