AAPI Creators And Beauty Entrepreneurs Stand Together Against Anti-Asian Hate

It was supposed to be an online gathering to celebrate the upcoming Lunar New Year and raise awareness about AAPI representation in the beauty industry by bringing together leading Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) creators—actress Olivia Munn and beauty brand founders Priscilla Tsai and Amy Liu—with the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum (NAPAWF). Instead, the panel—hosted by Tower 28 and Cocokind on January 24, 2022—was “zoom bombed” by an online hacker with horrific images and audio messages.

“Today while hosting a gathering of AAPI women and allies in a conversation about how to stop anti-Asian hate, we were targeted by a zoom bombing of horrific, violent, racially charged images and audio,’ Munn writes on Instagram. “We were communing to celebrate, elevate and protect the AAPI community and we were subjected to a hate crime in real time. It was a cowardly and unconscionable act.”

Sung Yeon Choimorrow, executive director of NAPAWF, also took to Instagram to share a statement on the NAPAWF account, “It comes as no surprise that Zoom bombing can target communities having conversations about racism and misogyny. Even in a space created by us and for us, the very things we were talking about happened while we talked about it.”

“During the event, Priscilla Tsai shared a statistic that 78% of AAPI women have been affected by anti-Asian racism at some point in their life,” Tower 28 founder Amy Liu tells Forbes. “Now, sadly 100% of the attendees at the event have experienced a racially fuelled attack and were made to feel unsafe.”

Despite the hacker compromising the online event, leading AAPI voices refuse to be silenced. As Choimorrow says in a NAPAWF Instagram post, “we will not let the hate directed at us deter us from building our collective power as AAPI women.” Munn also declared her solidarity on Instagram, “To be clear, the conversation WILL go on. I stand with @cocokind, @tower28beauty, @priscilla.tsai, @amyliu47, @schoimorrow, and @napawf and I am proud to be AAPI.” Actress Mindy Kaling commented “Proud of you,” Good Light founder David Yi added “We will not be deterred,” while Top Chef winner chef Melissa King echoed the sentiment with “We stand with you!”

Cocokind founder Priscilla Tsai voiced the unity of the AAPI community in her own Instagram post, “I don’t think I’ll EVER be able to erase those words and visuals from my head, but I also won’t ever forget the way our community is supporting each other right now.”

“It was traumatizing to be targeted in such a hateful and violent way, but I have to believe that as a result of suffering together, we are a stronger community,” Liu tells Forbes. “The outpouring of support we all received in the aftermath speaks volumes and was a buoy during a difficult time.”

Following the online gathering, Munn and attendees circulated an infographic titled “We will not go silent” with statistics provided by the NAPAWF on the ways in which AAPI women experience racism. With Biden in office, Americans are no longer served a xenophobic rhetoric from the President that blames COVID-19—what Donald Trump referred to as the “kung-flu virus”—on those of Asian descent, yet anti-Asian hate crimes continues to rise. The latest figures provided by the NYPD Hate Crime Task Force in late November of last year showed a 233% increase from 2020 in crimes targeting Asians while the state attorney general of California found that anti-Asian hate crimes more than doubled last year.

The continued rise in anti-Asian hate is why AAPI-founded beauty brands Cocokind and Tower 28 are teaming up to support AAPI advocacy with a limited edition Lunar New Year Kit, where $5 from each purchase is donated to the NAPAWF, the only advocacy organization for AAPI women and girls in the U.S. “The kit was dreamed up as an opportunity to celebrate one of the most important holidays in Asian heritage—Lunar New Year—and to do it alongside Cocokind, one of my favorite fellow AAPI-founded brands, was a no brainer,” Tower 28 founder Amy Liu tells Forbes.

Curated with the dry winter season in mind, the kit includes Cocokind’s hydrating AHA Jelly Cleanser and Ceramide Barrier Serum, and Tower 28’s brightening ShineOn Lip Jelly and warm BeachPlease Blush. “We took bestselling products from both of our brands to give you everything you need to wash, moisturize, and do a quick cheek and lip makeup look,” Liu tells Forbes. “Plus, with every purchase supporting the NAPAWF, it’s an opportunity for us to celebrate our community and give back at the same time.”

It’s not the first time Tsai and Liu have advocated for the AAPI community, the aim to make the beauty industry more inclusive has been the driving force behind their beauty brands since day one. “Inclusivity makes us stronger and the beauty industry has room for all of us,” says Cocokind founder Priscilla Tsai. “It is extremely important that we celebrate those who have been underrepresented, such as the AAPI and BIPOC communities, and make our voices heard.”

Tower 28 founder Amy Liu echos Tsai, “As an Asian-American founder, it’s imperative to advocate for my own heritage along with all minorities. To feel beautiful is to feel confident, and if you don’t see yourself in beauty standards, you don’t feel seen. Through the words we use and the images we create, we are defining beauty standards for the next generation.”