The past year has been called a national reckoning for race. The killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, and other Black people by white police officers led to protests in the streets — stretching from the summer until now. The past year has also been a time of increased anti-Asian sentiment. According to NBC news, there has been an 80 percent increase in Anti-Asian hate crimes in Boston.
This panel explores why it is important for Black and Asian people to be in solidarity with each other, and historical examples of support between these communities. This conversation took place on April 20, the day that Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all charges in the death of George Floyd. The conversation includes representatives from the following organizations: Boston PEAR, Malaya Massachusetts, Boston South Asian Coalition, The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Boston and Rhode Island Chapters, and the ANSWER Coalition.
Listen to the full conversation below, or subscribe to our show on Apple Podcast, Google Play, Stitcher, and Spotify.
Transcript
[MUSIC]
Kaitlin Milliken: Hello, and welcome to the BOSFilipinos Podcast. I'm your host, Kaitlin Milliken, and this show is obviously made by BOSFilipinos.
In each episode of our podcast, we highlight a different aspect of Filipino life in the Greater Boston area. And today we’re taking a broader perspective and sharing a panel conversation on Black and Asian Solidarity Against Racism.
The past year has been called a national reckoning for race. The killing of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Daunte Wright, and other Black people by white police officers led to protests in the streets — stretching from the summer until now.
The past year has also been a time of increased anti-Asian sentiment. According to NBC news, there has been an 80 percent increase in Anti-Asian hate crimes in Boston. Analysis from the Center for the Study of Hate & Extremism at California State University, found a 164% increase in reports of anti-Asian hate crimes in the first quarter of 2021 compared with the same period last year. That study was conducted across 16 cities including Boston. One of those instances of violence included spa shootings in Atlanta that left six women of Asian descent dead.
This panel explores why it is important for Black and Asian people to be in solidarity with each other, and historical examples of support between these communities. Panelists also discuss current events and imperialism. This conversation took place on April 20th, the day that Derek Chauvin was found guilty of all charges in the death of George Floyd. The conversation includes representatives from the following organizations: Boston PEAR, Malaya Massachusetts, Boston South Asian Coalition, The Party for Socialism and Liberation’s Boston and Rhode Island Chapters, and the ANSWER Coalition. In the recording the speakers introduce themselves and talk a little bit about their organizations.
We’re grateful to all of the organizations who participated in the conversation and allowed us to share the recording on our show. Special thanks to Daven McQueen who coordinated with me. This conversation has been edited for length. Now, on to the panel.
Gabby Ballard: The question is, you know, where are you located in this conversation around Afro-Asian solidarity in the Asian community, the Black community, solidarity between them. I can kick us off. My name is Gabby. And as you can see, I have family from St. Vincent. I identify with being Black, African-American. Sharing just a little bit about me. I’m organizing based in Boston. And for me, what really struck me and motivated me in terms of learning more about the relationships between Asian and African communities was was initially as Nino mentioned, reading about China and learning just about the similarities between the African American struggle here in the Americas having your community pumped full of drugs, asking a lot of questions about how are we supposed to overcome colonization overcome imperialism, exploitation, racism.
I realized how many similarities there were between our communities being exploited, colonized again. And the inspiration that really was offered through the struggle. So the title of the book is China Revolution and Counter Revolution. That's a little bit about me. I'll be moderating the panel and I want to open it up to our panelists to share about your perspective so that folks know where you're coming from. So Meilyn, if you want to kick us off.
Meilyn Huq: My full name is Meilyn Chan Huq. I am the daughter of Chinese and Bangladeshi immigrants. They are actually both born in Africa. My mom was born in Mozambique, and my dad was born in Sudan, and I'm also a member of the Party for Socialism and Liberation. What really spurned my interest in Afro and Asian solidarity was actually like the history of my mom, like just growing up. She lived through the Mozambican civil war for independence, I was told a lot of things about socialism, that like growing up and about China, Mainland China, that my mom was like, very divorced from. She was only like, 12 when the war happened. I think like this panel, and just doing research on my own, has really uncovered a lot of that. Just between, like the relationship between Africa and China. We need to talk about that, to also be able to unpack the relationship between Asian American communities in the US and Black in the Black community here as well.
