Nets' Joe Tsai Among Leaders of $250M AAPI Anti-Discrimination Effort

Brooklyn Nets governor Joe Tsai is helping lead a $250 million effort to support organizations and causes specific to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. 

Tsai is on the board of The Asian American Foundation, which was "founded to solve for the longstanding lack of investment in AAPI communities—particularly as anti-AAPI hate and violence persist at alarming rates," the group announced Monday. 

Tsai, who is the co-founder of Chinese tech company Alibaba, joined Yahoo co-founder Jerry Yang and several other influential Asian Americans in pledging a total of $125 million, while companies including Walmart, Bank of America, Ford and the NBA have contributed to another $125 million donation, according to Andrew Ross Sorkin and Edmund Lee of the New York Times. 

Former NBA player Jeremy Lin is among those on the group's advisory committee. 

The group is focused on anti-hate, data, research and education. According to Axios data posted on the foundation's website, one in four Asian Americans have experienced a hate incident. A report from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino showed hate crimes against Asians have grown 169 percent (h/t Kimmy Yam of NBC News). 

TAAF has already made investments in the first quarter of 2021, including separate $1 million donations to the Asian Americans Advancing Justice coalition, Stop AAPI Hate and the National Asian American Women's Forum. 

"We created TAAF to stand up for the 23 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders living in this country and help bring us all together in the fight for our own prosperity. TAAF wants to strengthen and build power for AAPIs, particularly as we face an exponential increase in hate and violence," TAAF President Sonal Shah said.