Categories
Blog

What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice

On November 9, 2015, a tent encampment set up on the University of Missouri Columbia’s campus quad erupted in celebration. President Tim Wolfe, who student protesters charged with failing to address campus racism, had announced his resignation.

Amidst cheers, tears, and a mass rendition of “We Shall Overcome,” a new controversy emerged. A six-minute viral video clip showed a student reporter named Tim Tai, who is Asian American, being physically blocked by a group of protesters demanding the media stay out of the encampment.

“I don’t have to move back. I have a job to do,” the video shows an … Read more “What Asian Americans Are Bringing to Campus Movements for Racial Justice”

Categories
Blog

Real national security demands an end to white supremacy.

The following is a statement by Asian and Pacific Islander organizations in Washington State to express solidarity with Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities facing violent anti-Muslim backlash. While the statement is specific to Washington, we encourage organizations in other parts of the country to use it as a model for their own public statements. 

Research shows that since the attacks of 9/11, the largest number of terrorist attacks in the United States have come not from Muslim communities, but from violent white supremacist, antigovernment, and other antidemocratic groups. Yet this fact has not been the basis for America’s War … Read more “Real national security demands an end to white supremacy.”

Categories
Blog

Today’s API movement: confronting racism, capitalism, and war

 

Over the past year, growing numbers of Asian Americans have taken up the call for #ModelMinorityMutiny, rightly pointing out the falsehood of Asian American uplift, but more importantly, rejecting the very idea that chasing after such a precarious and inhumane notion of success is something even worth doing. In reality, Asian Americans have been mutinying for a while now. In this spirit, several people asked me to share the following remarks, given during a recent panel discussion titled, “What Can Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Do About Racial Justice?” at the National CAPACD conference in Washington, D.C. Hopefully … Read more “Today’s API movement: confronting racism, capitalism, and war”

Categories
Blog

Using Unreasonable Force for Speaking No English

What was really on trial in the Sureshbhai Patel case?

In early September, a jury in Huntsville, Alabama, began to hear testimony in the case of Eric Parker, a white police officer who faced federal charges for violating the civil rights of Sureshbhai Patel, a 57-year-old Indian immigrant and grandfather. On September 11th, the jury of ten white men and two Black women reached a stalemate in their deliberations for the third time, leading the judge to declare a mistrial. What happened during the trial should concern all Asian Americans and anyone working on police brutality cases.

The facts in … Read more “Using Unreasonable Force for Speaking No English”

Categories
Blog Guest Bloggers

Register for Asian American Studies, NOW.

First year in college? Back to campus? If you haven’t registered for Asian American Studies here are 3 reasons why you need to NOW.

They went back to campus, but they didn’t go to class. Instead, students at San Francisco State went on strike for five months, the longest academic student strike in American higher education history, and shut down their university. Their peaceful protests for the admission of a greater number of minority students, an education that reflected their families’ and ancestors’ histories and experiences, as well as more community control of their education, were met with violent police … Read more “Register for Asian American Studies, NOW.”

Categories
Blog

On Solidarity, “Centering Anti-Blackness,” and Asian Americans

As a long-time racial justice worker – a grey head in a movement mainly made up of young people – earnest young Asian Americans, anxious to acknowledge the pivotal role anti-Black racism plays in the perpetuation of white supremacy, often ask me how to “center anti-Blackness” in Asian American racial justice activism. I am as often asked that question by white progressives who aspire to become allies in the Movement for Black Lives.

My answer is simple. Acknowledge the leadership of Black Lives Matter and use the political space and opportunity the movement has created – including the 24/7 media … Read more “On Solidarity, “Centering Anti-Blackness,” and Asian Americans”

Categories
Blog

The Bernie Sanders Kerfuffle, #blacklivesmatter, and White Progressive Colorblindness

I lived for nearly 25 years in Portland, Oregon. There I staffed an organization dedicated to fighting vigilante white supremacists. In order to fight the white right, we built a base that was made up almost entirely of white progressives. I also served as the Executive Director of the McKenzie River Gathering Foundation, a financial resource for progressive causes in Oregon. The foundation is supported almost entirely by wealthy white progressives. During my years in Portland, I also worked to end the prison build-up through a group made up of incarcerated people and their loved ones. The prison population … Read more “The Bernie Sanders Kerfuffle, #blacklivesmatter, and White Progressive Colorblindness”

Categories
Blog

Part II: An Interview with Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom

(Check out Part I: #ChinkHumor and Sweden’s Race Problem)

“[A] strong tradition of “gook humor” [is] alive and well to this day, where comedy is based around ridiculing and degrading East Asian bodies, supports the notion that somehow the Asian body is less than human.”
— Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, Illustrater and Comic Artist

I had the pleasure of finding Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom’s beautiful and powerful illustrations online after reading an article she coauthored with a fellow Korean adoptee and scholar Tobias Hübinette. The article was a response to a yellowface sketch by an all-male comedy troupe called ”Killinggänget”. … Read more “Part II: An Interview with Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom”

Categories
Blog

Part I: #ChinkHumor and Sweden’s Race Problem

(Check out Part II: An Interview with Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom)

“Racial biology taught the general population to differentiate between the superior Aryan race and undesirable others, communication to the public at large through literature, films and cartoons directly.”
-Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, Illustrator & Cartoonist

Last month, I found this article on the Internets that talked about “Gook Humor”—or, more broadly, “Chink Humor”—in Sweden. The article was a response to a long-standing yellowface sketch (think Saturday Night Live) by a popular comedy collective called Killinggänget, co-authored by illustrator and comic book artist extraordinaire Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom and Swedish race and … Read more “Part I: #ChinkHumor and Sweden’s Race Problem”

Categories
Blog

In Mexico with Frida Kahlo

Today is the birthday of the great Mexican artist, Frida Kahlo. To honor the occasion, I’ve reposted this article, written while in Mexico in 2010. 

Here in Mexico, images of Frida Kahlo are everywhere.  She peers from the shelves and walls of tourist shops where her image is emblazoned on handbags, t-shirts, masks, and children’s toys.  In the homes of friends, Frida is on tissue boxes and table cloths, refrigerator magnets and matchboxes.  So ubiquitous are images of her face that I occasionally feel as if she is watching me.

On a recent trip to Mexico City, I visited the … Read more “In Mexico with Frida Kahlo”