Gabby Ballard: And we'll go on to Daven. Can you share?
Daven McQueen: My name is Devin McQueen. I'm part of Boston PEAR, Philipinx Education Advocacy and Resources. I am coming at this issue from the perspective of being Black and Asian. My mom's family is from the Philippines, and my dad's family is Black Jamaican. And then at the same time, like kind of extrapolating from the personal aspect for me, I've seen you know growing up and learned from my parents the abroad of imperialism in the countries that they grew up in. In the Philippines and in Jamaica, and you know, heard stories from both my parents about their experiences as Asian Americans, Black Americans, respectively, in the US, being in study with all of these folks for this panel. And you know, learning more about the history of Black and Asian solidarity in the US and globally, has just been a really helpful framing to think about what it looks like moving forward, what solidarity can look like and can continue to look like.
Gabby Ballard: Thanks, Devon. Satya?
Satya Mohapatra: Hi everyone. My name is Satya Mohapatra. And I organize for the ANSWER Coalition in Rhode Island. I'm from South Asia, India, in particular. And so growing up in India, so there was a natural history of understanding the decolonization struggle. And with that, we kind of theoretically knew about the joint struggle between Afro-Asia right when I came to the US.
In the states, once I was walking, a couple of years ago that I was working in a neighborhood in the Boston area, and I was wearing my sunglasses. Then some neighbor called the police. And the police report says that a Black man was roaming around the neighborhood, right? So I'm Indian, South Asian, but my identity could immediately be confused. I could be, in this racialized system we live in, it can create this confused identity. All the Asian and Asian violence that has been happening, they are in this racialized structure. Being South Asians, it's not even considered like Asia, right? One has to remind everyone that Southeast Asia and East Asia my understanding here in this panel would bring this idea that why Afro Asia have a very joint, sad history of struggle and how we take that struggle further.
Gabby Ballard: Lillia, you want to introduce yourself?
Lilia Mundelius: Hi, everyone. My name is Lillia. Today's pronouns are they/them. I'm the chapter coordinator for Malaya Movement Massachusetts, and Malaya movement is a national US organization of Filipino Americans and allies that are fighting for human rights in the Philippines. So for me, I'm half Filipino, half white, and I grew up in a very white, very racist town, and therefore I was very overtly racist, raised and grew up with thinking. And that mostly changed when I went to college and met other people. And also like, got into like, actually interacting with other Filipinos because my mom and I were the only people of color in the entire town. I started, you know, actively looking more and more into history, and just finding all of these things that weren't taught to me. It's just amazing, like the rich like history of like Filipinos in the Philippines and in the US of like activism and like how they have and just like not just Filipinos, but just like Asian Americans in general, being in solidarity with like, the Black community and other communities.
Gabby Ballard: Micah?
Micah Fong: My name is Micah Fong. I'm an organizer with PSL Boston. I'm half Chinese and half white. And I was born and raised in Southern California. So I was, you know, lucky to grow up in an extremely diverse environment, as well as you know, in a place that has such a rich history of working class, Asian resistance, and solidarity, I really just wasn't taught about those histories. I was definitely encouraged to succeed in a very capitalist, not solidarity, kind of path. The government that we live currently under has caused so much devastation in both Asia and Africa. That really opened my eyes. And even though we might be upheld, as model minorities, sometimes as Asians that can so easily be turned around right back to yellow peril when it benefits our government, as we've seen with the demonization of China, and COVID, and many, many other instances. So yeah, really happy to be here. And looking forward to this conversation.
Gabby Ballard: And we have a few more. Sharik?
Sharik Purkar: My name is Sharik. I use they/them pronouns or any pronouns. I'm an organizer with the Boston South Asian coalition. I was born in India, and I spent a great amount of my early life. And so imperialism was not an abstract concept. Before I ever learned the word I saw in front of my eyes. On top of this, right, you also see the propaganda that's done between oppressed communities to other each other, right? So I'm also coming from a Muslim family. I was the other in India being that and then also simultaneously you see the propaganda against Pakistan again. And then, you know, once once I came over to America at the peak of Islamophobia, a great time to realize my Muslim identity was kind of the one that was directed the most slurs at.
