Freedom is a Collective Struggle

As we close out May, with no sign of the genocide in Gaza ending, I wanted to share a recent post from Medium, in which Jennifer Ching and I call on Asian Americans to understand how “this is our issue.”

Here’s an excerpt: 

Asian Americans who are struggling to see how we are connected to the genocide in Palestine must remember what the great freedom fighter Angela Davis proclaims: those of us who choose justice work must recognize the importance of collective struggle. Leaders from all backgrounds must demonstrate solidarity transparently, within the organizations we lead and through our community practice.

As a starting point, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPIs) speaking out on Palestine see that our histories are interconnected. This is more than a thread of connection; it’s a powerful intertwining rooted in white supremacy: the enslavement of Black people, erasure of Indigeneous communities through genocide, and Asian Americans’ subjugation and migration through colonialism and imperialism. Understanding these links is a core practice of AAPI political identity, the foundation on which we practice solidarity and build alignment with a Black liberation lens.

You can read the full post, titled Freedom is a Collective Struggle on Medium. I hope you’ll agree that what we say applies to all of us, not just Asian Americans. 

With love and tenderness,

Sayu