In the wake of more senseless violence against persons of color, the RDAP Executive Board reaffirms to our members and our professional community that we pledge to stand up against racism, xenophobia, misogyny and white supremacy. We mourn the deaths of Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, and the countless other innocent lives taken because of hate crimes.

This is just the latest tragic event following a year of growing xenophobia against the AAPI community both here in the US and abroad due to false narratives around the origins of Covid-19 spreading across official and social media outlets.

This has to stop.

RDAP stands behind fact-driven science and rigorous data collected by reliable sources. While data on hate crimes are available, they are incredibly poor and incomplete. Many victims never report these types of incidents to authorities, and that is only the tip of the iceberg when it comes to issues with the data (including underreporting and misclassification).

The organization Stop AAPI Hate is working to encourage those who witness acts of hate towards the AAPI community to report it via their Website. They are working to develop stronger policies around hate crimes reporting and advocating for greater civil rights protections. RDAP has donated $250.00 to this effort. Please visit their Website to see how you too can help combat AAPI hate.