Welcome to Around the Table!
Today we talk about Anti-Blackness, BLM, and a (brief) History of Asian Americans
About This Newsletter
Hello! First things first, thank you so much for signing up for this newsletter. We, Jamie and Melinda, are mostly motivated by personal questions to make an effort at consolidating information and experiences related to Asian American identity. We never realized how much we lacked in way of related informal education, news, and content, and this is one of our many efforts to learn and build coalitions in a community that has felt rather fractured and isolated... which brings us to our name. Food often brings our communities together—and we hope that this newsletter encourages and supports the light- and heavy-hearted conversations on such topics around the table!
The structure, like all things, is in flux, but for now, our idea is to focus the top half on news and the bottom half on historical and cultural content. Both of us are second-gen Chinese Americans and can only speak to our own experiences, but we want to contribute to an understanding of shared history within the AAPI community. When we refer to the term "Asian American" in this newsletter and beyond, we mean to expand beyond the experiences of just East Asians, encompassing a broader scope to include South and Southeast Asia. That said, we are definitely not a be-all-end-all authority on any subject. We're writing this in our personal efforts to learn (and to be held accountable for that learning) and to be better friends, allies, activists, and members of the community. If you have any recommendations, complaints, things you would like to see or have people and stories you want to highlight, please email us at aroundthetablenewsletter@gmail.com or fill out this form. If, for some reason, you actually like this, forward it to a friend and have them sign up here!
Thank you for taking the time to read this! We've found that many people want a space to figure out and talk about these issues. Please email us (we created this 24 hours ago)! We will read your responses - whatever thoughts you have. At some point, we were given the advice to include a response prompt to help people reflect, so here goes nothing:
In the context of AAPI identity, how have you navigated conversations and activism around racial justice, the Black Lives Matters movement, and protests? What steps have you taken? What has made you frustrated/confused? What have you learned? If you haven't had conversations/participated, we understand! Is there anything in particular that makes you hesitant?
#BlackLivesMatter and Asian Americans
We're now in week 3 of protests for #BlackLivesMatter since the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. His death instigated protests in all 50 states and across the globe, protests against the systemic racism and injustices faced by the Black community. To note a few signs of progress: all four officers involved in George Floyd's murder have been charged; NYC's mayor has pledged for the first time to cut the city's police funding; Minneapolis has banned the use of chokeholds by police; and Louisville, Kentucky has banned "No-Knock" Warrants (a practice that led to Breonna Taylor's killing by police).
But the work is far, far from over.
Discussions on systemic racism have propagated across media outlets and social media, into homes, group chats, and video calls with family and friends. As you might be experiencing too, it's tough to have these conversations and to find common ground with others on the realities of systemic racism and what we need to do about it.
You might've been seeing a lot of resource guides out there on what to read and do, and we're amazed that so many people have been putting these together. Here are just a couple that we found helpful.
👋 If you are new to this space (welcome!), read here for an overview of the History of Racism in the US. It covers things like historical context, systemic inequality, protests, allyship, and education among other things. We really like this resource!
South Asian Americans Leading Together (SAALT) emphasizes the importance of really listening to the needs of Black communities from Black leaders and uplifting their voices, then reading up on anti-Blackness in our Asian communities. For us, this is a crucial point. As allies, especially within the Asian American community, there is a tendency to center ourselves in conversations about race. We can and need to be so much better about making space for and uplifting black voices. The next step is then to join or start conversations on anti-Blackness and the action we can take - again they list several awesome guides. Finally, we should contribute our resources to Black communities if we are able.
There are so many ways the AAPI community can do for black and brown communities, and many individuals and organizations have found unique ways to help (ex. demonstrating and protesting, phone banking, healing spaces, virtual roundtables, fundraising, etc...).
Talkin to the 'Rents
So... you educate yourself about systemic racism and finally decide to bring it up in conversation with your parents/older members of your community. Hit 'em with those stats, link 'em some articles, critique them for their displays of anti-blackness. Sometimes, they get it. Sometimes, they come back at you with that "Asian Americans are discriminated against too", WeChat group rhetoric, Law and Order 101, the Immigrant Experience, and - my personal favorite - the Obama brainwash conspiracy. You leave in anger and frustration (and sometimes tears - from personal experience).
Big mood.
It can be SO SO difficult to have conversations like these - content aside, language barriers, age, community power structures, and financial support make talking that much harder. We offer our sympathies and support - we've been at this for years, and successes are few and far between, but sometimes, they come unexpectedly.
