APALA

  • About
    • About
    • National Executive Board
    • National Staff
    • Opportunities
    • Our Work >
      • Young Leaders Council
    • Contact us
  • Convention
    • 2025 Convention
    • 2023 Convention
  • Join APALA
  • Take Action
    • Subscribe to Newsletter
    • Donate
    • Labor Toolkit on Anti-Asian Racism
  • Media
    • Publications
    • Press Releases
    • AAPI Worker Stories
    • APALA in the News
  • APALA Archives
  • Shop
  • About
    • About
    • National Executive Board
    • National Staff
    • Opportunities
    • Our Work >
      • Young Leaders Council
    • Contact us
  • Convention
    • 2025 Convention
    • 2023 Convention
  • Join APALA
  • Take Action
    • Subscribe to Newsletter
    • Donate
    • Labor Toolkit on Anti-Asian Racism
  • Media
    • Publications
    • Press Releases
    • AAPI Worker Stories
    • APALA in the News
  • APALA Archives
  • Shop

Press Releases

#15YearsLater, We Continue to Rise for Freedom 

9/15/2016

 
​Washington, DC – This past Sunday, we marked fifteen years since 9/11 – a particular date of hurt and tragedy in our shared history that has also challenged the fabric of our country and what it means to be American.
 
Kinfolk from Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and Sikh American communities have been particularly affected facing unprecedented incidents of hate, racism, and bigotry as backlash from 9/11. In the past few months, we have witnessed arson at an Islamic Center in Florida, two gunned down in Queens, another stabbed to death also in Queens, a woman wearing a religious garb set on fire in New York, the murder of a man on his way to morning prayer, and many others whose stories go unnoticed by mainstream media and the larger national conversation.
 
“Even after 15 years later, we have seen too many hate crimes against our communities. It saddens and angers us to know that my friends and family can’t feel safe at home, work and in their communities,” stated Maf Misbah Uddin, APALA National Executive Board Member and Founder and President of the Alliance of South Asian American Labor (ASAAL). “We have so much more work to do to overcome this entrenched hate and racism within our society.”
 
“From the Chinese Exclusion Act to the Japanese American internment to the Southeast Asian deportation crisis, our communities have endured the impact of profiling, criminalization and scrutiny,” stated APALA Executive Director Gregory Cendana highlighting the shared struggle. “Moving forward, we need to train and uplift more leaders at all levels of government, in our community, and in our schools who will stand up against all forms of xenophobia, racism and anti-Muslim hate.”
 
National President Johanna Hester added: “An individual’s experience in this country shouldn’t be based on one’s proximity to blackness or whiteness. APALA continues to rise for freedom -- freedom from surveillance, profiling, hate crimes on brown and black lives. The conflation of what it means to be American with anti-Muslim hate and Islamophobia must come to an end, and that includes reforming government policies that both exacerbate a climate of fear and encourage the mass criminalization of our bodies.”
 
APALA continues to partner with ASAAL, Muslim Advocates, South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT), and the National Queer Asian Pacific Islander Alliance (NQAPIA) to put an end to hate crimes and violence against Muslim, Arab, South Asian, and Sikh American communities. Below please find some helpful resources and recent actions in our shared struggle for freedom:
 
  • Track hate crimes with these resources from Muslim Advocates, SAALT, and Huffington Post.
  • Read more reflections on the 15th anniversary in Colorlines, Medium, and Huffington Post.
  • Read about NQAPIA’s joint action in Washington, DC this past weekend against legalized profiling.
  • Make a commitment to stand on the side of freedom by taking APALA’s #NotYourModelMinority Pledge. 
###

Comments are closed.

    For Immediate Release

    Contact:
    info[at]apala.org

    For full list of all press releases and statements, please click here.

    ​

    Archives

    May 2024
    November 2023
    August 2023
    June 2023
    April 2023
    March 2023
    February 2023
    January 2023
    December 2022
    November 2022
    September 2022
    August 2022
    June 2022
    May 2022
    April 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020
    April 2020
    March 2020
    February 2020
    January 2020
    November 2019
    August 2019
    July 2019
    June 2019
    April 2019
    March 2019
    February 2019
    January 2019
    December 2018
    November 2018
    October 2018
    September 2018
    August 2018
    June 2018
    May 2018
    March 2018
    January 2018
    December 2017
    November 2017
    October 2017
    September 2017
    August 2017
    July 2017
    June 2017
    May 2017
    April 2017
    March 2017
    February 2017
    January 2017
    December 2016
    November 2016
    October 2016
    September 2016
    August 2016
    July 2016
    June 2016
    May 2016
    April 2016
    March 2016
    February 2016
    January 2016
    December 2015
    November 2015
    October 2015
    September 2015
    August 2015
    May 2015
    April 2015
    January 2015
    November 2014
    October 2014
    August 2014
    July 2014
    June 2014
    April 2014
    February 2014
    January 2014
    December 2013
    April 2013
    May 2012
    April 2012
    March 2012
    February 2012
    January 2012
    April 2011
    February 2011
    August 2007

    Categories

    All
    2016 Election
    AAPI Behind Bars
    AAPIs Beyond Bars
    #AAPIsResist
    Affirmative Action
    APAHM
    #BlackLivesMatter
    Black Lives Matter
    Civic Engagement
    Convention
    Corporate Accountability
    Criminal Justice Reform
    DACA
    DOL
    DREAMERs
    Economic Justice
    Education
    End Islamophobia
    Endorsements
    Every Vote Counts
    Gender Justice
    Gun Control
    Gun Violence
    Hate Crime
    Healthcare
    Health & Safety
    Immigration
    International Solidarity
    Leadership
    LGBTQ
    Living Wage
    Mass Criminalization
    Mass Incarceration
    National Executive Board
    NHPI
    Not Your Model Minority
    Police Brutality
    POTUS
    Racial Justice
    Reproductive Justice
    #ResistTrump
    Right To Organize
    SCOTUS
    TPP
    Trade Justice
    Unemployment
    Voter Education And Mobilization
    Women's Rights
    Workers' Rights
    Young Leaders Council

    RSS Feed

Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance
815 16th St. NW, 2nd Floor
Washington, DC 20006
202-800-5811 | [email protected]

​Contact Us
Founded in 1992, the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA), AFL-CIO, is the first and only national organization of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers, most of whom are union members and our allies, building power for AAPI workers and communities.
Quick Navigation
About | Our Work | Chapters | Take Action | Media & Resources 
| Shop | Privacy Policy