Message From KSW Staff
We are deeply saddened by the recent violence against Asian American elders in our community and across the country. Anti-Asian sentiment exacerbated by the pandemic has greatly impacted our feelings of safety. While media coverage brings recent attacks to the forefront of our public consciousness, there are ongoing violences affecting Asian communities as a result of white supremacy, imperialism and carceral capitalism, all around the world. Yet the pain we are feeling is real, and we will need time to heal, to lean into local organizing and consider ways forward. Solidarity is one of KSW’s core values because we know that the power of the people is ultimately greater than that of the systems which continue to pit people against each other, but we must remain keen and discerning as we learn what it means to work towards abolition and more peaceful, equitable futures. We are committed to fostering solidarity between communities and across the working class. We want to emphasize that our fear and anger should not become a means towards aiming law enforcement systems or vigilante surveillance against other BIPOCs. A recent series of articles by Momo Chang, Darwin BondGraham, and Sarah Belle Lin does an excellent job providing context and bringing up the kind of questions we need to be asking at this moment and can be found here (part 1, part 2). The most important thing right now is the long term safety of our communities including our elders and this does not happen when we rely on carceral systems. These institutions further perpetuate harm against us all and create greater division among the working class.
As an arts organization, our work includes boosting those already doing profound, cross-community safety work. As of right now local organizations are mobilizing to address this issue and we want to highlight a few.
Oakland Chinatown Commission is organizing a volunteer foot patrol to pass out red envelopes, meet new members of the community, cleaning up trash, etc. Sign up here.
https://www.antipoliceterrorproject.org/
http://criticalresistance.org/
Safety Tips for those experiencing Hate
https://stopaapihate.org/safetytipsenglish/
Information and more action items from San Francisco Foundation
https://sff.org/practice-solidarity-to-stop-hate-crimes-against-asian-americans/