• Local groups join to form Asian-American Women's Task Force,
New Asian-American Women's group hopes to educate, close cultural gaps
An Asian woman is being verbally harassed and followed by a man in a parking lot.
Witnesses hear him say "Get out of my country" or" This is your fault." They want to help but don't know the best way to go about it.
A newly formed Asian-American Women's Task Force offered t his hypothetical scenario on Wednesday during a virtual seminar, the first of several planned during Asian Pacific American Heritage Month in May.
The task force, made up of the YWCA of Oklahoma City, the Council on American-Islamic Relations-Oklahoma chapter and other partners, hopes to close the gap between domestic and sexual violence service providers and Asian communities in Oklahoma.
At the same time, the group hopes to address anti- Asian harassment, discrimination and violence occurring around the country during the coronavirus pandemic.
The latter issue was the focus of the group's first online webinar event titled "Bystander Intervention in the time of COVID19." Task force members said it was designed to empower Oklahomans to intervene if they witness anti-Asian harassment in public spaces.
Wednesday, Veronica Laizure, civil rights director for CAIR-O K, said the bystander intervention topic fit with the task force's overall mission.
"I know nationwide, we've seen a huge spike in anti-Asian crimes, things like destruction of property, assault, even murder, so we are thinking about how we can communicate as Asian Americans that we are part of America, we are part of Oklahoma and that the services that are trying to reach the Asian-American community have to be culturally competent and have to bridge some of those gaps," she said.
Laizure said CAIR-OK has updated its online reporting form to include anti-Asian harassment and discrimination that is connected to the COVID19 crisis. She said anyone that witnesses such rhetoric or incidents may share information anonymously through the CAIR-OK incident report form at www.cairoklahoma.com/report.
Breaking down barriers
Laizure led the bystander intervention webinar with Cindy Nguyen, the task force's leader and director of social and economic justice for the YWCA OKC. Besides Nguyen and Laizu re, other task force members include Jennifer Ly, Asian District business owner and member of the Asian District Cultural Association; and Kim Tran, attorney at Ogletree, Deakins, Nash, Smoak & Stewart P.C.
The task force's ultimate goal is to reduce the barriers Asian-Americans face in obtaining services related to domestic violence, sexual assault and community empowerment. The group's leaders said disparities in service providers, cultural taboos, language barriers and a lack of representation all contribute to Asian-Americans, particularly women, being unable to obtain protection from abusers or assistance in the aftermath of sexual assault or violence.
"We started it just because as the only Asian-American advocate at the YWCA, I saw that we were missing a lot of things — not on purpose and never intentional — but we saw Asian clients coming in and we had problems with interpretation, cultural barriers and a lot of those things. We knew that harm was happening within the community but we also knew that we also needed to take steps to be proactive and really talk about the things that were happening and have these difficult conversations," Nguyen said Wednesday.
"Because we know that domestic violence and sexual assault doesn' t discriminate. We also know that things like language barriers, cultural stigmas — all those things can really prevent someone from reaching out for help."
Laizu re said she and other task force members thought it was a good idea for a group of community leaders who are Asian themselves and who have connections to the Asian community to look closely at some of those barriers and see how they could help make connections more clear and helpful for everyone concerned.
She and Nguyen said the bystander intervention webinar will be repeated and other webinars will be offered to address topics such as mental health, issues with law enforcement and data collection about the Asian community. They will also shine a spotlight on the contributions of Asian-Americans throughout the state and the nation's history.
"Community
Conversation: Mental Health in the Asian-American Community," another virtual event, is set for 4 p.m. Saturday. The bystander intervention training web in ar will be repeated at 4 p.m. May 23 and another webin ar entitled" Asian in America" is set for 1 p.m. May 27.