White Supremacist Narratives Fuel Anti-Asian & Anti-Black Sentiments
Open statement about the year-long series of violence and harassment towards Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States:
These acts of aggression are committed by both White and BIPOC individuals. There is no doubt that a significant number hold a white supremacist narrative fuelled by the former White House
Lateral violence and racial triangulation are things that uphold white supremacist power structures. It does not take one community but all communities to dismantle these narratives.
Even within the Asian and Pacific Islander community, Anti-Chinese sentiments are ever-present. And the aggressions and inequities amongst our communities is a long-standing intergenerational challenge.
Having anti-Chinese government sentiment needs to be separate from how we see people of Chinese descent. We are not a monolith and certainly hold various political and personal perspectives or lived experiences regarding the Chinese government.
Anti-Blackness is present amongst API communities, and the recent cases of lateral violence cannot be examined without also understanding systemic/structural anti-Blackness. This racial triangulation has existed since the first Chinese migrant workers built railroads and worked in cotton fields.
We cannot succumb to being divided and conquered. Anti-Asian and Anti-Black sentiments are fueled by long-standing insidious narratives from White supremacy. And White supremacy counts on our communities getting pitted against each other.
Our liberation cannot happen without seeing the multilayered ways our communities have been manipulated into divisions and violence.
I want us to join hands and not further this division that White supremacy feeds on. Starve the monster.
Let’s manage this conflict and work through this.
