Fueling the fight against anti-Asian hate with a $100k grant to Hollaback!
13 Fund’s second grant to focus on bystander intervention training and media to reduce pre-existing bias of Asian Pacific Islanders
In the first year of the pandemic, we launched 13 Fund to research high-leverage solutions to pressing issues and provide unrestricted grants to upstart nonprofits in SF and NYC tackling those issues. In our first grant, we analyzed the struggles of the SF Bay Area food industry and chose to support a mutual aid organization run by and for Oakland food workers.
In our second grant, we went after anti-Asian harassment and violence. We interviewed experts, ran original panel surveys, and analyzed third-party reports to try to understand the roots of this plague in our society.
For a time, anti-Asian hate was covered widely in the media, but while the coverage has slowed, the harm has not. In 2021, reported hate crimes targeting Asian Pacific Islanders in New York City were up 361% from 2020. In San Francisco, they’re up 567%. Far from a temporary blip, this issue has only continued to expand since the pandemic began.
What we learned was that anti-Asian hate primarily stems from four major factors:
- Pre-existing Bias: Model Minority + Yellow Peril
- Proximate Cause: COVID-19 + US-China Tension
- Lack of Protection: Law Enforcement & Judicial Process
- Lack of Representation: Politics + Media
After searching through many organizations and efforts that were tackling parts of this problem, we realized that unless we went after the root of the problem — pre-existing bias — we would never truly move the needle.
As Lunar New Year kicks off, we are proud to announce Hollaback! as our recipient for this second grant.
As a 501c3 founded in 2010, Hollaback! started by combating street harassment experienced by women and nonbinary individuals. Hollaback! developed their 5Ds’ framework (Direct, Distract, Delegate, Delay, Document), providing tangible and effective ways for people to intervene when they witness or experience harassment firsthand.
In 2020, Hollaback partnered with Asian Americans Advancing Justice to customize their bystander intervention training to support Asian Pacific Islanders and allies in the face of rising attacks against the API community.
In the last year and half, Hollaback has trained over 150,000 people in the 5D’s, on specific microaggressions faced by the API community, and on the spectrum of disrespect, which conveys how “harmless” jokes based on racial stereotypes can lead to verbal abuse which opens the door for physical assault.
From our research, the only way to truly end anti-Asian hate comes down to deconstructing latent bias. Bystander training can act as a form of “inoculation” to prevent racist beliefs from taking hold in a group by shaping participants’ mindsets to being proactive bystanders within their communities.
After meeting with Hollaback leadership including executive director Emily May and deputy director Jorge Arteaga and hearing their commitment to continue supporting the API community through live translations across a range of languages. Even as they expand their new bystander training programs in support of the Islamic, LGBTQ+, and other communities, they are also collaborating to bring new API-focused bystander training to a younger generation in partnership with Woori Show and Asian Americans Advancing Justice, work that we hope our grant funding can help support.
Our mission has always been to provide minimally restrictive funding to upstart nonprofits led by underrepresented leaders and we are thrilled to do just that.
We are proud to announce $100k in funds to be donated to Hollaback in support of API-related programming and operations over 2022 in quarterly installments. Participants in our syndicate include (in alphabetical order by first name):
Anonymous, Adam Samet, Chris Tran (Roblox), Christine Yen (CEO Honeycomb), Clara Tsao (Director, Filecoin Foundation), Hali Lee (Founding Partner, Radiant Strategies), Irene Kwok, Ross Dakin, Wayne Gerard (Meta)
Note: If you’d like to join this syndicate with a minimum commitment of $6k over the course the next 12 months, or please contact us at jason@13fund.org by Thursday Feb 11, 2022.
For all other inquiries, please email jason@13fund.org or tweet us at @13fundorg.
Jason Shen and Bilal Mahmood
Partners, 13 Fund
Additional Resources:
- 13 Fund: The Drivers of Anti-Asian Hate (April 2021)
- 13 Fund: National AAPI Community Survey (July 2021)
- 13 Fund x Hollaback — the Syndicate presentation video (11 mins)
- Be a Super Ally with the 5D’s (YouTube)
13 Fund Syndicate Presentation
