Tag Archives: antiracism

Black and Asian Solidarity

BLACK AND ASIAN SOLIDARITY
IS A WARM, GLOWING EMBRACE,
A COMMUNAL SPACE, A RESTING PLACE, WHERE OUR COLLECTIVE STRENGTH IS IN UPPER CASE ALONG A YIN-YANG PENCIL TRACE, FILLED WITH HARMONY AND GRACE.

As you rest in Golden Power, Michelle Alyssa Go.

我们是金的。我们是金的。 We are golden.We shine bright with our golden light. Our community shines bright with your light. You shine bright, Michelle Alyssa Go, as you rest in Golden Power. For my entire life I have taken the subway,Turning my head this way, then that wayWho will help if I call out hey, Who will help if someone wantsContinue reading “As you rest in Golden Power, Michelle Alyssa Go.”

Affirm And Amplify Individual Identities Within Our Collective Humanity

The notion of “a single truth” or “the universal truth” is white supremacy at work attempting to silence people of the global majority from sharing their identities, perspectives, and lived experiences for multiple truths to exist.

We each hold multiple truths.
Our lived experiences are truths.
Our identities are truths.
Our cultures are truths.

Reframing the common question “Where are you from?”

Decolonize the idea that the question “Where are you from?” must be answered with a geographical location.

We are from what we say we are from, who we say we are from, where we say we are from, and anything we say we are from that is authentic to who we are.

We each have a multiplicity of identities, and we define for our individual selves if and how we want to respond to this question when we inevitably continue to be asked this throughout our lives.

Our Collective Humanity

Language matters. What we say matters.

For too long, we have relied on the societal equalizer of being part of “one human race” to evade conversations of race, racism, and systemic inequities.

To say that we are part of “one human race” simply does not suffice. The phrase “one human race” causes erasure of identities, dismissal of injustices, and gross generalizations of cultures and peoples.

We can no longer seek to only “equalize” ourselves in systems that perpetuate injustice.

Our language can be an act of resistance.

We belong together.

For my grandfathers and my grandmother, who I’ve never met
I am your wildest dream each day from sunrise to sunset
Today is 清明节 (Qing Ming Jie), a day that means literally clear and bright
In many Asian cultures, it’s a day of rituals for our ancestors’ spirit and might

And for them, our ancestors, our presence, our future, for all to hear
it’s not just we belong here
It’s we belong – together.

Asian American Affirmations

As an Asian American child, I never spoke of myself as someone important, a voice to be heard, or an identity to be seen and valued. I never spoke an affirmation about my identity. In fact, I never knew what an affirmation was until I started teaching affirmations to my students.