No Room for Hate: Building a Community to Help End Asian and AAPI Invisibility in the Outdoor Industry
(This was published in Alpinist Magazine in April, 2021).
Currently, in the United States, the outdoor industry is experiencing an unprecedented shift as many organizations and individuals aspire for a space that is more welcoming and open to all. As a former civil rights lawyer who's now a part of this industry, I myself have become an advocate for justice, equity, diversity and inclusion (JEDI) while working as an outdoor writer and running my mountain-trekking social enterprise, Brown Gal Trekker. As a Filipina and an Asian American, I've also become mindful of the need to explore my own visibility—or lack thereof—in this realm as a means of finding a sense of belonging. Ever since I attended my first Outdoor Retailer show in 2018, I'd been keenly aware of how hard it can be for the varied experiences and perspectives of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) to be seen in an industry in which the leaders are still predominately white. And since the inception of the COVID-19 pandemic, I had been quietly watching another epidemic unfold in the United States, that of the hatred towards the AAPI community. At the same time, I couldn't help noticing that this hate epidemic appeared almost invisible in the eyes of many Americans. I found myself reacquainted with the familiar sensation of being unseen and treated as irrelevant as an Asian American, a Filipina and an immigrant—an experience that I've known all too well since I first stepped into the U.S. at the age of thirteen.
During this past year, reports of attacks against Asian Americans in the U.S. just kept coming:
On July 17, 2020, an 89-year-old Chinese American grandmother in New York was slapped and set on fire.
On July 28, 2020, a pregnant Asian American woman was punched in the face in Philadelphia.
On January 20, 2021, an 84-year-old Thai American man was shoved to the ground in San Francisco. He hit his head and later died.
On February 3, 2021, a 61-year-old Filipino American man was slashed in the face on the New York city subway.
In February, 2021, a 52-year-old Asian American woman was attacked in Queens, NY, resulting in injuries.
On March 30, 2021, a 65-year-old Filipina American was kicked and stomped on in New York city.