China Virus. Kung-Flu. When our national leaders began referring to COVID-19 using inflammatory names like these, violence against the AAPI community rose. In the midst of a global pandemic, hate became the biggest virus our country had to face.
Since hate is a “virus” that truly affects the health and safety of American citizens everyday, healthcare companies have a responsibility to stand up and intervene. We made this film to make the statement that hate is indeed a health risk, and to actively take a stand against its spread.
While working with a colleague who’d studied underrepresented peoples’ level of comfort in reporting crime, we learned that one of the reasons ESL-speakers sometimes don’t come forward is due to a lack of others ability to speak their language and listen, fear of law enforcement, or feeling dismissed by authorities due to language barriers. As a member of the AAPI community, it was important to me to create a film that did not speak to all Asians as a monolith, but as the very diverse people that they are. There are over 2,300 languages and dialects spoken by 4.46 billion people in Asia alone. There are also languages spoken by Pacific Islanders. Languages spoken on other continents. As a California-based healthcare company, we strove to speak to as many members of the AAPI community within our state as possible.
CREATIVE TEAM:
CW // Julia Waicberg
GCD // Sinan Dagli