Resources for non-Black Asians on Anti-Blackness
(contains academic literature, videos, online blogs, opinion articles, some tumblr posts, etc…)
Date of Creation: February 26, 2016
Links verified as of June 4, 2020
Note from the original creator: Before reading on please see these google drive resources already accumulated by Black folks in doing this work. I will try to look back periodically to add to this list, but I am being called to do other work in this moment.
Resources Created by Black Folks
This particular google doc was created by mostly non-Black folks about anti-blackness. Please check out the above links for resources that were created in a process that centered Black folks.
Another index: Dismantling White Supremacy: A Loose Index of Shared Docs
Table of Contents
International Solidarity and Militant Asian Activism
#BlackLivesMatter hxstory / Hxstory of Solidarity
Racial Triangulation
Black Voices
Responses to Peter Liang’s conviction / Justice for Akai Gurley
Asian Americans / Folx of Asian Descent in a North American Context and anti-Blackness
non-Black people of colour appropriation of Black culture
Southeast Asian specific
South Asian specific
The Dangers of Allyship Over Liberatory Solidarity
Actions and Toolkits
Talking to our children about police brutality and anti-Blackness
Resources on anti-Blackness in languages other than English.
Mixed Race Asians
Videos
Podcasts
REFERENCED
International Solidarity and Militant Asian Activism
#BlackLivesMatter hxstory / Hxstory of Solidarity
Racial Triangulation
Black Voices
- I’Nasah Crockett (so_treu), “Black/Asian ‘solidarity’ on MLK Day”
- I’Nasah Crockett (so_treu), “Anti-Blackness is a Theory - Tumblr”
- Kenyon Farrow, “We Real Cool?: On Hip-Hop, Asian-Americans, Black Folks, and Appropriation”
- Jeff Chang, Kenyon Farrow, Walidah Imarisha, “Rap, Race & Black-Asian Relations” (Video)
- Robert Reece, “Black/Non-Black Divide and The Anti-Blackness of Non-Black Minorities”
- John Murillo III, “Three Notes on Solidarity; or, In Want of a Requiem
- John Murillo III and Nicholas Brady, “Black Imperative: A Forum on Solidarity in the Age of Coalition”
- Ben, “The Coalition Moment and a Black History”
- Toni Morrison, “On the Backs of Blacks”
- Irreconcilable Anti-Blackness and Police Violence w Dr. Frank Wilderson
- A Primer on "Libidinal Economy" in Relation to Black Folks
- Saidiya Hartman, Frank Wilderson, “The Position of the Unthought”
Responses to Peter Liang’s conviction / Justice for Akai Gurley
- On Peter Liang and Akai Gurley:
- Kat Yang Stevens w/ Alex-Quan Pham
(available in Chinese)
- Peter Liang Highlights the Asian American Identity Crisis, by Jess Guh
- Between a Rock and a Hard Place: What the Asian American Protests Over the Peter Liang Conviction May be Missing, by Scot Nakagawa
- Why Asian-Americans who defend Peter Liang are enabling police brutality, by Steph Yin
- On the Peter Liang Protests and the “Model Minority” Myth, by Kevin Wong
- When Being Chinese is Not Enough: Peter Liang and the Future of Ethnic Solidarity, by Ellen Wu
- Why the Chinese Community Shouldn’t Rally Around Indicted Cop Peter Liang, by Esther Wang
- What are we fighting for? White Privilege or Racial Justice in the death of Akai Gurley, by Oiyan Poon
- You Don’t Support Peter Liang? Then Join the ‘Enemies List,’ by Philip
- I’m Chinese American and I Think This Weekend’s Peter Liang Protests Were a Problem, and an Opportunity, by Steph Yin
- A system that doesn’t value black lives can never truly value Asian American lives, by Jenn Fang
- When We Talk About Peter Liang, by Alton
- On the Indictment of Peter Liang, by Liz Lin
- How Should Asian-Americans Feel About the Peter Liang Protests?, by Jay Caspian Kang (available in Chinese + Korean)
- The Messy House That Race Made, by Soya Jung
- There is No “Chinese” Side of Justice, by Timmy Lu
- The Problematic Political Balkanization of Asian America, by Jenn Fang
- CAAAV Statement on the murder of Akai Gurley by NYPD officer Peter Liang
- Towards a “Selfish Solidarity”: Building Deep Investment in the Movement for Black Lives
- How We Talk about Asian American Aggrievement - Felix Huang
- The Protests For Ex-Officer Peter Liang Are Anti-Black Racism, by Jenn M. Jackson
- On Chinese Liang Supporters, Opponents of Affirmative Action and the Mississippi Chinese by Patrick Chen (baritonepats)
- A Letter to My Chinese Immigrant Father About American Racism, by Lucy Lee
