Thank you for your interest in the We Choose Resistance: National Call on Black and Asian Solidarity. Thank you to our co-host Alicia Garza, Black Lives Matter and our speakers Patrisse Marie Cullors-Brignac, Black Lives Matter; Scot Nakagawa, ChangeLab; Kabzuag Vaj, Southeast Asian Freedom Network and Freedom Inc.; Fahd Ahmed, DRUM – South Asian Organizing Center. Already, this call and this movement has sparked more conversations and actions across the country!
As you all listen to the call, we wanted to share a couple reflections. This growing movement has inspired and opened up space for new people to take action in support of Black liberation as central to our collective liberation. This is also historical. The Asian American movement and many of our grassroots organization were inspired by the Black liberation movement and do Black and Asian solidarity in our day-to-day work.
This is also an opportunity for us to examine how we show up for people who are invisibilized in our own community. As DRUM put out in their Questions to the Movement: “As we acknowledge black communities as a whole bearing the brunt of state violence, what members of our communities do we invisibilize due to multiple systems of oppression in our societies?” As Asian folks, we must ask ourselves: How do we show up for women, the poor, queer and transgendered folks? How do we show up for Arab and Muslim community and Southeast Asian communities who are primary targets of police and state violence in our own community? How do we show up and take the lead from folks in our own community? Showing up for Black Lives must also mean showing up for our own community.
Here are some of the next steps we want people to think about. This was put out on the call as well:
- ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE, ORGANIZE: Hold conversations and discussions at about anti-Black racism in your school, community and with your friends and family.
- DONATE to the Ferguson Legal Fund
- GET INVOLVED with a grassroots organization near you! We know that this is beyond just Mike Brown and Eric Warner – it is about indicting the entire system and how we do this solidarity work for the long haul. Here are some groups to consider around the country, Southeast Asian Freedom Network , CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities, Desis Rising Up and Moving!, Providence Youth Students Movement, Freedom Inc., 1Love Movement, VAYLA, Khmer Girls in Action, Mekong, and APEN
- SHOW UP and TAKE ACTION: It is important for Asian American communities to show up for Black Lives and take the lead from Black communities. This also means engaging, reaching out and taking initiative. Stay up to date here: http://fergusonaction.com/ As mentioned above, we should also use this moment to talk about how to show up for folks marginalized in our own community, especially the Arab and Muslim community and Southeast Asian communities who are primary targets of police and state violence in our own community.
- JOIN THE CONVERSATION: We know these are not easy conversations to have in our movement and community but they are necessary. After you listen to the call, please send us your reflections, questions, and feedback to inform our next call. Send us a Facebook message and or Email change@seeding-change.org
Some Guiding Questions for your conversations from DRUM, revised by ChangeLab
RESOURCES and LINKS
- Five Things You Can Do Right Now, Soya Jung
- SEAFN statement
- DRUM’s Questions to the Movement
- WHY #BLACKLIVESMATTER?, A Herstory of the #BlackLivesMatter Movement by Alicia Garza
- For other Asian American statements and articles in support of Black Lives
Photo Credit: Bay Area Solidarity