Note to the Sixth Street Community on Anti-Asian Racism in America

Below is a note sent today to the Sixth Street team that we wanted to share with the rest of our community:

Dear Colleagues,

At Sixth Street, we’ve had many meaningful conversations over the past year about structural inequities in our country and how to be an anti-racist. The news last week of the horrific murder of eight people in Atlanta, six of whom were women of Asian descent, sparked another important discussion.

We don’t say this enough: The fear and pain that the Asian community in America is facing is real. I’ve seen the impact on those close to me, including family members of Chinese descent.  The sharp rise of anti-Asian hate crimes since the start of the pandemic has created a climate of fear, and has tapped into anti-Asian sentiment that has a long, significant, and largely unacknowledged history in the United States. 

Our team spent time last week listening to members of our Pan-Asian EAG share their stories and knowledge. We heard teammates talk about how they no longer feel safe in neighborhoods they have always known as home. These dangers – racism, hatred, violence – are always unacceptable and wrong, and they have to stop. 

At Sixth Street, we intend to keep addressing discriminatory actions and sentiment that pervade our communities. As we continue to learn together as an organization, we want to encourage everyone as individuals to spread awareness, have conversations, and support your Asian and Pacific Islander colleagues, friends, families, and local communities.

We are proud to have a firm willing to have these conversations, to acknowledge our blind spots, and to be clear and vocal as an organization that there is no place at Sixth Street for racism, sexism, discrimination, intimidation or ridicule in any form.

Sixth Street is contributing to Stop AAPI Hate, Ascend Leadership Foundation, and the Chinese-American Planning Council, all of which work to further anti-racist efforts across the United States. We encourage everyone to support these great organizations in telling stories that aren’t told enough.

We hope that, with our words and with our acts, we are making some modest contribution to the important work of calling things what they are, and rededicating ourselves to a core tenet of our culture, which is that we always have each other’s backs.

Vijay Mohan

Co-Founding Partner and Co-Senior Sponsor of the Sixth Street Pan-Asian EAG