May is Asian American, Native Hawaiian and Pacific Islander (AANHPI) Heritage Month. To mark it, Venables Bell & Partners worked with the coalition Stop AAPI Hate to create “Invisible No More.”
In the United States, one in five AAPIs recently experienced hate incidents—which represents millions of people. Stop AAPI Hate has documented 11,000 self-reported hate incidents since 2020, but most AAPIs feel uncomfortable reporting their experiences. It’s hard to know how many more episodes disappear into the ether.
“Our communities are once again reeling from the mass shooting in Allen, Texas, a violent act of hate in which eight people were killed, including four Asians. It’s a reminder that two years after the Covid-19 pandemic sparked a wave of hate incidents, we’re still on edge—about the possibility of not only physical attacks but also workplace discrimination, verbal harassment, vandalism, and other forms of hate,” says Stop AAPI Hate co-founder Manjusha Kulkarni, who is also executive director of the AAPI Equity Alliance.
It’s hard to know who “Invisible No More” is speaking to at first. It’s billed as awareness-raising work. But when the ad enters its last half, and invisible Asians start stepping out of the frame, we were struck by a sense of recognition.