- Why Our Think Pieces About Peter Liang Failed to Reach Our Parents, by Lucy Lee
- Two Mothers (comic) by Ka Yan Cheung - in English and Chinese
- Dear Brother (comic) by Ka Yan Cheung - in English and Chinese
- As Officer Who Killed Akai Gurley Gets No Jail Time, Asian Americans Debate Role of White Supremacy (video) - by Democracy Now, featuring Gurley’s aunt, Hertencia Petersen; Cathy Dang, executive director of CAAAV & John Liu, former New York City comptroller (who is anti-Black)
- A4BL Statement on the Peter Liang Verdict, by Asians4BlackLives Bay Area
Asian Americans[1] / Folx of Asian Descent in a North American Context[2] and anti-Blackness
- Asian Americans Benefit from Black Struggle and We Need to Start Shouldering the Burden
- 6 Reasons We Need to Dismantle the Model Minority Myth of those ‘Hard-Working’ Asians
- Ending Anti-Blackness Needs to be a top Priority for Asian Americans - Here’s Why
- We are NOT All Trayvon: Challenging Anti-Black Racism in POC Communities
- Matsuda, Mari. We Will Not Be Used: Are Asian Americans The Racial Bourgeousie?
- “I am Nikki Haley”: When White Supremacy Looks Like Us
- “Fresh Off the Boat” and the dangers of perpetuating anti-blackness
- 6 Ways Asian Americans Can Tackle Anti-Black Racism in Their Families
- On Solidarity, “ Centering Anti-Blackness,” and Asian Americans
- Why I Refuse to Acknowledge #AsianPrivilege
- What Role do Asian Americans Have in the Campus Protests?
- Yes, There is Anti-Black Racism Among Asians - Sonali Kolhatkar
- Kil Ja Kim, “Does Asian American + POC = Anti-Black?”
- University of Michigan coalition, “An Open Letter to non-Black POC”
- Sora Han, The Politics of Race in Asian American Jurisprudence
- Dylan Rodriguez, Asian-American Studies in the Age of the Prison Industrial Complex: Departures and Re-narrations
- Jennifer Pan, Beyond the Model Minority Myth
- Tamara Nopper, The Wages of Non-Blackness
- Tamara Nopper, On Terror, Captivity, and Black-Korean Conflict
- An Apology to Black Folks, Kai-Ming Ko
- Blackness is the Fulcrum, Scot Nakagawa
- US Presidential Candidate Bobby Jindal and Model Minorities
The Racial Violence of Multiculturalism in North America
- Chapter 4 "Multiculturalism and the Liberalizing Nation" in "Exalted Subjects: Studies in the Making of Race and Nation in Canada," by Sunera Thobani
Affirmative Action
non-Black people of colour appropriation of Black culture
Southeast Asian specific
South Asian[3] specific
- How Anti-Blackness Affects my South Asian-American identity
- What Solidarity, ‘Selfishness’ and Anti-Blackness Look like from a Queer Desi perspective
- Baltimore Riots Reveal Blatant Anti-Blackness in the South Asian Community
- On Confronting and Resisting Anti-Blackness in Ourselves & In Our Communities
- The Revolution Starts with my Thathi: Strategies for South Asians to Bring #BlackLivesMatter home
- Bringing it Home: South Asians Talking to Our Parents About Sureshbhai Patel, Police Brutality, and Black Lives Matter
- The Need for Black-South Asian Solidarity by Lavanya Nott (1/14/2016)
- Freedom to Dissent from Delhi to Ferguson by Meghna Chandra (2/16/2016)
- Vijay Prashad’s chapter on South Asians & anti-Blackness in The Karma of Brown Folk
- Everybody was Kung-Fu Fighting by Vijay Prashad
- Hip Hop Desis: South Asian Americans, Blackness and Global Race Consciousness by Nitasha Sharma
- Desi Hoop Dreams: Pickup Basketball and the Making of Asian American Masculinity by Stanley I. Thangaraj
- The Secret History of South Asian and African American Solidarity by Anirvan Chatterjee
- Why Black Lives Matter in Pakistan by Junaid S. Ahmad & Darakshan Raja
- South Asians for Black Power: On Anti-Blackness, Islamophobia, and Complicity
- We Too Sing America; South Asian, Arab, Muslim, and Sikh Immigrants Shape Our Multiracial Future by Deepa Iyer
- Afro-Dalits of the Earth, Unite! by Vijay Prashad (JSTOR)
- It Starts at Home: Confronting Anti-Blackness in South Asian Communities --- A Facilitation Guide by the Queer South Asian National Network
- Towards a “Selfish Solidarity”: Building Deep Investment in the Movement for Black Lives
- What M.I.A.’s Comments About BLM Say About South Asian Solidarity by Nadya Agrawal of Kajal Magazine
- Especially in the Wake of Ferguson, It’s time to destroy anti-blackness in the Sikh community
- Indians’ Debt To Black America by Neil Padukone, The Huffington Post
- Violence Against South Asians is Linked to Bias Against African Americans, The Root. By Zeba Khan (4/2/2015)
