The photos above are portraits I took during a Stop Asian Hate protest and rally in downtown Washington, D.C.
In the wake of increased violent attacks on AAPI folks across the United States, I spearheaded a month-long event series in May 2021 at Foreign Policy magazine for Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month to hold space and community not only for those who identified as AAPI at FP, but also for those who sought to be better AAPI allies during a challenging time of reckoning.
I authored a letter shared across the company that was undersigned by 10 other Foreign Policy employees, including FP's editor in chief, which detailed the importance of AAPI month and provided recommended media produced by AAPI creators—including AAPI-made books, movies, artistic works, and music. I then led a company-wide brown-bag lunch via Zoom where FP employees discussed our favorite media from this letter. I was then joined by a colleague to host a panel discussion with industry experts—including then-Texas Tribune editor in chief Sewell Chan and former diplomat and current senior fellow at the Center for American Progress Glen Fukushima—to discuss global media coverage of the Asian and Pacific Islander diaspora and institutional leadership through the lens of diversity, equity and inclusion. This panel discussion was attended by the majority of FP's company, including its CEO and publisher. We then capped off the month with an outing to a local AAPI-owned eatery in Washington, D.C.