Our 2 cents: Progress comes from repeated conversations, and talking works better than writing. If you have trouble starting, try writing your thoughts out on paper and using that as a personal guide. Watch videos together. Have a friend that you can bounce ideas/frustrations off of - it feels like that Asian parents can be united through their different community circles, and talking to them can feel like an incredibly isolating experience. Know that there's a community behind you as well, and we are all trying for these difficult but necessary interactions. Bring in support from siblings, or even other families. It's a slow, annoying process that makes you want to take up boxing as a sport. Nobody likes to think that they are problematic (good article that documents general responses), and defensive stances are natural. Remember the anger that you feel, but also recognize that you are trying to change someone's worldview. Dialogue turns into action, and we all have a part to play.
Resources
Short videos in Punjabi on #BLM from The Jakara Movement could be shared with family members and friends to help start conversations. You can find similar videos from the initiative #LettersForBlackLives on Dear Asian Americans' Instagram account, where there are readings of letters in Mandarin Chinese, Cantonese Chinese, Tamil, Burmese, and Korean (and of course English too) on the importance and urgency of #BLM.
Many Instagram posts offer a starter pack on how to start the conversation with your Asian family members, especially since most of us may have not addressed the topic of racism with them before. The tips are (1) coming to an agreement that the murders of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor at the hands of police were NOT OK and that they did not deserve to die; (2) questioning anti-Black viewpoints parents have said in the past; (3) clarifying that the oppression of Black people does not discount their immigrant struggles; (4) asking why we glorify whiteness and demonize blackness in Asian cultures; and (5) knowing that these conversations will be awkward and hard but incredibly important—keep on having them! You don’t have to accomplish everything at once. It’s hard, but we believe in you!
There are awesome vocabulary banks in Mandarin (with pinyin! 😎). These are keywords we would need in a conversation with our parents on systemic racism, white supremacy, discrimination—we're hoping to sprinkle these phrases in as we continue to talk to our family at the dinner table.
Having stats on hand has helped in our experience, so come prepared with some history of the racism of police in America.
We are here to support you! Tell us about your experience, your thoughts, and your progress. If there are any questions you have, feel free to email us (or fill out this anonymous form), and we are happy to track down resources that you may want. For those who are heavily involved in activism, we would like to hear from you as well!
👀 A (not so) brief look at Asian American History
A few weeks ago, PBS launched a series called "Asian Americans" by Renee Tajima-Peña to tell the abridged version of history in 5 parts. We strongly suggest that you check it out! When we were in school, we were never exposed to formalized discussions on Asian American history or issues, and talking with a majority immigrant population, we've always felt like we lacked the context to understand where "we" fit in among the many migrants and movement.
But, the collective Asian American history goes pretty far back in time. The first recorded settlements of Filipinos in America occurred in 1763, but individuals from the Philippines and China had been on the continent since the 1600s when they came over on Spanish trading ships known as Manila Galleon. It wasn't until the1848, when gold was discovered in California, that migration took off. After economic troubles following the Opium Wars and flooding, Chinese men came as miners and workers on the transcontinental railroad, hoping to stay temporarily and return home years later. Their arrival was not received well - following the anti-immigrant sentiment that ostracized Irish Catholics years prior, Chinese and other Asian immigrants were discriminated against, unable to testify against white people (People v. Hall), barred from entry (Page Law), and ineligible for citizenship (In re Ah Yup).
In 1882, Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which barred immigration for 10 years but was extended to an indefinite period in 1904 amid rising nativist sentiments. In the same period of time, the Japanese arrive as contract laborers in Hawaii, and eventually, Korean workers are brought in as strikebreakers against them. In the late 1800s, South Asians become more prominent in the US; Muslim Bengalis arrive in New Orleans and, eventually, integrate with communities of color in the North. Sikh men from Punjab migrate to the west coast of Canada, and many married Catholic Mexican women. In 1899, the US enters the Philippine-American War. The Treaty of Paris at the end of the Spanish-American War transferred sovereignty of the Philippines to US rule, and Filipino revolutionaries fought for independence against US imperialist rule. 1917 marks an immigration law that defines a "geographic barred zone", including India, in Asia from which immigration is banned (To give a little context, this is around the time that the Great Migration begins). Citizenship privileges are further revoked for Japanese(Takao Ozawa v. US) and Indian (US v. Bhagat Singh Thind) immigrants.
The 1924 Immigration Act, which establishes quotas at 2% of existing populations, effectively denies entry to all Asians. Filipino farmworkers face discrimination and riots, but they become involved in organized labor, especially following plans for independence in 1934 (not actual until 1946) and the AFL charter of The Filipino Federated Agricultural Laborers Association in 1941.
As the US enters WWII, people of Japanese descent are rounded up in internment camps under FDR's Executive Order 9066 (upheld in Korematsu v. US). It was not until 1976 that the order was officially rescinded and until the 1980s when Congress would declare internment a "grave injustice" and offer an apology and 20k in reparations to surviving internees.
