Providing equitable opportunity for small business owners, particularly those who are most vulnerable, is at the heart of our corporation’s mission. As such, it has been with great dismay that we have witnessed reports of escalating hate incidents over the past year targeting members of our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.

The appalling tragedy that unfolded in Atlanta, Georgia on March 16 in which eight human beings, including six women of Asian descent, lost their lives to brutality has served to shine a spotlight on the fear with which so many in our Asian communities must live due to acts of violent racism, discrimination, and xenophobia. A report last June from the Anti-Defamation League noted a steep rise in “reports of xenophobic and racist incidents” including on-the-street harassment and assaults tied to the surging coronavirus. More recently, the Stop AAPI Hate National Report released March 16 covers 3,795 first-hand, anti-Asian hate incidents received to its reporting center between March 19, 2020 and Feb. 28 of this year with more than 500 anti-Asian hate incidents cited thus far in 2021. These reports, and many others like them, are heartrending. Such activity is horrifying and unacceptable and we condemn it in all its forms and perpetrations.

Equity, justice, and fairness for all people must be the lens through which we choose to live our lives and the foundation upon which we must intentionally act each day if such hatred is to be pushed back into its dark corner. We at Small Business Development Corporation of Orange County deepen our commitment to fighting this battle. We stand in proud solidarity with our Asian American and Pacific Islander communities as we work together toward forging a kinder and more just society, because in the words of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”