Week 9 - Jamie McCaa

Jamie McCaa

ASA 002 Section A03
Week 9

“Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans” and “Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice” both gave important insights on other people of color’s relationship to Black Lives Matter and black struggle against white hegemony as a whole. I think this is a topic that many young people of color struggle with, in the sense of not knowing where they belong within the racial struggle, but both articles give examples on how communities of color can be collaborative and work past the black and white dichotomy in order to form coalitions. Both articles urge communities of color to not only stand in solidarity with the black struggle in opposition to white supremacy, but to also combat anti-blackness within their own communities.

I think combating anti-blackness is a definite priority for the Asian American community; its most obvious forms show in how there is a pervasiveness of Asian Americans appropriating black culture, but there are also Asian Youtube artists that profit indirectly from black struggle and slurs used against them. And it runs much deeper than just that – Asian Americans, like Soya Jung says in her article, need to face that “Japanese and Chinese American organizations and leaders were active in creating the model minority myth, and they embraced anti-blackness” (4). Most of all, I think accountability for the continuing anti-blackness in Asian American communities, as well as avoiding taking ambivalent stances on racial issues will make way for more productive collaboration between communities of color, specifically between Asian Americans and black Americans. 

Question: Rather than change (and therefore appropriate) black hashtags such as #BlackLivesMatter to fit other ethnic struggles, what are other forms of online resistance that activists of color can partake in?

References:

Jung, S. (2014, August 20). Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans. Race Files.

Ramos, S.F. (2016, April 20). Building a Culture of Solidarity: Racial Discourse, Black Lives Matter, and Indigenous Social Justice. Enculturation: A Journal of Rhetoric, Writing, and Culture.

Chen, H. (Artist). (n.d). Yellow Peril for Black Lives. [digital image]. Retrieved from http://thesaltcollective.org/asian-americans-need-express-feelings-white-supremacy/