Once I got to college, the only place that I could actually learn about imperialism, without it being a liberal whitewashed version was in my African studies classes. And the more that I learned about that, the more that I realize that Malcolm X is not just this one individual that represents this one identity, but is at the cross section of all of these different identities. A lot of Malcolm X's legacy is maintained and carried on by people in Asia, by people in Asia who've been taking inspiration from Malcolm the Panthers. So this whole time on, and really coming to see the unification of our struggle as one.
Gabby Ballard: To wrap up our intros. I'm going to turn it over to Nino to quickly introduce yourself one more time.
Nino Brown: My name is Nino, again, organizer, ANSWER Coalition. I also organized with the Jericho Movement, which is a movement to free political prisoners, many of them who come from the era of third world national liberation, where African, Asian, Latin American countries were freeing themselves from imperialism. And you know, so we defend the revolutionaries who have survived, you know, and are incarcerated from that era. My personal family comes from Jamaica, prior to that were stolen from somewhere in West Africa, most likely Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, who really knows but, you know. In Jamaica, we have had this, you know, so-called coolie labor system. And, you know, I've heard my parents describe how the ruling classes be they Black or white have used the race question to divide the Jamaican masses.
And my family lives in New York City in Brooklyn, with our strong Asian, you know, communities from Queens, and in Brooklyn itself. And in New York City, you know, there have been a slew of hate crimes against Asians and particularly Chinese Americans. And even though New York City is segregated, like many American cities, we all live next to each other and on top of each other, and understanding the historical efforts of Black Americans to lend solidarity to, you know, Asian liberation movements, whether they be in Korea, Vietnam, right, but also building active solidarity in places like the Caribbean, and even in China and Africa today.
Gabby Ballard: For this next question, I just want to hear from a few panelists about how do we understand what is the black community? What is the Asian community? What are the interactions between them, and the history of the development of these two communities, especially within the United States, but of course, you know, keeping a perspective to the international connections and relationships?
Satya Mohapatra: Asian people there is that sad, kind of common history because almost all Asian countries were either victims of European colonization, or some of them were in a semicolonial control, not fully colonized, right? But well, Spain, but mostly Britain and France, they also had Caribbean colonies around the United States. United States also wanted English settlement, right? But Asian, when they came to the United States are all like in the greater United States around the Caribbean area, then retain that national identity.
Lilia Mundelius: If people know Frederick Douglass, so in 1969, he spoke out about free migration, like as a fundamental human right when there is all of those restrictions on Chinese immigration and Japanese immigration. And he argued that if we were supposed to restrict migration for the East Asians, then that should also apply to Europeans, but it doesn't. So he pointed out that hypocrisy and was trying to say to people that like, we shouldn't be afraid of like Asian languages, cultures, or people.
Specifically in Filipino history in 1999, when there's like the Filipino American War, so for those who don't know, the Philippines was a colony of Spain. Yes, Spain, for like 300 years at the end of World War II, when people were giving up their colonies the US bought us and then it was just kind of like new management of imperialism. And so they were resisting and they sent military which they sent a lot of like Black soldiers. A lot of people were saying like, they don't want to be used as like, a weapon and this imperialist war. A lot of people spoke up like Henry Turner and Ida B. Wells empathizing with like Filipino freedom and such. And there's even like, Black soldiers who defected to fight with the Filipino people. And one of the most notable is David Fagan, who took up arms. And he said, his quote, “Took up arms against a country races to the core and bent on Empire at the expense of dark skinned people.”
Another thing that's probably less well known is in 1955, there's the Bandung Conference, otherwise known as the African Asian conference. It was organized by Indonesia and a couple other countries with a total of 29, African and Asian countries coming together and their core principles of this conference was political self-determination, mutual respect for sovereignty, non aggression, non interference in internal affairs, and equality. And this was during a time when, like, many countries were becoming independent, they were like, trying to gain their own power. So they came together in solidarity against these bigger Western powers just like finding out how to get power for themselves and being able to govern themselves and not being under colonial rule.
