An inaugural Asian American and Pacific Islander civic leadership forum working to combat rising anti-Asian hate and build community coordination will take place this Friday at San Mateo City Hall.
The Aug. 19 event will feature three keynote speakers on civic engagement and public safety and the start of a San Mateo County AAPI community leaders directory, a community-generated listing map of county nonprofit, faith, business and elected representatives. The event will help coordinate and amplify under heard community voices and provide valuable data about AAPI voters.
“We’re really trying to bring together folks from a cross-section of stakeholders so that we are reaching as many people as possible,” San Mateo Councilmember Amourence Lee said, citing the different ethnicities and history of Asian communities in America.
The genesis for the event was dealing with the aftermath of anti-Asian hate and xenophobia in San Mateo County, including attacks against the homes of Lee and Foster City Mayor Richa Awasthi, along with the recent June attack in San Francisco against Millbrae Councilmember Anders Fung.
Anti-Asian hate crimes increased more than 73% in 2020, according to statistics from the FBI, with several occurring in San Mateo County. Lee said passing resolutions alone was not a sustainable strategy for a safer community and ensuring AAPI members have parity in political voice. Instead, she said there needs to be an emphasis on the community to come together to facilitate and participate in the strategic planning and organizing process, empowering relationships, information and strategy.
“The question we are all faced with is, we are being called to meet a moment when our community members are feeling very real risk to themselves in terms of bodily harm and risk to local businesses,” Lee said.
The Aug. 19 event at 5 p.m. is put on by the San Mateo County Asian American Pacific Islander Task Force, Civic Leadership USA and the San Mateo County API Caucus. The three keynote speakers include Dr. Mindy Romero, founder of the Center for Inclusive Democracy, Christine Chen, executive director of Asian Pacific Islander American Vote, and San Mateo Police Chief Ed Barberini. Lee said Barberini would present public safety options available for communities dealing with a rise in anti-Asian hate crimes.
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“I think the presentation from Ed Barberini is going to be very important in helping us frame what some of the public safety models that we want to get behind are,” Lee said.”
Romero will focus on political behavior around race and ethnicity and seeks to explain voting patterns and political underrepresentation, while Chen’s organization mobilizes AAPI communities to vote. The event organizers are looking at quarterly events to discuss issues and build out educational programs and initiatives around issues of public safety and health, economic development and civic engagement. The initiatives would then lead to organized actions, like contracting with Asian Pacific Islander American Vote for training in San Mateo County as a follow-up action from the forum.
Lee said detailed voter data presented will be the first time the community will have direct exposure to understanding the voter representation barriers and the status of voter representation of AAPI voters in San Mateo County. Lee said there is still a lack of data available on voting demographics and there are many people in the community doing work who are unknown. San Mateo County has seen its Asian population grow from 8.5% of the population in 1980 to 30.6% in 2020, with 24% of registered voters being Asian.
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