The Dangers of Allyship Over Liberatory Solidarity
Actions and Toolkits
Talking to our children about police brutality and anti-Blackness
- I haven’t seen specifically non-Black Asian resources on talking to children (but I’m really hoping to learn of some!), but I’m putting a few anti-Black racist/anti-police brutality parenting resources that came highly recommended:
- Talking About Ferguson with Our Little Boys Here at ParentsTogether, we have been moved by the killing of Michael Brown and the ensuing police violence in Ferguson to consider how we talk about race and injustice with our children. Two of us have boys almost the same age (5 and 4), but Ailen Arreaza’s family is Latino, and Bethany Robertson’s is white. We were interested to learn how our conversations about Michael Brown differed, and perhaps to learn from each other’s approaches. We asked our colleague, Darrell Scott, to interview us–raising up the issues that matter to him as a young, African American man. In the post below, we share our experiences.
- Talking to Kids About Dallas, Baton Rouge and Minnesota by Nani Arreaza
This article also has links to a few blog posts by Sachi Feris (Raising Race-Conscious Children) and others
Resources on anti-Blackness in languages other than English.
Chinese
- Chinese translation of Soya Jung’s piece by Zhou Shuxuan, via PARISOL (Traditional Characters; English and Chinese side-by-side)
- 為什麼梁彼得被裁定所有罪名成立？ (Why the Liang verdict holds water)
Consider adding:
If anyone is interested, Carven just watched all two hours of Washington Chinese Media:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WamYoot3_ik
Summary:
-only one speaker out of ten Chinese speakers mentioned that Akai is a son and father
-one min of silence for Akai Gurley
-Tom Fong of The Chinese Consolidated Benevolent Association is intense/loud in bringing up historical white violence against Chinese people (34:10)f
-about half of the Chinese speakers mentioned Akai once only and only referred to his death as tragic
-one Chinese man: "We also call upon our society to deal with poverty in this country. we still have so many places like this green project building when the shooting took place 50 years after MLK Jr's civil right movement. And the poverty kills every single day. and it's the real root cause of this tragedy. ‘Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.’ Everybody, together, we hand in hand cross the Selma Bridge declaring a war against deeply rooted bias, prejudice, poverty. “ (41:40)
-one Chinese man talked about the “reckless[ness] and careless[ness] of the NYPD… Shame on NYPD” (49:00)
-many men are saying “I speak for ALL Chinese Americans in this country”; one said “thank you all for coming, because you are representing Chinese and the larger Asian American community,” homogenizing everyone
-no speaker self-identified as being Mixed Race and no one identified as a person of Chinese and African and/or Black ancestry
-a white military was allowed to speak when he spontaneously asked to speak
-a woman professor who identifies as ‘Hispanic American’ spoke at the rally
-several men spoke about Chinese people’s historical contribution to the American colonial project
-one person talked about the financial struggle of Peter Liang’s family and talked about immigrant aspirations
- one speaker started his speech with "I Have a Dream" and then mentioned "walking across the Selma Bridge" out of context
-the voice clip by this Black woman’s video has been played twice (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yO--BI8jFvU)
-American anthems were sung in Chinese and people chanted “God Bless America”
Mixed Race Asians
Videos
- The Talk - HOBAK (Hella Organized Bay Area Koreans)
Tips on talking about anti Blackness to non Black Korean Family members.
Podcasts
REFERENCED
I've started a loose index of shared docs like these here so that people can easily reference resource lists. Just wanted to keep ya'll in the loop!-CB
https://www.amazon.com/Raising-Mixed-Race-Multiracial-Post-Racial/dp/1138999466
[1] Asian American might be homogenised in these articles (homogenised meaning leaving out the nuances of Asian American identity - leaving out South and West Asian Communities and taking Southeast Asian to be East Asian).
[2] "Folx of Asian Descent in a North American context" meaning those that are either in the United States or Canada.