Dear NYU Steinhardt Community,
Last Friday, many in the Asian community celebrated the Lunar New Year, which marks the first new moon of the lunisolar calendar. While a new year is an opportunity to celebrate new beginnings, we are saddened to learn that it has become a flashpoint for increased anti-Asian aggression and violence resulting in the death of innocent people and the elderly. We write to condemn these race-based hate crimes and express our support for those who have been unjustly impacted by discrimination.
Since the coronavirus entered the United States, people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent have been subjected to violent attacks, discrimination against their businesses, and xenophobic portrayals by the media and our elected officials linking them to the pandemic. History shows us a terrible legacy of anti-Asian hatred in America; it includes the Chinese massacre of 1871, the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act, the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, and racist, anti-immigration policies against other people of Asian and Pacific Islander descent. Accounts of recent acts of discrimination remind us that we still have a long way to go in building a united front to combat racism.
NYU Steinhardt is committed to equity, inclusion, and belonging. As deans of NYU Steinhardt, and on behalf of our community, we stand in solidarity with the Asian community. We rededicate ourselves to promoting racial equity and advancing racial healing as a critical part of our mission to advance the education, health, and well-being of people and communities around the world.
Additional resources are available from
NYU’s Office of Global Inclusion and the
NYU Asian/Pacific/American Institute.
Jack H. Knott, Dean, Gale and Ira Drukier Chair
David E. Kirkland, Vice Dean for Equity, Belonging, and Community Action