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Handles of multiple ethnicities huddled together in the circle

NPQ | Reflections on Building Resilient Organizations

In 2022, Maurice Mitchell published “Building Resilient Organizations: Toward Joy and Durable Power in a Time of Crisis.” At that same time, a multiracial, multigenerational group of over 25 coaches, consultants, and capacity builders had started meeting in response to their shared sense that internal conflicts at progressive organizations were undermining social justice; part of their work included rigorous discussion of Mitchell’s article.

In this NonProfit Quarterly article “Paving a Better Way: What’s Driving Progressive Organizations Apart and How to Win by Coming Together,” members of this meeting share their reflections, in the hope that these can help organizations, staff, and leaders apply these lessons to their own context. Other coaches, consultants, and capacity builders are also invited to sharpen their collective analysis, skillfulness, and accountability in working with organizations.

Supporters of affirmative action outside the Supreme Court on October 10, 2012, the day the Supreme Court heard Fisher v. University of Texas (Pete Marovich/ZUMA Press, Inc/Alamy)

Claire Jean Kim | Essay on Asian Americans and Affirmative Action

In her essay “Better Asians than Blacks,” published in the American Scholar on July 20, 2023, author Claire Jean Kim examines the lead up to the SCOTUS decision on conscious admissions with the lens of historic and present racial dynamics in the United States.

This essay provides a useful entry point in discussing the weaponization of Asian Americans against the Black struggle and in previous legal cases/rulings.

UCLA & AAPI Data | The Post-Pandemic Agenda for Community Well-being among AANHPI in CA

The COVID-19 pandemic has adversely affected Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders (AA and NHPIs) in many ways — through economic hardship, negative health outcomes, and rising incidents of hate and violence. The pandemic also exposed fissures and challenges facing Asian Americans and NHPIs that were already deep-rooted in California. This report, which builds upon an earlier report​ released in June 2022, aims to identify any changes in accessing services before and after the onset of COVID in 2019 and 2021, respectively, and to take a closer look at the challenges that AA and NHPI communities face in the post-COVID period, including anxieties associated with gun violence and experiences with hate and discrimination.

Authors examine data from the 2019 and 2021 1-year American Community Survey Public Use Microdata Sample (PUMS) and the 2018-2021 California Health Interview Survey (CHIS), including a 15-minute follow-on survey for 2021 CHIS AAPI respondents to identify trends in social service utilization and gaps in accessing health, mental health, and social services for AA and NHPI communities in California. 

View the a summary of the report’s major findings and the report in its entirety at this link.

Notes from the Field: Critical Race Theory and AAPI’s

“The attack on Critical Race Theory (CRT) is here to stay, at least for a while. To be honest, when Republican pols first began using the term around 2020, it felt like a trial balloon that would surely be short-lived. After all, the very few Americans who knew about CRT back then were probably professors and lawyers and what they knew about it was that CRT was an esoteric, marginalized legal theory. The stuff that law professors might get excited about, but practically no one else. Yet, as Glenn Youngkin showed in Virginia’s gubernatorial race last November, Republican candidates and strategists may just be onto something. The assault on CRT now appears to be one of the main weapons in the messaging arsenal that Republicans will deploy to woo and win voters in the 2022 midterms.

This installment of Notes from the Field thus shares some background and some thoughts on CRT and how it may relate to Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) engagement in 2022. I first review how we got here – both the recent politicization of CRT as a campaign issue and the origins of CRT as a legal movement in the academy. There are two “critical race theories” in play here and at the end of the day, the role that CRT plays in 2022 will depend on how it is defined and understood. “Critical Race Theory” as Republican candidates and campaigns aim to define it is a dog-whistle and a Hermione Granger grab bag for all sorts of discontents and resentment. Critical Race Theory as a considered and coherent perspective on the role of race in American law, society, and politics, however, is something that AAPI voters should relate to and have a stake in.”

Check out our latest piece on “Critical Race Theory and AAPIs” in Notes from the Field, a series of semi-regular think pieces authored by Takeu Lee, Senior Fellow at the AAPI Civic Engagement Fund. Lee is also the George Johnson Professor of Law and Professor of Political Science at the University of California, Berkeley, and currently serves on the U.S. Census Bureau’s National Advisory Committee.

#MinneAsianStories 2021: Beyond the Myths & Monolith

This spring, in an effort to reclaim our own narratives, we invited our community members to share stories and creative reflections with us that reflect on this current moment and the ups and downs of this past year (there have been so many!).

