Join Restaurants In The #Doughsomething Campaign To Fight Against Anti-Asian Racism

The rise in anti-Asian hate crimes is steadily becoming a cause for concern throughout the entire country. While I live in a fairly diverse area, I still feel like I have to look over my shoulder during the rare times I'm out. I'm concerned for my family, my friends, and my fellow Asians in a new, more immediately troubling way. But it's always encouraging to see people banding together in solidarity, and a new campaign called #doughsomething is bringing restaurants and chefs together to benefit Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a national organization with affiliates throughout the country.

Each restaurant involved is creating dough-based dishes—the "dough" in #doughsomething—with a portion of those proceeds going to AAJC to finance bystander intervention trainings. The campaign will last through the month of April.

"We need to come together in solidarity to help with awareness and support to fight AAPI hate," Beverly Kim, chef and owner of the restaurants Parachute and Wherewithall in Chicago, says in a press release. "As chefs and restaurateurs, we can use our platforms through food to bring our communities together as a united front. Through food, we seek to bring communities together to fight injustice, heal and celebrate diversity. It is so sad that the scapegoating of this pandemic has led to even more hate crimes and alienation of the AAPI community. We no longer can be complicit and let this slide—it's time to say enough is enough and #doughsomething."

Darnell Reed, chef and owner of Luella's Southern Kitchen in Chicago adds, "As an African American with Asian family and two Asian daughters I've experienced hate from a multitude of angles. What makes this country so great is all the different cultures/races that have contributed to positively influencing the way we live in America. We need to live up to our 'United' name and make hate unforgivable. Hate is the root of our problem and racial hate is at the forefront. What's disturbing for me is I know we aren't going to win this battle with words. Actions are necessary."The list of restaurants participating can be found here. There are dozens, mostly in the Chicago area, but more are being added to the list from other parts of the country, so expect that selection to grow bigger. If there's an option by you, go grab some dough and give us all a hand in fighting against hate.