The Greater Austin Asian Chamber of Commerce offices will be CLOSED December 24th-January 3rd in observance of the holidays. The Chamber will reopen on Monday, January 6th.
HAPPY NEW YEAR! 
 
 
 
 
 

STOP ASIAN HATE

If you are Asian or of Asian descent and live in Central Texas, complete our 5-minute survey and enter our contest to win fantastic prizes like event tickets, stays, meals, or a new Apple iPad Pro. We’re adding new prizes to the contest all the time!

Prize winners will be drawn and notified on Monday, March 31, 2025.

Your survey responses will help us complete the next phase of the Central Texas Asian Impact Project, an initiative exploring the demographic and economic impact of our dynamic and talented Central Texas AAPI communities.

SPREAD AAPI LOVE

Spread AAPI Love is a project of Stop AAPI Hate that amplifies the voices and perspectives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders through everyday stories of resilience, celebration, solidarity, and resistance from people across our communities.

After four years of headlines and stories emphasizing the racism and discrimination against AAPI communities, there is a need to center more uplifting narratives about who Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are and the power we have to create change. In fact, new research from NORC and Stop AAPI Hate suggests that when it comes to taking action against racism and discrimination, AAPIs are more motivated by positive aspirations, actions, and feelings than they are by experiences with hate.


We want to show the world that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are more than simply victims of hate. By refocusing the spotlight on the strength, power, and cultural pride of our communities, we hope to remind people that in order to stop AAPI hate, we need to spread AAPI love.

Spread AAPI Love is in part generously underwritten by AAPI advocate and GAACC Board of Directors member Clifford K. Chiu.

Act with love!

Watch our video, “Act with love”. The video is part of GAACC’s  Stop Anti Asian Hate campaign to support Asian Businesses impacted by anti-Asian hate sentiments in the Austin community. The video was soft-launched at our Ovation gala in 2021.

STOP AAPI HATE

If you are a victim or a witness of a hate crime, please report your incident at austintexas.gov/page/report-covid-19-racism (by City of Austin); and/or at https://stopaapihate.org (by the Asian Pacific Planning and Policy Council (A3PCON), Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA), and the Asian American Studies Department of San Francisco State University).

Read their current reports here; Texas incidents report here.

The COVID-19 pandemic is causing much disruption, fear, and stress. This has led to racial profiling towards the Asian Pacific American (APA) community. To help folks deal with this, we hosted a webinar on how to deal with racist incidents, click below for the recording:

GAACC strongly denounces the use of the words China or Chinese virus to refer to the coronavirus and COVID-19 illness as it contributes to the patently wrong perception that APAs are to blame. APAs have experienced racist acts and attacks related to this viewpoint. The Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) along with the Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) non profits have created a site for reporting coronavirus-related incidents. In the first week that the site was up, 650 incidents were reported.

GAACC is working with partner APA organizations, the Hate Crime Commission and the Anti-Defamation League to do everything we can to minimize such incidents. This includes education, outreach, and monitoring local incidents. Click here to read Austin Statesman March 20 editorial which we helped with.

If you experience any micro-aggressions, racial profiling, or any sort of attacks verbal – whether it’s a dirty look, a racial slur or something worse – some tips are provided below:

  1. Dial 911 if you are in any danger
  2. If there are people around you, approach ONE person to help (people are more likely to respond individually, rather than as a group). You can say “This person is being rude and I am feeling threatened. Can you walk me to my car?”
  3. If you are witnessing an incident and there is no danger, approach the victim and move away together. If you can video the incident safely, then more action can be taken, either reporting to the police, or calling it out on social media
  4. Please report incidents to A3PCON, click here

 

Some other resources provided by GAACC members are:

  • GAACC member Fowler Law Firm has also offered a no-charge consultation if you’ve been a target, call 512.441.1411.
  • Act To Change has multilingual resources on how to deal with bullying.
  • If these events are rising up your own trauma, the trauma of your peers, the Asian Family of Service of Austin is here to help 24/7 through hotline 1-877-281-8371.
  • Integral Care offers free mental health support on their 24/7 Helpline at 512-472-4357 in multiple languages including Chinese (Cantonese and Mandarin), Japanese, Vietnamese, Cambodian, Korean, Tagalog, and Thai. There are prompts for each of these languages.