NCA Officers’ Statement Condemning Anti-Asian Violence
More than a year ago (March 19, 2020), in the early phases of the pandemic’s spread in the United States, the National Communication Association (NCA) published a statement “to amplify the concerns expressed by other scholarly associations, notably, the Association for Asian American Studies (AAAS) concerning the dangerous and pernicious racial/ethnic stereotyping evident in some coverage and communication about COVID-19 in the public realm.” NCA also noted in that statement that “we stand firm in rejecting anti-Asian bigotry in the guise of people expressing fear of Novel Coronavirus/COVID-19” and noted that these beliefs “are rooted in a history of Yellow Peril rhetoric, xenophobia, ableism, and anti-Asian racism.” Then, on March 24, 2020, NCA hosted an off-schedule podcast episode (Communication Matters) that featured Professor Jennifer Ho (University of Colorado), current President of AAAS, who discussed the history of anti-Asian racism and violence in the United States. In that conversation, Dr. Ho noted that she knew, given that history, that “it was only a matter of time that we would see a real spike in harassment and violence” against Asians. On April 16th, 2020 NCA co-signed a letter to members of Congress sent by The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (co-authored by the Democracy Initiative) that “denounce[d] the continued increase in racist attacks and discrimination against the Asian American community.”
During this past year, we have witnessed rampant violence, harassment, and hate directed toward Asian people. A recent report by “Stop AAPI Hate” catalogued 3,795 hate incidents in the United States against Asian Americans since March 2020. Following the murder of six Asian women, along with two other people in Atlanta, Georgia, on March 16, 2021, Immediate Past President Kent A. Ono shared his scholarly expertise with a number of media outlets. Across these conversations, Professor Ono noted the lack of media coverage of the slain women and said the victims “are constructed as if their lives don’t matter…as if they are un-deserving,” which he described as a “critical component of racism.”
NCA has endorsed statements condemning anti-Asian violence, has dedicated materials focused on promoting solidarity with Asian American communities and on combating violence targeting them, and has promoted the work of our members in such pursuits. Despite these many activities and because of the continuing, daily incidents of hateful violence against Asian American people, we feel the need to offer a statement as an Association, further condemning anti-Asian hatred and violence and reaffirming our dedication to combat it.
NCA stands with Asian American people at this most difficult time and decries in the strongest possible manner the tragic incidents of hate-filled violence occurring across the United States. Such actions, in addition to anti-Asian rhetoric, promotes fear and produces psycho-social effects on Asian American people, as well as on those outside of the community. In her appearance on our podcast nearly a year ago, Professor Ho called on each of us to reach out to Asian American friends, colleagues, and students in kindness and co-conspiratorial allyship. NCA pledges itself to combating anti-Asian rhetorics and anti-Asian violence and renewing the Association’s ongoing beliefs in ethical, free, and democratic communication. We vehemently condemn the anti-Asian violence that has recently been perpetrated across the nation and we repudiate the rhetorics that have motivated and given rise to this violence. We are committed to the pursuit of intentional, reflective, and systemic actions to mitigate and alleviate such rhetorics and such violence, both in the Association and in the larger public realm. NCA again rededicates itself fully to the values expressed in its Credo for Free and Responsible Communication in a Democratic Society and its Resolution Condemning White Supremacy in Political Discourse. We are also committed to the principle that such values must be linked to action and therefore will dedicate its expertise and resources to efforts that contribute to the pursuit of justice and the condemnation of communication that promotes this hatred, intolerance, and violence. Among the many things we are hoping to do to help as an Association are: (1) to host an NCA convention panel that discuss bystander training pedagogy; (2) to host a workshop for journalists covering stories about anti-Asian violence; (3) to host a First Vice Presidential NCA convention panel on anti-Asian violence; (4) to foreground more centrally the role of communication research in helping understand and diminish anti-Asian violence; and (5) to work closely with the Asian Pacific American Caucus and Studies Division on joint programming and in any other ways to coordinate our efforts. Furthermore, we will continue to explore responses that can put more action behind the words we have written here, and to think of other ways to stand with Asian Americans.
David McMahan, NCA President
Roseann Mandziuk, NCA 1st Vice President
Walid Afifi, NCA 2nd Vice President
Kent A. Ono, NCA Immediate Past President
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