Gabby Ballard: So Meilyn, and then if you want to weigh in?
Meilyn Huq: Immigrants, in general, have like this shared story that they traveled here in search for a better life, while escaping wreckage and war that, like imperialism has, like done abroad. And then when they come here, they actually find out that they're still being oppressed, and they're still being targeted, and they're still being harassed, and they're still being killed, and they're still being discriminated against. It's just like, the saddest part of like, the immigrant story, or just the Asian immigrant story is just like you're trying to escape imperialism, but you're just by going to it to the heart of it, and you think that like going to the heart of it to the source will like help you. Like, just by being geographically closer, but it actually is not the case.
Nino Brown: Yeah, I mean, I really agree with what everyone's saying. And I think, we are historically determined beings, we're not pigs and goats and chickens and ducks, which is what was the process was kind of the result, right? The thing is, Black people, African people were kidnapped off the shores of West Africa. Yeah, we were different peoples, right. We were our Europa Ebo will have Fulani what have you. And through the process of slavery, and Jim Crow, it took us Iran, which robbed us of our humanity, really, where they tried to in our culture, our language, our God, and in the United States, or the Western Hemisphere, we've developed into new nations, right, but into a distinct Black nation.
That distinct African American nation, which the United States has still not reconciled with. They tried to turn Black people into just mules, mules of the world, just you know, just labor, right? No soul, no religion, no anything, just workers.
We have to bring our history and what actually determined our communities to the conversation, because in that history, we have, we can see the common oppression. So in the same ways that Africa was colonized in the 1890s is the same way that Asia was colonized and semi-colonized in the 1890s. With the Opium War, and I think what brings our communities together, is a lot of the needs of capital and imperialism has objectively segregated us together, objectively, you know, jailed us together, killed us together. And, you know, hopefully, we can talk about how we can build conscious resistance to that, in light of that history, that it isn't just, you know, tragedy, right, there's actually moments where we've stood in solidarity consciously.
Gabby Ballard: And that's a great segue to our next point. I mean, given all the diversity within these, you know, large groupings, these large categories of Asian or Black, what do I mean by solidarity? And why is it important?
Micah Fong: I feel like there's definitely been in recent years like a liberal co-option of the idea of solidarity. And it kind of has resulted in a very, like transactional view of allyship. I've seen a lot of Asian people use this really inaccurate rhetoric of like, “Oh, well, we supported the Black Lives Matter movement. And now you should, the Black community should be standing up for us,” as if these are two separate struggles. And ultimately, like those attacks are just super misguided because we all have one common enemy. You know, it really benefits that common enemy of, you know, capitalism, white supremacy of the US government. It benefits them for us to be pointing fingers at each other instead of remaining united and recognizing that we all benefit from fighting white supremacy and capitalism, and that none of us are going to truly be liberated until all of us are.
Gabby Ballard: Satya. Go ahead add on.
Satya Mohapatra: It also means learning from others' struggles. And that's exactly as a few examples I want to throw here. Well, one one is, for example, Black folks, if they lived in the United States, they understood that the impact of Jim Crow and the British Empire, compared it, and the moment decolonization happened, right, the British Empire began to disintegrate. That's the also the time Jim Crow is going to lose it right. In fact, if you look at the statistics that that that NAACP and other organizations they were all rooting for, for Indians, India's decolonization. In fact, Paul Robeson says that India is the key. That means South Asia at that time, that's what he meant. India was the key to the entire colonial issue. W. E. B. Dubois wrote, like up to two letters to all the Indian anti colonial fighters. So the solidarity they were practicing.
Gabby Ballard: Thanks. It's been a minute since we've heard from Sharik, so let's hear from Sharik and then Meilyn, and we'll keep on with this question.
