Asian American group launches reporting tool for workplace discrimination
By Carl Samson
December 18, 2023
Stand with Asian Americans (SwAA), an organization led by Asian American business leaders, has launched a new tool for reporting anti-Asian discrimination in the workplace.
How it works: The new reporting mechanism comes in a submission form on a dedicated web page for SwAA’s Workplace Justice initiative. This centralized portal marks an upgrade from how the group previously received similar reports, informally through various channels such as emails and LinkedIn messages.
The tool can be accessed here. While SwAA does not provide legal advice, it offers other supportive materials such as an employee guide, a collection of Asian American-focused workplace research and a list of resources that help foster safer workplaces.
About SwAA: SwAA was founded in 2021 as attacks against Asian Americans soared alongside the COVID-19 pandemic. Its founders specifically came together after the Atlanta-area spa shootings of that year, which resulted in the deaths of six Asian women.
Over the weekend, the group launched its Workplace Justice initiative. Justin Zhu, one of the co-founders, made headlines last year after suing Iterable — a tech startup he had co-founded — for allegedly firing him as chief executive officer due to his East Asian background.
The big picture: Asian Americans — particularly women — are still battling racism in the workplace. A 2022 University of California College of the Law, San Francisco, study that surveyed more than 200 female tech employees found that East and South Asian women felt needing to do “extra work” to gain the same level of recognition as their white peers, while East and Southeast Asian women were often expected to play “feminine” roles and ignored for leadership positions.
This year, Asian professionals in the tech industry increasingly took their employers to court, alleging racism and discrimination. Among them was Vaishnavi Jayakumar, a Singapore national who accused Meta of denying her advancement opportunities.
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