Stay tuned below as we release our 2021 storytelling campaign throughout the month of May, as we share stories and experiences from the community. We hope that this brings us closer to a world where we control the headlines written about us and our collective understanding of what it means to be Asian Minnesota expands beyond the myths and monolith.

AAJC: Black and Asian Solidarity in American History

“Asian and Black communities’ histories have always been intertwined, their struggles connected, and their collective liberation dependent on their unity. Asian and Black communities have been strongest when they’ve sought to dismantle White supremacy together. In fact, there have been countless examples of powerful and moving coalitions between Asian and Black communities in the last 200 years that have led to major leaps forward in racial justice. The following are notable examples of Black and Asian solidarity throughout American history — a testament to the power of communities of color when unified.”

Click here to read the full article.

–Anika Raju

VAYLA: Letter from Jacqueline Thanh

“Beyond Asian hate and the continual targeting of our elders across the country, the violence and murder of Asian women in Atlanta yesterday illuminates the complex intergenerational traumas of exploitation, sexual violence, poverty, colonialism, and erasure experienced by Asian women. Working-class Asian women are the backbone of families, communities, and our cultures. VAYLA is an Asian Womxn-led organization and we are grieving deeply with our diaspora. We must stop Asian hate. We must continue to speak up and keep each other safe in the face of terrorism.”

Read the full statement here.

Communities Rally Against Anti-Asian Violence

“Love Our People, Heal Our Communities” Cross-Cultural Healing Events took place in Oakland and San Francisco

San Francisco & Oakland, CA — “In response to the recent surge in COVID-19 related violence against Asian American communities throughout the greater San Francisco Bay Area, the Coalition for Community Safety and Justice (CCSJ) in San Francisco joined forces with a coalition of organizations in Oakland to organize two parallel Days of Action this past weekend, both entitled “Love Our People, Heal Our Communities.”

On the first weekend of the Lunar New Year, and a few days after more than 70 Asian American organizations issued a press statement condemning the violence, these two events brought together a multiracial and multigenerational coalition to stand against racism, xenophobia, and violence, and to offer space for healing the grief and pain that Asian communities feel in light of recent events.

Together, they called for community-centered solutions to keep diverse communities safe. These include culturally-competent multilingual victim services, cross-racial education and dialogue, prevention-based programs (such as community patrols), and more.”

Read the rest of the statement here.

Resources:

  • Asian Organizations Across the Bay Area Join Forces to Demand Action Against Violence: Click here for more information.
    Yamuna Hopwood, Communications Manager; 415-274-6760 x319 [email protected] (English); Jin Xia Niu, Chinese Language Media Specialist; 415-274-6760 x313 [email protected] (English, Mandarin)
  • For those who wish to contribute to victims and survivors, please visit here.
  • CAA Responds to the Attacks in Atlanta Area

Both the Oakland and San Francisco events were also live-streamed to Facebook with ASL interpretation, where more than 300 people tuned in. The Oakland event can be viewed here and the San Francisco event here.

 

CAAAV Condemns Atlanta Shooting

“We are enraged and saddened by the news of a white man opening fire and killing 8 people, including six Asian women, in Atlanta, Georgia. These acts are immeasurably violent, but we know that the rhetoric and deep histories of white supremacy, imperialism, patriarchy, and racial capitalism are the poisonous soil in which these violent ideologies and acts grow.

Within our neighborhoods, working class, immigrant, women, trans/queer, and precarious workers face violence from a capitalist system set up to use us for profit. We must keep working in risky jobs and living in unsafe conditions despite deadly health risks during a global pandemic, a lack of language access, and even under threats of violence. Often this violence even extends into our homes with threats, precarity, or abuse from a landlord, partner, or family members.

Rarely do public institutions and government care about what happens to us. They think of our well-being as an afterthought. They speak pretty words but fail to give us what we need. In many cases, these institutions contribute to our harm. We know that Asian, Black, Latinx and Indigenous communities face the same threats, and that these forces against us grow more powerful when we fight against each other. We know the murdered women will be scrutinized by those unfamiliar with their situation for their profession and judged as sex workers. Nobody should be put at risk of death – from white supremacist violence or a global pandemic – simply for surviving in racial capitalism.

These conditions are why we must fight and organize for resources to make our lives safer. We respond to anti-Asian violence by organizing with our neighbors to fight for true safety for the working class every single day – safe housing, dignified work and the right to live without fear.

In Solidarity,
CAAAV Organizing Asian Communities”