Sharik Purkar: A perfect example of solidarity, right? And this also hits because, when in 1961, the Indian armed forces were going to liberate a part of India, Goa, from Portuguese rule, because most of India was colonized by the British, but some parts were by the Portuguese and French. The Portuguese Armada was on its way. But [a group] in Egypt said, “No, you're not gonna get it through here.” And that's how Goa was liberated. So yeah, that does the Quick, quick, actual demonstration of real solidarity.
Meilyn Huq: Historically, in the US, like Black radicals and Black activists were, like displaying solidarity, in their writings in their demonstrations with the Asian people abroad. A great example of that is when W. E. B. Dubois went to China when it was illegal to go there. I'm going to just read this quote, he was struck by the transformation of the Chinese, in particular, what he perceived as the emancipation of women. And he left convinced that China would lead the underdeveloped nations on the road towards socialism. In China, after long centuries, he told an audience of Chinese communists attending his 91st birthday celebration, “China has arisen to her feet, and leapt forward, Africa arise and stand straight. Speak and think. Act turn from the west and face the rising sun.” So his language here is like very pointedly like connecting the century of humiliation that the Chinese had undergone after the Opium War, and the hundreds of years of humiliation that the Black community had faced, because of chattel slavery, understanding the oppression that both these communities like face and that they have a common enemy. It is like Western imperialism.
Nino Brown: We're not fighting for white people to like Black people, or for white people to like, Asian Americans, right? We're actually fighting for actual material gains, right? We agree that, you know, there is a material reality. We're all a part of it, and interconnected in 1,001 ways. Our struggles and our understanding of how do we strategically work together against our common enemy that really exists, right? US imperialism. It's not, you know, an idea of, you know, just racist ideas. We see the massive amounts of just deindustrialization has happened in the United States from the 1970s, where most of these industrial jobs have been sent to Asia, right? St the behest of the capitalists, right. So now, you know, whenever capital has shifted, we've seen that the working class has expanded, right?
So we have workers or you know, people who are formerly farmers, you know, so called peasants, now becoming industrial workers, right in Bangladesh, working in factories, and the Philippines and Vietnam, you know, formerly in China, but as China is now growing, its pay scale is really increasing, because it's no longer you know, the sweatshop of the world.
Capitalism has spread its tentacles all over the world. Right? It has, you know, lashed all of our backs, at least once. And that's the material basis — our solidarity, right? Is that we're all you know, are predominantly working class people. For Black people in this country, there were no illusions about it. We were brought here to work and as capitalism has expanded and made, expanded the working class in Asia, Southeast Asia and the Pacific That's the basis of solidarity.
Gabby Ballard: We've heard a lot of examples of solidarity. We've heard of the material basis and the root for solidarity, that our struggles are interconnected. Well, how do we build unity? And what are the barriers to building unity? And I guess I'll open up with an example of this. There is a Nightline video from ABC News that will show in a hot second, that speaks to this question.
In addition to that, I mean, in talking about social media, I can say from my personal experience for Black History Month, there were a lot of calls for the Black community to stand up for Asians. To do more for the Asian community — this is during Black History Month that I was seeing this — and, um, I just think that it really raises a lot of questions around “Well, we're talking about all this material basis and history.” Do we actually see that today? Is this is a valid approach, can we actually build this unity and how? So before we get into that, I do want to show folks this video. So if we have that available, we can pull it up right now. And it's very short 20 seconds.
Nightline Video: I think as the targeting of the Asian American community, we need the Black community to realize that the Black people are hurting Asians, and they need to speak out in their own community.
Gabby Ballard: Maybe, Daven, if you want to open us up on this point and talk a little bit about this contradiction here?
Daven McQueen: This contradiction here. Racism is one of capitalism's favorite tools to divide the people to divide the working class. And this exists, you know, at the level that we usually think of racism as like Black versus white, or white versus non-white, but is also at work within our communities, within the Black and Asian communities. And sort of as this video clip shows, the mainstream media and the ruling class media is just simply a tool for aiding in stoking that division and that racism in between our communities.
In this video, we don't see what question that people interviewed are asked, but we can imagine it something about “What is your perspective on the Black and Asian American relationship?” Very leading questions to sort of get people to express this division, even though it's historically not the case. Even though we can see so many examples from what folks have said today in the panel, about ways that we've seen tangible solidarity in between Black and Asian communities, both in the US and abroad.
