Bellevue Rotary’s Commitment to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

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The Bellevue Rotary Club unequivocally embraces Rotary’s intolerance for racism. We believe in promoting respect, celebrating diversity, demanding ethical leadership, and working tirelessly to advance peace as central tenets of our work. We recognize we have more work to do to create a more just, open and welcoming club for all people. We acknowledge and support Black humanity and its value. We acknowledge the sadness, anger, mental and emotional exhaustion, and trauma that our African American members and other people of color continue to experience. The Bellevue Rotary Club understands its responsibility towards truth, equity, and social justice, and will work with our members to dismantle any and all forms of systemic racism within our Club. To do this, we will carefully look at our Club’s culture, policies, partners, and the work we do in our community as we work to improve ourselves first. The Bellevue Rotary Club will also work towards being an anti-racist club in alignment with our long history and value of serving humanity.

Statement of Rotarians in Support of Racial Justice

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As Rotarians throughout our region, we engage in solidarity with Americans across our community and the nation. We acknowledge the pain and suffering that systemic injustice and oppression inflict. We stand in unity with all Black Americans and other communities of color throughout our country.

We salute the millions who have marched peaceably in our streets. We embrace demand for change – in law enforcement, policing tactics, the criminal justice systems, healthcare system, public and private education, employment opportunity and housing. We stand in solidarity against injustice and inequity. As Rotarians, we pledge our commitment to long-term, fundamental change in supporting anti-racist policies and practices to stamp out oppression and discrimination in our communities.

Rotary is dedicated to playing a positive role in educating, engaging in healing dialogue and finding ways to collaborate with business, government, academia and the non-profit sectors. We will explore ways to toot o ut systemic racism and seek greater equality, justice and inclusion.

In doing so, we will use t he Rotary Four Way Test as our guide in the things we think say or do:

Is it the TRUTH?

Is it FAIR to all concerned?

Will it build GOODWILL and BETTER FREINDSHIPS?

Will it be BENNEFICIAL to all concerned?

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Stop Anti-Asian Hate
 

The Rotary Club of Seattle – International District joins in solidarity with the thousands of Americans in extending our sympathies to the Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities following the tragic events in Atlanta on March 16. The hate and fearmongering aimed at our neighbors is yet another chapter in a long history of racism, prejudice and xenophobia against Asian Americans. Locally, we are deeply saddened by the attack on February 25 in the Chinatown International District of Noriko Nasu, a Japanese language teacher, when she was struck in the face by a man wielding a rock in a sock. She was seriously injured along with her boyfriend. While an arrest has been made, it is very troubling that this hatred occurred in our neighborhood. Sadly, many incidents go unreported.

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Since March 2020, the organization “Stop AAPI Hate” has collected nearly 3,000 reports from 47 states regarding racist attacks and harassment of members of the AAPI community. This deluge of attacks threatens the safety of our AAPI community and has caused them to live in fear every day. THIS MUST STOP. We must keep raising awareness and consciousness to condemn violence against our AAPI community.

We condemn these attacks and the racist rhetoric that fuels them. We can all work on being strong allies to our AAPI community by utilizing these resources to take action:

• Report a hate crime: https://stopaapihate.org/ and https://www.standagainsthatred.org/

• Volunteer to protect Chinatown International District elders and residents: https://www.cidcommunitywatch.com/

• Bystander Intervention Training: Sign-up for training here

The members of the Rotary Club of Seattle – International District feel a strong responsibility to make sure our families and neighbors are safe. Our Club members are participating in Anti-Asian Hate protests and demonstrations in Seattle, Burien, Bellevue and other locations. They are volunteering for bystander intervention training. Join us! We stand together against all forms of injustice.

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Approved by Club members and published on April 15, 2021.

Rotary Club of Seattle Resolution

(adapted from Penn State Dickinson Law School Faculty Resolution)

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes the ongoing systemic and perpetual racial and societal injustices in this country, which have been passed on from generation to generation; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes that these injustices have existed since the original sin of slavery and been furthered by Jim Crow laws and the unequal treatment of Black Americans in every system in our society – economic, healthcare, housing, and criminal justice; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle especially notes and is appalled by the numerous killings that have been committed against Black Americans under the cover of law and recognizes the lack of meaningful accountability for these injustices; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes the senseless brutality being committed by some of those employed to serve and protect who are operating under a pattern, practice and culture fostering unequal treatment; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes the need to have uncomfortable talks and real, honest, and transparent conversations directed towards addressing these injustices; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes the need to understand how so many feel dismissed, frustrated, invisible, and disillusioned, resulting in constant fears for their personal safety and leading to bearing psychological and emotional scars; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes that racism is an incessant malady and a scourge to the goal of a civilized society, and that systemic discrimination and unjust racial inequities continue to appall and to plague our nation; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes that we should not accept apathy, indifference, or silence to such ongoing violence and inequities, which otherwise allow hatred, prejudice, and intolerance to fester and grow; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes the need to engage peacefully, through protests or other means to make a meaningful difference towards societal change; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes that we have an obligation to fight ignorance and intolerance, model inclusivity, and embrace our differences and the power that diversity allows; and

WHEREAS the Rotary Club of Seattle recognizes the need to stand in solidarity with our members, friends, community leaders and their families who are Black, indigenous and people of color:

NOW, THEREFORE, BE IT RESOLVED that the Rotary Club of Seattle acknowledges that racism is an affliction that must be dismantled and we must do the work to become active antiracists in taking responsibility to condemn, that we need to identify and challenge systemic oppression wherever it exists, that we are all accountable for doing the work necessary for policy changes that perpetuate racial inequities in our society, that we will strive to become active allies of those who are the victims of racism.

BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, this resolution be preserved in the records and minutes of the Rotary Club of Seattle’s Board and prominently displayed on the Seattle Rotary Club of Seattle’s website.

Statement Denouncing Racism and the Marginalization of People

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(Based on the statement by the Yale Psychology Department Committee on Diversity and Inclusiveness and the Committee on Racial Equity and Justice)

Seattle Rotary denounces racism and the marginalization of people from any group and in any way. The most recent instances of bias, violence, and hate crimes toward members of our Asian, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities in response to Covid-19, affirms the need for us to take a strong position condemning such conduct.

We recognize that anti-Asian prejudice is only one form of systematic racism and abuse toward marginalized people that continues in our nation. Wherever it exists and to whomever it is directed, we adamantly and unequivocally condemn it.

We ask all to stand in solidarity with members of our community who are experiencing any form of racism, xenophobia, and marginalization. Consistent with this request, Seattle Rotary’s “Implementation and Action Plan to Address Racism and Social Justice” will incorporate effective strategies to address this and all forms of prejudice, stigmatization, and racism.

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