Fighting for Our Existence: Talanoas of Survival and Resistance at San Francisco State

Although Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AA&PI) represent 29 percent of San Francisco State University’s (SF State, 2021d) student body and have one of the nation’s largest Asian American Studies Departments, we continue to fight for our existence within higher education. This essay focuses on the development of AA&PI Student Services’ response and praxis to COVID-19, anti-Asian racism, and anti-Blackness in the AA&PI community. As we faced enormous challenges of a global pandemic, we began to see the connection of what was happening in the world within our own lives. Grounded with the legacy of Ethnic Studies and Community Responsive Pedagogy, we employ the critical race methodology of counterstorytelling (Solórzano & Yosso, 2002) and Talanoa Research Method (Tecun et al., 2018; Vaioleti, 2013) to center our experiences