Gabby Ballard: Let's hear from Meilyn and then.
Meilyn Huq: Recently, I read in the Boston Globe piece saying, “Can Asian people even unite because they don't even get along with each other?” Like, that wasn't the exact language but that's what they were saying. And that line of thinking, like it goes along with like, “Can Asian and Black people get along?” It's just racist to say that, like, Asian people are inherently racist. They're saying like, yeah, like there is racism, like between minority groups. But like, where does this racism come from? Like a lot of people don't even try to understand that they think that like, racism, just like is inherited through their DNA, and like you're born racist. And like that, in itself is like subscribing to race science, like eugenics, this race, science and race eugenics came from colonialism. There was historically xenophobia, like fear of foreigners, like in different communities before colonialism. But after colonialism, the idea of like a race, being inferior to another race is like where this idea came from.
Gabby Ballard: Satya, you can wrap us up on this question of the barriers to unity, how we build unity, and then we'll end off with one last whip around of all the panelists to talk about why it matters and what we need to do to move forward.
Sharik Purkar: And one of the barriers that is being talked about is the model minority myth among Asians. But as we know that Asia is not the same, that there are many disparities in Asia and model minorities not even applied uniformly right. And in fact, actually oppressed people who came to the US from Southeast Asia was born basically from Vietnam, Cambodia, and they were also put in this same category of model minority expectations, and actually that's what's the one of the things building solidarity? That kind of that that's one of the barriers, but the model minority had a basis also right because it was the United States in turn. Japanese Americans during the Second World War, put them in concentration camps, but right after that, it was the fear of Otitis Media.
Oh, it has a bit of a lens to it. So in a modern mind it was created that time first for Japanese Americans and then it percolated a little bit to other groups. But the example is when a Minneapolis for George Floyd uprising was happening last year, one Bangladeshi restaurant was burned down, the owner of the restaurant said, “Let it burn down, because we need justice.”
Gabby Ballard: With that, we're gonna go ahead and move into our closing points. So just from each panelists, we want to hear why does it matter that we are building unity building solidarity, what do we need to move forward, and if you do have a book recommendation or something to leave folks with an event recommendation, anything like that, definitely feel free to do that.
Meilyn Huq: Like I was reading in like one of the books like in preparation for this, the first example that people think about when they think about Afro-Asian solidarity is like Rush Hour, like, what like, there's a history that's been like completely erased, that we need to revive. Like, we have to understand that these acts of violence and terror against our people, like they're not isolated incidents.
They're connected to each other. Earlier, we're talking about, like this impending war with China, like China bashing is gonna keep happening, and keep happening and meet and like, historically, where we lie on these issues. And as long as like one community is oppressed, we can't have liberation of one without the other. And representation is not going to cut it. But yeah, my recommendation, I was just reading Vijay Prashad’s Everybody was Kung Fu Fighting is a really good historical analysis on African and Asian relations globally.
Sharik Purkar: The biggest barrier to unity, all of the panelists have talked about is the illusion that there is this unity, or rather the illusion that there are these separate struggles. They’ve never been separate. It was the word from the old road force on this very land that they use to build their Armada us to go enslave our siblings in Africa to dominate Asia, it was it was the word from right here that they use, you know, as you already talked about how they use Indian soldiers, they also use the Indian opium to semi-colonize China. They used colonize soldiers from Africa, in parts of Asia, they use filters from India in other parts of the world. So our oppression has always been always been one. We're one struggle. We're not going to get liberated individually. We're not going to get liberated as separate groups, book recommendation, I guess bouncing off of Meilyn’s Vijay Prashad, The Darker Nations: A People's History of the Third World.
Daven McQueen: Oftentimes capitalism will try to make us believe that you know, all of the struggles that we're facing as a community as people are, these individual struggles against you know, one another, like between communities. And as both Sharik and Meilyn said, we are facing one oppressor. We are against the entire system. We just heard the verdict of Derek Chauvin trial, and he is guilty on all counts. But like, putting one one cop in jail isn't going to break down the system that's oppressing us. And that goes for conversations about Black and Asian unity.
