Support for Our AAPI Community

Dear PDC Colleagues,

The rise of anti-Asian hate, discrimination and violence across this country—including the appalling killings in Atlanta, the 3,800+ reports of hate incidents since March 2020 alone, and the plethora of unreported incidents—has been deeply horrifying to each and every one of us. While many of us have been shocked by these events, the truth is that the AAPI community has had to contend with unacceptable racism, including verbal and physical assaults, long before the onset of the pandemic. This systemic racism and xenophobia must stop and the PDC is committed to being an active ally to all of our AAPI community members in this urgent and critical fight.

To that end, we wanted to make you aware of the following steps we are taking:

• Similar to the donation we made to the NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund in 2020, we plan to make a donation of $5,000 to Stop AAPI Hate, a terrific organization that “tracks and responds to incidents of hate, violence, harassment, discrimination, shunning, and child bullying against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States” and uses a multi-pronged approach to address anti-Asian racism by working “to end all forms of structural racism leveled at Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color.”
• We will be hosting a Bystander Training for PDC members on May 25, 2021. This training will help empower all of us to address and prevent harassment and discrimination against members of the AAPI community in the workplace (and elsewhere) by providing us with guidance on how best to intervene and stop inappropriate behavior.
• As part of our broader DEI efforts, this year's Summer Conference will include the opportunity to meet and learn more about diverse vendors and consultants as well as experts in the DEI space. Please feel free to reach out to Christelle Dorcil, Summer Conference Planning Chair, at Christelle.Dorcil@skadden.com, if you would like to recommend a vendor for inclusion.
• The PDC DEI Working Group is very focused on these issues and will be implementing new programs and initiatives over the next several months designed to support our AAPI community and all of our communities of color.

Given everything that is going on in the world at this moment—including the unacceptable treatment of the AAPI community but also the ongoing police brutality, voter suppression and other challenges faced by our black and brown communities—we are even more committed to ensuring that our organization continues to be a space that supports all communities of color. As always, we welcome feedback from the membership on this issue and encourage you to reach out to us if you have additional thoughts or ideas about how we can best support our members.

Best,

The PDC Board of Directors