About NC AACRC

 

The North Carolina Asian American Civil Rights Conference will provide a forum for collaboration among the Asian American communities in North Carolina. Asian Americans are often an underrepresented minority, especially in the southern United States. As a result, the Asian American community is frequently excluded from the larger dialogue about race and civil rights. The exclusion leads to problems of identity for members of the Asian American community and to inadequate solutions for problems of race due to this limited perspective. The North Carolina Asian American Civil Rights Conference will contribute substantially to the on-going state and national discussions about race and civil rights by emphasizing collaboration and examining issues faced by Asian Americans in the legal profession and the broader justice system. Asian Americans and other excluded minorities will have the opportunity to fill in the gaps, while fostering connections with like-minded individuals in North Carolina.

 

The North Carolina Asian American Civil Rights Conference was inspired by conversations between law students and attorneys about the difficulty arising from being an excluded minority. Asian Americans are a small minority within North Carolina, comprising less than 3% of the population, and nationwide, comprising just slightly over 5% of the population. The current conversation about race seems defined by a black-white narrative and the first iteration of the conference will focus on addressing that exclusive narrative by specifically contextualizing Asian Americans’ experience with hate crimes and racial bias.