Foundation for Louisiana Celebrates AAPI Heritage Month

This Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Heritage Month comes after far too many incidents of national events of anti-Asian rhetoric and hate. Foundation for Louisiana stands with our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities as the historic and ongoing violence against AAPI communities is especially highlighted in recent times. We are committed to courage, perseverance, and support of frontline communities to build a more just Louisiana—creating systems that set us all free, and dismantling those that oppress our freedoms.

An intersectional approach is key to building the future we envision. As a Black-led organization, we cannot end violence against Black people without also acknowledging that systems of racially fueled violence also dehumanize and invisibilize women, workers, poor people, and immigrants to perpetuate violence using the same tools. Liberation for the longest harmed of us cannot be achieved until we dismantle every manner in which white supremacy targets our communities. 

Combating white supremacy and misogyny is our collective duty. For generations, AAPI people have added to the diverse cultural richness of Louisiana - including those in the first Filipino settlement of St Malo in St Bernard, Vietnamese Catholics in the “village called Versailles” in New Orleans east, and numerous other communities of Pacific Islander and Southeast, East, and South Asian descent within our state. We must reckon with the ongoing violence toward AAPI communities and commit to building new conditions as we move forward. 

To most fully recognize and uplift AAPI Heritage Month we must center the needs of Asian American women, elders, disabled folks, trans folks, and sex workers in our communities. As a philanthropic community foundation, we will continue to take action within the understanding of our interrelated struggles; we commit to uplift our partners who are integral to this work and this struggle.