7 Ways to Provide Allyship to the Asian American Community

With inequities, injustices and hate faced by multiple communities on a daily basis, many have stepped up asking–what can we do? How can we help? How can we be allies, friends, peers? Allyship, at times, can feel like it needs to be grandiose actions but, in reality, can still be impactful through several everyday actions. Is it posting on social media? Is it pushing for diverse representation on your own team? Is it speaking up when you witness injustice, especially when it’s being underreported in the media? In Adweek's recent DEI Town Hall for the Asian American community, timely issues and solutions came to light when esteemed Asian American leaders came together to discuss the recent acceleration of violence against the community due to COVID-related hate and long-standing biases. Here, we summarized some of the most tangible and actionable next steps—for members of this community and its allies—to drive meaningful change. Update: For more info on how to help, check out GoFundMe's central hub and fund to help support and protect the AAPI community. Use Your Social Platforms “I have been reflecting on and admiring the work that some of our allies, like the Black Lives Matter Movement, have generated. It really started at a grassroots level as well. We have to demand for the attention from the media–naturally they don't want to cover that. They'd rather talk about the impeachment. The onus is on us to really drive that change through social media but continuing to build on that over a sustained period of time.” Boon Lai, Senior Director Product Marketing, Google “Minimally, what we can do is leverage our social media. I want to encourage every single person here, even if you have a small network, if we all collectively do the same thing and talk about Asian markets, that makes a huge, huge difference.” Cynthia Chen, President, Consumer Health, North America, Reckitt Benckiser “It seems that Asians on social media were a big [news] driver and that's really what led to bringing more awareness of these Asian American incidents. There wasn't enough national media coverage on this growing issue. So how do we see the role of marketing, media, and journalism in creating a solution for these issues?” Katy Lee, Brand and Consumer Insights Leader, Ikea Diversify Your Leadership “There's a tremendous amount of action we can take as a group, both individually through what social media allows us to do and then also for companies, many of which are influential as well. How do we push through for representation and how do we do that within our own organizations? There's always the opportunity to do that.” Brad Hiranaga, CBO, North America, General Mills “It's a zero-sum game. If your executive board is diverse in any way–Black, Hispanic, women, sexual orientation–it's proven that everyone starts to benefit from that. It doesn't always have to be us, but it should just be diverse in general. Working together is going to be a powerful opportunity.” Marvin Chow, Vice President, Global Marketing, Google “Why do we want to be in leadership positions? Sure, it's the title, money, but really I think there is the desire to use those skills and the scope and the influence to do things that are bigger than us, which is to fundamentally change the system.” Minjae Ormes, CMO, Visible Use Your Brand to Reshape the Narrative “When we're not represented, our point of view is not shown or amplified. It normalizes the silencing of our community overall. We're all savvy marketers and communicators who can think about how to get the message out there in a creative way that doesn't create divisiveness but brings people together.” Judy Lee, Global Head of Experiential Marketing, Pinterest “Depending on your brand, how can you bring to light some of the challenges that the community has in authentic way for your brand? Marketing shapes culture. You see an ad a thousand times. And that repetition from a thousand brands is how people start to form their opinions. That's our job and it will take time. It's not easy but that's the next step.” Marvin Chow, VP, Global Marketing, Google “I was talking to a company the other day and I said, ‘hey, as a consumer, I just want to say seeing an Asian in your spot [was positive].’ We have to vocalize the positive when we see it and not just the speaking up for the negative.” Catherine Chao, former Global Strategy Director of Jordan Brand, Nike Band Together to Make Louder Noise “It doesn't always have to be just from our community too. Our first [employee] group that spoke up with what's going on and that formed a panel internally was the Black community saying, ‘the Asian community needs our support right now.’ It's is a great example of allyship and how we should have all these other communities also help to carry this message.” Nick Tran, Head of Global Marketing, TikTok US “I encourage all of us to think about how do we seize this moment? How do we think about solidarity in order to make a difference and really have our voices heard? Because I don't think we should waste the moment, even though it's sad. If we come together and think together about what we can do, we can have a lot of influence in riding this moment and beyond.” Helen Loh, SVP, Marketing, Charles Schwab “If you look across the underrepresented groups across this country, there are a lot of similarities in the stories that we can tell around bias, assumptions, and about not being seen. It’s been something that's been experienced across many groups and in particular, the black community for a very long time." Soyoung Kang, CMO, eos Do Your Research to Understand the Full Context “It's not just what's happening in the headlines–it's an everyday kind of issue in our experience. This is such an important moment where we breathe life into our stories and find that amplification, not just through the work we do, but also at the grassroots level. Then everyone realizes that they know people in their life who've experienced this. Giving voice to these stories and making it known is such a powerful part of finding a better path.” Evelyn Rusli, Co-Founder/CMO, Yumi “There's the construct of whiteness that is held up as the success and ‘this is what you need to achieve to be accepted and belong here.’ We're striving for our best in the context of whiteness. No. Accept us as who we are. These acts of violence, patriotism, and minimizing other people for who they are is not acceptable.” Minjae Ormes, CMO, Visible Lend Your Voice “When it comes to these Asian-American hate crimes, it's very underreported. And a part of the reason is there's a language barrier, especially when you think about the elderly. All of us have stories of issues and incidents that have not been reported. So, better reporting and lending your voice to help. I don’t want us to be invisible victims anymore. Having a collective voice is much more likely to lead the change than just having one person speaking.” Kyle Wong, CEO, and Co-founder, Pixlee “I intentionally sent a note to every manager in marketing just so they were aware of what their teams were going through. I got such a great response from non-Asian people who didn't know. All these little things start to add up. This is not a special thing that we're doing. It's just the way things should be, and it should be for any group essentially.” Marvin Chow, VP, Global Marketing, Google Be Proactive About Extending a Helping Hand “When someone else needs you to put something on the line for them, even if they aren't up to your standard of excellence, help them anyway. Mentor people. Go out of your way to proactively help people, not just when they ask for it. That's a huge part of this because we don't have the same advantages as folks in the white community.” Ray Li, Co-founder and CEO, Sene “There could be some real tangible, small actions everyone can take right now. I would encourage [people] to visit Chinatown this weekend to celebrate Chinese New Year because all the restaurants are doubly affected from COVID and Sinophobia. It's really just every little action–it doesn't have to be grandiose to take a movement forward.” Robecta Ma, Payments Marketing, Apple For more resources on ways to take action, here is a community-curated living document with additional links.

Diversity, Equity and Inclusion

7 Ways to Provide Allyship to the Asian American Community

Asian American leaders weigh in on how we can all use our voices and take action at Adweek’s recent DEI Community Town Hall

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