March 30th, 2022 BAAFN Statement read at Brookline School Committee Meeting
My name is Grace Yung Watson. I’ll be speaking on behalf of the Brookline Asian American Family Network, of which I’m a Steering Committee member.
BAAFN unequivocally condemns the racists videos and anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred recently, and indeed over the years, involving Brookline students. We stand with the Black, Latinx, Jewish, LGBTQ and other marginalized communities, much as they stood with us over the past 2 years in the face of rampant anti-Asian racism and violence, including in the aftermath of the killing of 6 AAPI women in Atlanta almost exactly one year ago.
We echo the calls for accountability and restorative justice from the African American and Latino Scholars Program students, as well as many others. As a town and as a school system, we must do better. It’s not enough to condemn these hateful acts and to apologize. We need systems and structures in place that make crystal clear -- racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-immigrant and other bullying behavior is not acceptable; there will be consequences for such behavior, and such behavior will not be swept under the rug.
And we need these systems and structures in place starting in elementary school and middle school. Because the ignorance and bias begins long before the kids enter high school. In fact, over the years, we at BAAFN have repeatedly heard that the worst racism and bias happens in middle school.
Unfortunately, this racism and bias also impacts our AAPI kids as well. How could it not, given we are the largest racial minority in Brookline, and given the past two years of heightened anti-Asian racism? It may not be as well-publicized as the ones that led to the student walkout, but they do happen.
So we have a vested interest in ensuring that the Brookline schools have systems and structures in place to prevent and address these unacceptable behaviors. We also renew our call for the action items that we first made one year ago after the Atlanta shootings, such as increasing the number of teachers of color, and the inclusion of Asian American History - and the history of all marginalized peoples - in the K-12 curriculum.
Thank you.
BAAFN unequivocally condemns the racists videos and anti-Semitic incidents that have occurred recently, and indeed over the years, involving Brookline students. We stand with the Black, Latinx, Jewish, LGBTQ and other marginalized communities, much as they stood with us over the past 2 years in the face of rampant anti-Asian racism and violence, including in the aftermath of the killing of 6 AAPI women in Atlanta almost exactly one year ago.
We echo the calls for accountability and restorative justice from the African American and Latino Scholars Program students, as well as many others. As a town and as a school system, we must do better. It’s not enough to condemn these hateful acts and to apologize. We need systems and structures in place that make crystal clear -- racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic, anti-immigrant and other bullying behavior is not acceptable; there will be consequences for such behavior, and such behavior will not be swept under the rug.
And we need these systems and structures in place starting in elementary school and middle school. Because the ignorance and bias begins long before the kids enter high school. In fact, over the years, we at BAAFN have repeatedly heard that the worst racism and bias happens in middle school.
Unfortunately, this racism and bias also impacts our AAPI kids as well. How could it not, given we are the largest racial minority in Brookline, and given the past two years of heightened anti-Asian racism? It may not be as well-publicized as the ones that led to the student walkout, but they do happen.
So we have a vested interest in ensuring that the Brookline schools have systems and structures in place to prevent and address these unacceptable behaviors. We also renew our call for the action items that we first made one year ago after the Atlanta shootings, such as increasing the number of teachers of color, and the inclusion of Asian American History - and the history of all marginalized peoples - in the K-12 curriculum.
Thank you.
