By Lindsay Johnson
Founder & CEO of FitPros
We are deeply saddened by the acts of violence against Asian-Americans and stand in solidarity with the AAPI community.
In honor of Asian American History Month in May FitPros will be hosting donation-based fitness classes led by our Asian instructors the first three weeks of the month and the final week we will offer a virtual discussion on the topic of racism and mental health. All donations will be distributed to organizations noted later in this blog. We will social post and email registration link in early April. We hope that you will join us!
Since this incident my mind has been spinning with confusion. I’m confused as to why do we, as a society, wait to make noise about injustices until something as tragic as the Georgia spa shootings? I’m confused as to why some people are filled with so much evil and hatred? I’m confused as to what I can do to truly make a difference?
Sure, I could post on my personal social media as well as my company’s about how we do not tolerate racism and plead that people stop being evil to one another. But, I realized that everyone in my inner circle and hopefully my company’s social network is not the ones that need to hear this message, they will agree, and likely spin with the same confusions. How does this message get to the racists, the narcissist, the morons that coined “The China Virus” and the “Kung Flu”?
So, what can we do to make an impact to stop injustice and violence?
Recently, I read that President Biden called on lawmakers to pass anti-racism legislation and directed the Department of Justice and the Department of Health and Human Services to help lead our nation’s efforts to stop anti-Asian bias, xenophobia, and harassment. He also emphasized that Americans must “change our hearts. Hate can have no safe harbor in America. It must stop. It’s on all of us together to make us stop.”
Things are in motion, but it’s going to take more. It’s going to take us banning together. To stand up, make noise, raise money and awareness to support organizations and causes that have an “in” to congress.
Gratefully, many people are peacefully protesting for #StopAsianHate which is bringing some awareness to this terrible crime in which Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, is accused of killing four people inside two Atlanta spas and four others at a massage business.
Many of us hope that this tragedy gains awareness of the #StopAsianHate movement similar to how the renowned George Floyd murder sparked Black Lives Matter. However, Long, the assailant in this crime differs from those in the Floyd case. The murderers of Floyd were Police Officers who are supposed to protect all citizens, whereas Long appears to be an uneducated supremacist that does not know the difference between right and wrong. Well, wait, that part about a person who believes that a particular group should dominate society (aka supremacist) and can take lives into their own hands sounds suspiciously similar to those Officers who thought they were in power and killed Floyd. In both cases, the result is that violence devastated a community and the world at large.
Georgia state Rep. Bee Nguyen, an advocate for women and communities of color was quoted saying "No matter how you want to spin it, the facts remain the same. This was an attack on the Asian community.” She noted the shooter-targeted businesses operated by women of Asian descent.
HATE IS HATE. Violence against anyone with beliefs, religion, skin color, and so on that is different from yours is not acceptable and it has to stop. Are we just going to allow these horrible people to go through and devastate all races, all genders, all…(fill in the blank with any sub-group that proudly differentiates themselves) before we stand together and put an end to racism?
In a brainstorming session with my team on this issue, we discussed ideas in which we could support organizations that were specifically created to make a change on Capitol Hill that will trickle down into local communities. As mentioned earlier, in honor of Asian American History Month in May FitPros will be hosting donation-based fitness classes led by our Asian instructors the first three weeks of the month and the final week we will offer a virtual discussion on the topic of racism and mental health. Typically, FitPros sessions are only open to the employers that purchase programs for their staff, but we have an audience and want to do everything we can to support the AAPI community.
We will have registration links for you and yours to sign up in early April! Stay tuned.
All donations will be distributed to the following organizations:
To support the #StopAsiaHate movement:
Report hate incidents to Stop AAPI Hate.
Read AAPI news on @NextShark, @ResonateVoices, and @DionLimTV
For AAPI mental health and substance abuse resources visit:
Victim’s of the Georgia spa shootings that took place on March 16, 2021 include:
Xiaojie Tan, 49
Daoyou Feng, 44
Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez, 33
Paul Andre Michels, 54
Elcias R. Hernandez-Ortiz, 30
Hyun J. Grant, 51
Soon C. Park, 74
Suncha Kim, 69
Yong A. Yue, 63
For more free resources check out these complimentary webinars.
Visit FitPros.com to learn about the variety of virtual and on-site wellbeing services we offer.