Midcentury developments occur in conjunction with social changes pioneered by the Civil Rights Movement. The first Asian American senators (Daniel Inouye and Spark Matsunaga) are elected in 1962, and two years later, Patsy Mink becomes the first Asian American woman to represent Hawaii in Congress. In 1964, Hiram Fong became the first Asian American candidate for president in the Republican primaries. 1965 is a watershed year in Asian American history as the "national origins" quotas are abolished. Beginnings of chain migration occur as families reunite, and high levels of scientific education are prioritized in the process. South Asian presence expands, particularly professionals. Ethnic studies programs are created when students at SFSU and UC Berkeley go on strike in 1968-69, and the term "Asian American" is created by Yuji Ichioka and Emma Gee, who were inspired by the Black Power Movement and anti-war protests.
Yet, not all is well. Regional conflicts in Asia arise, partially heated by the Cold War between the US and the Soviet Union. Indochina wars in Vietnam, Laos, and Cambodia, US involvement in the Korean War between 1950-1953, and the Vietnam War sparked a wave of over 130k refugees entering the US, primarily from Vietnam ("boat people"), Kampuchea, and Laos. In 1982, the murder of Vincent Chin by white autoworkers in Detroit united Asian Americans in discussions on civil rights. After 9/11, many South Asians - mostly Muslims and Sikhs - faced racial and religious profiling and violence.
In 2016, there were over 21.4 million people of Asian descent in the US from over 20 different countries (look here for stats and breakdown!). The use of the word "Oriental" was officially voted to be replaced with "Asian American". The next year, Andrew Yang rose to prominence as a candidate for Democratic nominee for President. Today, the Coronavirus Pandemic echo fears towards Asian Americans similar to 19th-century stereotypes, and the Black Lives Matters movement once again brings the issue of identity to the forefront.
Reading and writing this section was personally illuminating to see different narrative threads. We're kinda shocked that we knew little of this from our formalized education. 😠 It's prudent to remember how easily public opinion can shift, and how fears of COVID-19 can hamper decades of progress, but we should also not quickly forget the deep and intricate ties between minority communities in the US and how movements towards equality for one are linked with them all. Special thanks to Loni Ding at the Center for Educational Telecommunications who initially compiled this fantastic timeline that this post is based on, and stay tuned for more deep-dive historical updates next week!
💡 S P O T L I G H T 💡
Renee Tajima-Peña
Filmmaker, Activist, Writer, and Professor
Renee Tajima-Peña is an Academy Award-nominated filmmaker and professor of Asian American Studies at UCLA. She's made SO MANY incredibly important films, including Who Killed Vincent Chin? My America...Or Honk if You Love Buddha, Labor Women, and No Más Bebés. Recently, she produced the unprecedented 5-hour PBS series, Asian Americans, detailing the history of Asians in the United States. It was so well worth the watch—I learned a lot that I didn't know before... Renee has also produced online media projects exploring the history of Japanese American imprisonment and resistance: the Nikkei Democracy Project and Building History 3.0. And just SOME of the other remarkable things she's done are co-found the Center for Asian American Media, co-found the Social Documentation Program at UC Santa Cruz, and become the first Filmmaker-in-Residence at the International Documentary Association. We are fangirling over how she's shown the stories of Asian Americans and immigrant communities to the world and continuously advocated for social justice through her work. You can learn more about her here.
~Culture~
🧠 Articles and small stories on culture, history, and mythology.
Lead singer of rock band Young The Giant Sameer Gadhia studied Human Biology at Stanford...before dropping out and becoming a recording artist. We love to see the defiance of Asian parents‘ expectations!! (Though both his parents came from musical backgrounds...) In this NPR interview, he describes how the band's 2016 album, "Home of the Strange," conveys the band members' narratives as first-generation Americans. Check out some of my fave songs from the album: Amerika, Something to Believe In, and Home of the Strange.
What Southeast Asian Refugees Owe to Black Lives
COVID-19, India, and Parle-G biscuits
A documentary film on the Search for Bengali Harlem
The Siddi, an Indian/Pakistani-Afro community in India and Pakistan
Upcoming Events
Friday, June 19th -Juneteenth commemorates the end of slavery in the United States.
Sunday, June 21st - How to Talk to Your Papa About BLM webinar hosted by South Asians for Black Lives
Saturday, June 27th - Black and Asian American Feminist Workshops
Up Next...
We're still trying to decide if this is a weekly or bi-weekly (two times a week) newsletter. The next letter will include Intro to Model Minority. If you have any thoughts or suggestions, please email us at aroundthetablenewsletter@gmail.com or fill out this form!