Lilia Mundelius: In the US and abroad as well, things that we can do. Like there's like three recommendations I have is like, look up your history research, open up Google and listen. Events like these are great for being here. And, you know, ultimately trying to learn. The second thing is talk to your elders. Talk to your parents talk to your grandparents, like ask about their stories, their histories, like maybe they were in the revolution, you don't know. Talk to your Asian parents about anti-Blackness. And that kind of assumed automatically that Asian elders already didn't know about the struggle and weren't in solidarity with the struggle. That's why I say, you know, talk to them and ask them first before assuming, “Oh, they're anti-Black.” I know, my mom is anti-Black because we've had these conversations, and we're still having these conversations. And yeah, you know, talking to elders is also you know, like, have these conversations, not just with your elders, but your family, your peers, like anyone who displays like racist attitudes.
And then the last thing is things to stay away from representation politics, people keep, like, Asians keep saying like, “We need more representation.” Representation isn't gonna like do anything for us. Like that's just perpetuating into the model minority myth. I've been seeing like, Asian Americans being like, “Oh, yeah, like we're working with the police. Like, making sure to cooperate fully and like.” That's not gonna that no, like increased policing has proven time and time again. That's not going to do anything. It's just going to be terrorizing communities more.
Satya Mohapatra: So, learn from history, although history will not adapt, we have to learn and study the presence, right? We really have to study the present with the uprising against police brutality, has unified the multinational working class that Asian Black with with central to this multinational, operating. This phobia of China, that's being propagated by the ruling class. Watch out for that. Because that's going to actually go back to haunt not only Chinese people, but for everyone, including all Asians.
Micah Fong: It's crucial to completely oppose and organize against imperialism in every instance. And you know, defend African, Asian, Latin American rights to self determination, advocate for the end of sanctions for the end of military occupation by the US. And be wary of the attempts of those same governments and corporations that are doing most of the exploiting to distract you by pointing fingers at what other countries are doing.
Nino Brown: I think one thing is the slogan that we say in the streets, “One struggle, one fight.” I think it's pertinent we understand, I think Sharik has said that this is one global struggle, and we're all on different fronts of the same fight. So this matters, because even though there's a resurgence of resistance, what we still face is the counter revolutionary violence of the US war machine. The war on our people is real, right? The divide and conquer is not just then, but it's also now.
We have the 400 years of contradictions bursting at the seams, Jim Crow, to the Opium War, right, all of these things in our ancient history that all manifests in the present. We have to see and make these connections between the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes, and also the rise of police violence. We have to defend our movements that are critiquing war in the streets. That's that's where we'll find our solidarity, right? Because we know that our theories of solidarity can only become a material force in the streets, not in the abstract, right? The war on China, the war on the people in the Middle East, right, they all had rebounding effects on the United States, with just increased terror internally. So really, I agree with what everyone said in my book recommendation will be Afro Asia: Revolutionary Political and Cultural Connections between African Americans and Asian Americans edited by Fred Ho and Bill Mullen, but it's a compilation of essays on Afro Asian solidarity historically.
So join the organization, check out the ANSWER Coalition, check out the organizations here, realize that you know, we are not minorities, right? The world's majority are actually Africa, Asia, Latin America, we can reject this militant minority or this minority notion and realize that we are part of the working class majority and that's where our power lies.
Gabby Ballard: Excellent. Thank you all panelists once again for all your comments thanks to everyone who attended everyone who organized this and for all the work that you are consistently doing. Have a great night everybody.
Kaitlin Milliken: This has been the BOSFilipinos Podcast. I'm your host, Kaitlin Milliken. Music for our show was made by Matt Garamella. Special thanks to Daven for helping coordinate this conversation. We will link all of the organizations that participated in this panel in the show notes on bosfilipinos.com. If you liked this episode of our show, you can subscribe to the BOSFilipinos Podcast on your streaming platform of choice. You can also follow us on Instagram, @bosfilipinos, to stay connected. Thanks for listening and see you soon.