White supremacy is anti-life. Let’s be the opposite of that.

Dear Good Ancestor,

Soon Chung Park.
Hyun Jung Grant.
Sun Cha Kim.
Yong Ae Yue.
Delaina Ashley Yaun.
Paul Andre Michels.
Xiaojie Tan.
Daoyou Feng.

We say your names. We honour you. We grieve your senseless deaths. We celebrate your lives. We demand justice and accountability for your murders. We protest, donate, and speak out in your names, and the names of those in Asian American Pacific Islander communities who have been targeted by hate and violence over the last year and beyond. And for those of us not in those communities, we do the work of educating ourselves on the harm committed against the AAPI communities for centuries.

If you are part of the AAPI community, my heart is with you. I stand with you. I am so sorry for the pain you are in. You and your loved ones deserve better.

A few nights ago while trying to fall asleep my heart was heavy and my eyes full of tears as I thought about the tremendous pain the AAPI community is in after the mass shooting hate crime in Atlanta. Pain we have seen again and again in marginalised communities targeted because they have been labelled as ‘other’ and ‘lesser’. As I lay there I found myself asking the same question I have asked myself when Black people have been violently harmed and sensely murdered…

“Why?”

“Why do they hate Asian people? Why do they hate Black people? Why do they hate People of Colour? Why do they hate Indigenous people?”. I want to be clear today that this letter is about centering the current experiences of the AAPI community , and not conflating them with the (also important) struggles of other communities. However, the thing that connects us is the hate that white supremacy and white terrorists direct towards our communities. So I have asked myself again and again, why do they hate us?

But I think that’s actually the wrong question to ask, because it puts the onus on those of us from those communities to prove that we are not worthy of hate. That we are good people, whole human beings, who deserve dignity and love. That we deserve better.

No. Instead, I’ve started to ask two different questions:

1. What is the purpose of this hate?

and

2. How can I (we), in striving to be a good ancestor, be the opposite of that hate?

White supremacy is anti-life.

Throughout the centuries and around the world it has decimated populations, enslaved generations, stolen lands, appropriated cultures, destroyed health and well-being, legislated hate, and attempted, and far too often succeeded, to grind BIPOC down to dust. On March 16th we saw it take the life of eight people, six of whom were Asian women. It is intent on destroying life. If that is not a virus, I don’t know what is.

We must be the opposite of that.

We must stand for life.
We must stand for the safety, dignity, well-being, joy, and thriving of us all.

We must affirm life.
Knowing that whatever affects one part of our great family of humanity affects us all.

We must protect life.
Because we are all that we’ve got.

We must nurture life.
Because to do the opposite is to surrender to the virus of hate that will consume us from the inside out until we are but a shell of our humanity.

Over the past few days I’ve been reading articles, watching videos, and reading social media posts by those from the AAPI community to better understand the many nuanced and important aspects of the Atlanta shooting specifically, and the context of rising anti-Asian hate more generally. I’d like to center those voices as they can best speak to their lived experiences. Please check out the links below if you too would like to learn more, and check out the donation links to help support those communities as we stand for life.

Lastly, I want to remind us how important it is not to view Asian / Asian-American / AAPI communities as a monolith. And how important it is not to solely link and only associate a racial group to their trauma and pain.

In honouring life we don’t just reflect the pain that folks are in. We also celebrate their lives, their accomplishments, their joy, their love, their history and culture. We elevate their voices and leadership (and not just when they are talking about their oppression). We affirm their mental, physical, and emotional well-being. We honour the entirety of their humanity. Not just the parts that are being reported (or misreported) in the news.

That’s what it means to me to stand for life, affirm life, protect life, and nurture life. We must do that for each other.

Soon Chung Park. Hyun Jung Grant. Sun Cha Kim. Yong Ae Yue. Delaina Ashley Yaun. Paul Andre Michels. Xiaojie Tan. Daoyou Feng.

We must do that for you. Our good ancestors, who were taken far too soon.

With love and solidarity,