Thread by @myhlee

A reminder to check in on your Asian American and Pacific Islander friends & colleagues. We're exhausted. We're overwhelmed by videos & images of people who could be our parents/grandparents brutally attacked — spat on, shoved to the ground, slashed across the face & more. 1/

As AAPI journalists, we've been working for a year to try to get our newsrooms and the country to pay attention to the rise in violence and hatred, on top of the burden of everything else that comes with being a functioning human in a pandemic. 2/

AAPI journalists constantly ask me: My boss won't cover Asian violence unless I find a "fresh" angle — how? Why am I the only AAPI reporter at work when our audience is X% AAPI? Why doesn't my company's race initiatives include AAPIs? How do I ask this without retaliation? 3/

I share this here cuz I've learned the past few weeks that non-AAPI journalists are *JUST NOW* learning this is a part of our daily professional experience. Yet for the past 8 years on @AAJA board I have grappled with this nonstop. Clearly we need to be more public about this. 4/

This is a sentiment shared by AAPI journalists across the country, including high-profile ones you wouldn't expect. And it's not a new one, either. @AAJA was founded 1981 by journalists who felt this way back then.

It's been *40 years.* 5/

There are so many AAPI journalists doing great work right now, privately but forcefully pushing against the inertia of their newsrooms and their leadership. I will keep sharing their work for them, but I can't do it alone. Please follow and amplify their work, too. /end

Final thought: If you're asking "What if I say the wrong thing when I reach out to my friends and colleagues?" You're making it about you. Just be an empathetic human.