In Solidarity with Our Asian American and Pacific Islander Communities

Dear Friends,

At Friends Select School, we raise our voice as an institution that is committed to diversity, equity, and inclusion to support members of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in our school, city, state, and across our nation. We are alarmed by and denounce anti-Asian hate, violence, and racism that are happening in our nation and local communities. America has a long history of anti-Asian hate, exclusion, and racism, which are often ignored in our classrooms and by our nation’s media. Here are just a few examples, which were provided by Peter Sun, an upper school history teacher at Friends Select:

• Immigration laws designed to keep Asians from entering the United States (e.g., 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act; 1917 Asiatic Barred Zone Act; 1924 Immigration Act).
• Laws that defined Asians as ineligible for naturalization (e.g., SCOTUS cases: 1922 Ozawa v. the United States and 1923 Thind v. the United States).
• The targeting of Asian American communities by violent mobs (e.g., 1871 Los Angeles Chinese Massacre, 1885 Rock Springs Massacre, 1930 Watsonville Riots).
• Executive Order 9066 (1942) led to the internment of 117,000 Japanese Americans.
• After the 9/11 attacks in 2001, many South Asian Americans and American Sikhs were swept up in the wave of anti-Muslim racism.
• Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, Stop AAPI Hate and Asian Americans Advancing Justice have collectively reported more than 3,000 cases of anti-Asian incidents. 

We condemn those who participate in these acts, and we seek to responsibly address incidents in our own community as we learn about them.  

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.” — Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

Sincerely,

Michael Gary
Head of School