Tag: black lives matter

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Anti-Black Racism is Still the Fulcrum of White Supremacy

In a highly globalized society, with mass migration driving rapid change in the racial demography, both of the world and of the U.S., racial attacks and racism itself have grown much more complex, making last century understandings of the racial context less useful or even misleading. Whiteness, however, is still at the center of American culture, even as its power as a normative force is slowly eroding while it simultaneously becomes less invisible in the ways it exercises power.

Even with all of these changes, I continue to view anti-black racism as the nut of American racism. Poor black people … Read more “Anti-Black Racism is Still the Fulcrum of White Supremacy”

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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”

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Racial Tension in the City

Yesterday I had a conversation about race and gentrification in a cab. I ride in a lot of cabs, and this was the third conversation I’ve had on this topic with drivers. But this time was different. Normally, the conversation starts with some version of “there goes the city…” This time, the conversation began with “what’s that?!”

“That” referred to a construction site in downtown Oakland, California, the city across the Bay from San Francisco, the fourth fastest gentrifying city in the country. Oakland is the destination for San Francisco’s rent refugees, myself among them, who’ve escaped to the East … Read more “Racial Tension in the City”

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When Blacks and Asians Clash

Pictured Above: RadAsians a group of anti-racist, feminist, anti-homophobic, trans-inclusive Asian-identified students at UNC Chapel Hill. For more information please check out:

Media stories about clashes between Asians and Blacks during the ongoing uprising in Baltimore, Maryland have been getting a lot of attention over the last week or so. There was this one on NPR, that at least attempted to offer a balanced view, and this one in the Daily Beast that, not surprisingly, didn’t. In the end, most of the coverage is incomplete, and more designed to drive page views than provide real news.

Jeff Yang … Read more “When Blacks and Asians Clash”

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Bringing the Model Minority Mutiny Home

This fall, in the wake of the shooting death of Michael Brown, and in the face of the mounting Black body count at the hands of law enforcement, ChangeLab put out a call for a Model Minority Mutiny. We called on Asian Americans to stand up against the model minority myth as an act of self-liberation from a humiliating, trivializing, and dehumanizing stereotype that has, for too long, been used as a justification for labeling Black communities as “problem” minorities, and excluding and criminalizing Black people.

Many Asian Americans were already part of the mobilization. Many more are … Read more “Bringing the Model Minority Mutiny Home”