a rising tide

“What choice will we make? What world will we create? What will we be?”

—Ibram X. Kendi

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Originally, this piece was going to be called “The Trap of “Authenticity” and the Rewards of Cultural Colonization,” inspired by the Alison Roman and Chrissy Teigen drama and unpacking the political and socioeconomic nuances of “selling out” and “authenticity,” and the complex history of cultural ownership and invisible domestic labor of people of color as it pertains to the marginalization of Asian-Americans.

But after two very different incidents of racism—the attempted swatting of Christian Cooper and the tragic murder of George Floyd by police—it is impossible to discuss the oppression of Asian-Americans without acknowledging systemic racism and the importance of intersectionality.

As ”white adjacent,” Asian-Americans are simultaneously exploited by and excluded from white privilege; the “model minority” myth is both damaging to Asians and used as a tool of anti-Blackness. This is not to compare degrees of oppression, but to show that all minorities are equally worthless in the eyes of white supremacy, and that solidarity is the only solution. The real strength of minorities—racial minorities, the LGBTQ community, religious minorities—is the communities that we build, and for a long time, those communities have been insulated from one another without much effort. Under white supremacy, everyone else loses and we need to stop playing egalitarianism as a zero-sum game. A rising tide lifts all boats.

For the Asian-American community, our obligation to help is both moral and practical. Standing up for the Black community is the right thing to do, but it is also the first step in dismantling a racist system that keeps minority communities marginalized. If you are outraged by Asian-Americans being associated with the coronavirus and the increase of anti-Asian incidents, then you should be angry about this too. We need to stop thinking about our relationship with the Black community in terms of reciprocity. There is no comfortable metaphor for their experience that will make sense to you.

The Alison Roman incident is merely an expression of white supremacy and capitalism, two systems that govern our society and are equally oppressive. Comparing a food writer’s rant to the institutional murder of Black citizens can feel melodramatic, but these systems are inextricably tied. It is both the reason that a white woman believed she could weaponize the police against a peaceful birdwatcher and the reason that George Floyd’s was murdered with the camera rolling. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. once wrote that he feared the white moderate more than the KKK, people that demand order and civility (or “authenticity”) while upholding the racist systems that kill Black people by the thousands every year. Sure, we could focus on the glaring racism that’s easy to call out, like people that wear Blackface or make the slanty-eyed gesture in photos, but it’s much more interesting (and arguably more important) to examine the subtler and perhaps far more nefarious ways in which white supremacy is maintained and enforced by non-Black liberals.

Today is the last day of Asian Pacific American Heritage Month. It’s also the 99th anniversary of the 1921 Tulsa race massacre in Oklahoma, the “single worst incident of racial violence in American History,” in which a white mob descended on the affluent Black community known as “Black Wall Street,” slaughtered hundreds of Black Americans, and burned and looted their businesses. The whole world is watching to see how we will respond. And it’s important that we stand as allies with the Black community at this literal life-or-death moment in history.

This is a living document and will be updated accordingly. If you have any additional resources or suggestions, please email me or use the contact form.

do your homework

1. research & fact check

Don’t rely on Black people to educate you or snippets you see on social media—research the movement to understand both the current situation and the historical context.

I. George Floyd and current protests

II. Police violence, the prison-industrial complex in America, and the origins of #BlackLivesMatter

III. Amy Cooper, manufactured hysteria, and the role of white women in white supremacy

IV. Systemic racism, oppression, and anti-Blackness in America

support the movement and community

Some resource lists:

1. sign petitions

If you live internationally and cannot sign petitions without an American postal code, use any of these:

90015, Los Angeles, CA
10001, New York, NY
75001, Dallas, TX

I. No actions taken (still need signatures and public pressure!)

II. Actions taken (justice pending; arrests made, officers charged, authorities resigned)

III. General legislative action and social justice

2. donate

Do not donate to Shaun King or any of his affiliated organizations (The North Star, Real Justice PAC, The Action PAC) or Change.org. Shaun King has been repeatedly accused of falsifying fundraisers and it is unclear how the profits are distributed [1] [2] [3], and Change.org is a for-profit company that does not redistribute donations [1] [2] [3]. If you are donating by Venmo or CashApp, do not mention anything related to Black Lives Matter, George Floyd, justice, bail, protests, etc. in the description; your payment could be canceled.

