PRESS RELEASE FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Thursday, August 17, 2017

The Philippine American Bar Association (“PABA”) issues the following statement regarding the recent events in Charlottesville, Virginia:

PABA is deeply saddened and horrified by the events that took place in Charlottesville this past weekend.  On Friday night, groups of white supremacists and neo-Nazis stormed the University of Virginia with torches, and on Saturday they took to the streets of Charlottesville, spewing hate and violence.  By the end of the weekend, one woman was killed, two law enforcement officials died, and many others were injured.  The actions taken by these white supremacists and neo-Nazis are shameful and abhorrent, and have no place in a civilized society.

The events in Charlottesville are a grim reminder of the history of exclusion and violence experienced in this country by Asian Americans generally, including Filipino Americans, as a result of anti-immigrant, racist, and xenophobic sentiments, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, anti-miscegenation laws, the Japanese internment, and the deadly anti-Filipino riots in Watsonville, California.  Such acts of racism and intolerance should have been condemned then, and we stridently condemn the recent acts in Charlottesville now.

An act of terror targeting any minority group is an act of terror against us all.  PABA stands in solidarity with all those whose security and well-being in this country are threatened by these hateful groups.  There can be no center ground, and equivocation on these issues is an endorsement of hatred and bigotry.  As a result, PABA calls upon President Trump to definitively and unequivocally condemn these hate groups.