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Amid the surge in anti-Asian hate crimes last year, I did not immediately speak out. Even though my own family had been targeted in the past by similar attacks, even though I’ve lived through tremendous amounts of racism in my personal and professional life—I had no place talking about it.
At least that’s what I thought. “Someone else will do it,” I said to myself. But after the wave of coverage when violence against the AAPI community began to rise as the pandemic spread in March 2020, no one came forward this time.
Even within the marketing world, one that prides itself on diversity and free-thinking, there was silence. It was as if we, as an industry, were fatigued from 2017 (#MeToo) and 2020 (#BlackLivesMatter).
What I was feeling wasn’t new or unique—many of my Black and Latinx colleagues saw the same lack of engagement from brands and marketing leaders in 2020. And as a response, they rightfully used their voice.
So, following their encouragement, I did too.
It’s been one year since I spoke up. It was my first time addressing issues I’ve seen with the marketing industry. It was a plea to truly support the AAPI community—no more grand gestures, virtue signaling or posting squares, but acknowledging biases and misconceptions while embracing the need to finally hear our voices, especially in a time of violence and hatred.
To my surprise, the piece was read by many. Even more amazing to me, many took action. The most powerful brands and agencies reached out to me to commit time, money and creativity to address an overdue overhaul of systemic issues plaguing their AAPI employees and consumers.
But the greatest outcome, the most encouraging one, was that many other voices decided it was time they spoke up, too.
Kick open the door
Even as the violence has not stopped—up 10% across all minority communities in the U.S., and hate crimes against the Asian American community up 339%—we continue to rise.
Marketing leaders across all communities are choosing to be more by doing more, addressing harmful stereotypes like Johnas Street’s recent criticism of the depiction of only one path to success for the Black community: fame. His message: You are more than. He’s right.
We’ve seen the launch of AAPI-specific initiatives like @NetflixGolden, led by Michelle Lee and built to advance representation in media throughout the year, not just Lunar New Year or Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month.
Marketing leaders from the Latinx community have risen up to fight for their definition of the American Dream and eliminate the pay gap for Latinas, who lose over $1.1 million over their careers to wage discrimination.
Make no mistake, none of the work mentioned above could have happened a generation ago, let alone 10 years ago. We have kicked open the door to conversations previously shut to us and through this work have developed perspective and empathy where it was previously vacant.
But it’s still not enough.
Shared cultural momentum
According to the ANA, the marketing industry is still only 30.8% diverse. And it gets lower the higher up you go: 28% at the senior level, then discouragingly cut by more than half to 13% in the C-suite.
Yet despite our low representation in marketing—8.9% Latinx, 6.6% Black, 11% AAPI—our voices, persistence and sheer bravery are pushing culture and the industry forward, shattering the obstacles holding us back from true advancement.
While promising, we must seize our greatest opportunity: fighting for progress together.
Just as the destructive model minority myth has hindered progress for the AAPI community, our collective communities have always “stuck to our own,” a behavior that halts progress. Historically segregated by racist public policy and media portrayal, we have a tendency, professionally, to think our path is only as far as the most senior person that looks like us.
The fact is, so much of the work doesn’t happen without the collective progress of each community. We are building on a shared cultural momentum, creating precedent and allyship by mentoring and sponsoring each other.
The marketing industry, unlike many others, has the power and influence to tell these stories of allyship—to model these behaviors in our work, as well as how we work, to influence millions with creativity and change the minds of the masses and our industry for good.
Marketing has always been the humanity business, and this allied mindset is the truest form of humanity we can deliver to our work, our clients and our industry. This is the opportunity—a collective one—to realize that together, we can advance each other without sacrificing progress.
We can increase Asian representation without stopping our efforts to increase Black and Latinx representation in and within our work.
We can break Black stereotypes without stopping our efforts to break Asian and Latinx stereotypes.
We can celebrate our collective communities year-round, not just during designated “minority months.”
We can represent other communities while still representing ours.
Together, we must break down historical barriers in an effort to create an inflection point in the marketing industry—30.8% diversity in marketing is not going to cut it anymore. I encourage us all to continue to meet this moment and see the opportunity—not just for “our own” but for all of us.
For those of you still on the fence, unwilling to speak up and not sure how to speak out: Now is not the time to be silent. Now is the time to join us in creating a better and bigger industry that’s more accepting, more equal and more creative because soon, through our work, every voice will be heard.