Why fixing the US bail system is tricky, Vox (a practical case for donating to bail funds)

Don’t know where to donate? Start here, @sir_twitch_alot

I. Black grassroots organizations and mutual aid funds

  • Black Lives Matter: The official #BlackLivesMatter Global Network that builds power to bring justice, healing, and freedom to Black people across the globe

  • Women for Political Change: A Minnesota-based non-profit network of young women and trans/non-binary folks building political power

  • National Bail Out: A Black-led, Black-centered collective of abolitionist organizers, lawyers, and activists building a community-based movement to end systems of pretrial detention and ultimately mass incarceration

  • The Audre Lord Project: An LGBTQ people of color community organizing center focused on the NYC area

  • Gas mask fund for Black youth in Minneapolis

  • Mutual Aid Fund for Sex Workers of Color on GoFundMe

  • Black Earth Farms (Venmo in bio): A grassroots pan-African and pan-indigenous farming collective that provides free meals for Black folks in the Bay Area

  • Black Futures Labs: A project that helps Black people transform their communities, build Black political power, and change the way that power operates on local, statewide, and national levels by engaging Black voters year-round

  • The Okra Project: A collective that brings home-cooked, healthy, and culturally specific meals to Black trans people

  • The Black Trans Travel Fund: A mutual aid fund that provides Black transgender women in New York and New Jersey with financial resources to pay for car services in both states

  • Trans Women of Color Survival Fund: Assists with a range of financial needs for trans women of color including food, car fare, hygiene products, clothing; they also focus on restorative justice and building socioeconomic growth and development for its members

  • Homeless Black Trans women fund on GoFundMe

  • Emergency Release Fund is a grassroots organization that is committed to keeping transgender people in New York City out of jail

  • Black Trans Protestors Emergency Fund: Supports Black trans protestors with resources such as bail and medical care

II. Memorial crowdfunding

III. Social justice and advocacy organizations

  • The ACLU: The American Civil Liberties Union works in the courts, legislatures and communities to defend and preserve the individual rights and liberties guaranteed to all people in this country by the Constitution and laws of the United States (read more here)

  • NAACP Legal Defense and Educational Fund: America’s premier legal organization fighting for racial justice through litigation, advocacy, and public education

  • Southern Poverty Law Center: An organization dedicated to fighting hate and seeking justice for the most vulnerable members of society

  • Voices for Racial Justice: An organization committed to building power through collective cultural and healing strategies for racial justice across Minnesota using organizing, leadership training, community policy & research

  • Campaign Zero: The comprehensive platform of research-based policy solutions to end police brutality in America

  • Communities Against Police Brutality: Offers support for survivors of police brutality and families of victims so they can reclaim their dignity and join the struggle to end police brutality

  • Communities for Police Reform: A coalition to end discriminatory policing practices in New York, bringing together a movement of community members, lawyers, researchers and activists to work for change

  • National Police Accountability Project: A project of the National Lawyers Guild to promote the accountability of law enforcement officers and their employers for violations of the Constitution and the laws of the United States

  • Equal Justice Initiative: An organization dedicated to end mass incarceration and excessive punishment in the United States, challenge racial and economic injustice

  • We Are Done Dying: An NAACP initiative focused on criminal justice reform that ensures the protection of Black lives

  • Know Your Rights Camp Legal Defense Initiative: An initiative committed to providing legal resources to those in need

  • Emergency Release Fund: Bail fund for New York state trans inmates in dangerous conditions due to COVID-19

  • The Ramsey Orta Welcome Home Fund: The man who was put in jail for filming Eric Garner’s death

IV. Community bail funds, mutual aid funds, and other resources for cities affected:

3. contact your representatives and demand justice and policy reform

Join the #8Can’tWait campaign and check to see if your city enacts the eight policies that could reduce police violence up to 72% (it’s a small start, but it’s something!); if not, you can find your mayor’s contact information

  • By phone call

    1. [Minneapolis, MN] District Attorney Mike Freeman (612) 348-5550 & Mayor Jacob Frey (612) 673-2100: Demand that the four officers involved in the murder of George Floyd—Derek Chauvin (Badge 1087), Tou Thao (Badge 7162), Thomas Lane, and J. Alexander Kueng are charged and brought to justice

    2. [Louisville, KY] Mayor Greg Fisher (502) 753-1784: Demand that the chief of police be fired for the mishandling of protests and police violence, and that Johnathan Mattingly, Brett Hankison, and Myles Cosgrove be charged for the murder of Breonna Taylor and fired without a pension

