The article originally appeared on SEARAC.

Dear SEARAC community members,

Over these last few weeks, SEARAC has joined Asian Americans across the country in grief and in alarm over the ongoing anti-Asian violence recently culminating in a nationwide series of separate attacks on our elders. Our hearts go out to the victims of these horrific acts and their families.

This surge in anti-Asian hate against our communities has hit close to home, directly impacting our SEARAC family. Our Board Vice Chair, Kathy Duong, recently shared her mother’s traumatic experience as one such victim. In describing the support needed for her mother to heal from this incident, Kathy urges, “What my mother needs to heal is a sense of community. Our elders simply have the right to not be afraid living their daily lives: knowing they can go to the grocery store or the bank and not have to plan on whether they are making themselves someone’s target.”

SEARAC has devoted deep reflection toward the path we must take to support our elders. We’ve given much thought about our commitment to advocate for policies that dismantle hate, unify our communities, and allow our elders to age with dignity. And we’ve taken guidance from SEARAC’s core values: that the voices of all ages, genders, and sexual orientations matter; that those most impacted by the issues should be the faces and voices leading our work; and that love and community must be centered in the cultivation of healing.

We join our partners in demanding immediate and long-term investment into our SEAA and Asian American communities across all sectors; and into culturally sensitive, linguistically accessible, community-centered interventions that will actually keep our people safe. Simultaneously, we resist the calls for more aggressive policing and enforcement, which have only created more harm and a culture of distrust for communities of color.

Ultimately, we know there is no easy or short-term solution to the hard work of rebuilding community, security, and trust.

But only together, in cross-racial solidarity, can we heal and build communities where there is no place for hate.

In community,

Quyen Dinh
Executive Director, SEARAC

The opinions expressed in this article are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect those of the Diverse Elders Coalition.