    3. 5Calls: A service that provides phone numbers for causes you care about and sends you weekly email reminders

    4. Defund the NYPD by contacting the city’s budget department before July 1st, @_erichu (here is a commitment tracker from @LuMerriam)

  • By email

    1. Here are some email templates based on data-backed policy changes + where to send them

    2. Email government officials and council members to reallocate egregious police budgets towards education, social services, and dismantling racial inequality with one click

    3. Email policereview@minneapolismn.gov, minneapolis311@minneapolismn.gov, police@minneapolismn.gov, or citizeninfo@hennepin.us (I’ve included an email template, so all you have to do is fill it out!)

    4. How to Email Your Mayor About Police Reform by @kavittaghai

    5. Pre-written email templates demanding justice for George Floyd and Breonna Taylor 

    6. Email Mayor Greg Fisher and demand Justice for Breonna Taylor

    7. Email the United Nations on behalf of the NAACP to declare the mistreatment of Black people in the United States a human rights violation and impose sanctions, @VivaLaNneoma (I’ve already added her email template)

    8. Email with one click to defund the LAPD (email template included)

    9. Autofill email to disband the Portland Police Department

    10. Autofill email to defund Multnomah County racist policing

  • By texting

    1. Text FLOYD to 55156 to demand that the officers responsible for the murder George Floyd are charged

    2. Text ENOUGH to 55156 to demand justice for Breonna Taylor

    3. Text JUSTICE to 55156 to demand that District Attorneys George Barnhill and Jackie Johnson are removed from office

    4. Text Resistbot (50409) any number of keywords for information and actions

4. show solidarity by joining a protest

Make sure you stay safe! Do not agitate the police and try to protect Black/brown people and deescalate when you can. If you witness violence, do not share pictures/videos of protesters (i.e. minimize harm by practicing responsible reporting) that can be used to identify them later.

5. if you can’t protest or donate, find other ways to amplify the movement

6. support black businesses

7. check on your black friends

practice allyship

1. acknowledge your privilege (and understand your limits)

You can be simultaneously oppressed and privileged. Privilege does not mean that you don’t have problems; it just means that worrying about being murdered isn’t one of them.

“If you are neutral in situations of injustice, you have chosen the side of the oppressor.”

—Desmond Tutu

I. White privilege and complicity in white supremacy (for white people and non-Black minorities)

II. The historical case for solidarity among minority communities and intersectionality

III. Useful and practical allyship and emapthy

III. On riots and looting

We know through painful experience that freedom is never voluntarily given by the oppressor; it must be demanded by the oppressed.

—Martin Luther King Jr.

2. work toward becoming anti-racist

It is your personal responsibility to actively seek out ways to be a good ally; it is not the job of Black people to teach you.

The beauty of anti-racism is that you don’t have to pretend to be free of racism to be an anti-racist. Anti-racism is the commitment to fight racism wherever you find it, including in yourself. And it’s the only way forward.

—Ijeoma Oluo

3. contact your representatives and advocate for legislation

4. start conversations and keep momentum going

Be aware that immigrants may not have the same privilege to speak out against injustice, but sometimes the most effective form of activism is changing attitudes in your own home.

5. remember the lives of the countless other victims

6. raise awareness

Talk about this with your friends and family; use your platforms no matter their size to advocate for equality and the abolition of police violence. Use the hashtags, share resources on social.

  • Remember: Silence is complicity

  • An ongoing thread of daily hashtags from @rosiegguks

  • Don’t spread violent or traumatic imagery

  • [thread] A guide to virtually protesting, @sa.liine

  • Consider your use of social media in giving space to Black voices; don’t use this as a way to signal your own activism but rather to support the messages of the Black community

  • What you can do beyond posting, @venusx

  • [thread] Questions to ask yourself when posting about race on social media, @carolinepritchardwrites

REMEMBER: The most important part is to keep going; even when it’s not trending anymore, even when the protests have subsided, even when it feels exhausting. All 50 states are protesting; we are witnessing the largest civil rights movement in history. Keep your foot on the gas. #BLACKLIVESMATTER

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culturejayemseyAlison Roman, Chrissy Teigen, Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, systemic racism, authenticity, privilege, cultural colonization, white supremacy, cultural appropriation, George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Black Lives Matter, police violence, protests, anti-racism, Asian AmericanComment