Last week, ethnographer and writer Christina Xu, and a growing cadre of friends from around the world, exemplified what it means to be an ally. They also gave us an extraordinary opportunity to look at the world through another culture’s eyes.
It started with a simple tweet.
Asian-Americans who support BLM, we need to get ahead of our community organizing another pro-Liang rally. Talk to your families today.
Xu, along with other young Asian-American activists, created a crowd-sourced letter on Google docs, specifically designed to help explain their support for the Black Lives Matter movement in a way that would be culturally relevant to their families – many of which are anchored by immigrant elders with wrenching experiences of racism of their own.
Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie, Grandfather, Grandmother:
We need to talk.
You may not have grown up around people who are Black, but I have. Black people are a fundamental part of my life: they are my friends, my classmates and teammates, my roommates, my family. Today, I’m scared for them.
Xu was particularly concerned that the impulse to support the officer who shot Philando Castile – and who had been initially identified by Castile’s girlfriend, Diamond Reynolds, as “Chinese,” -would spark public divisions within the Asian community.
It’s happened before. After Peter Liang, a young NYPD officer shot and killed an African American man, Akai Gurley, many Asian American supporters rallied to his side. The result was confusion and inter-generational conflict.
Xu put out a call for help translating the letter into all relevant native languages, so it would better received by the loved ones reading it.
Within the first 24 hours, hundreds of people accessed the open Google document to edit, check facts, translate and make suggestions. There was only one troll. “What internet sorcery is this?” Xu joked.
The letter did an extraordinary job in many areas. First, the authors used facts about black people and the police to help make their case. Second, they made sure to specifically acknowledge the experiences of their relatives, and asked them to consider how that experience is related to, but different from, the systemic racism that black Americans face. And finally, it emphasized love and gratitude for the lives they’ve been allowed to live because of the earlier sacrifices made on their behalf.
Heartwarming yes. But there is real research to suggest that this approach will actually make a huge difference.
For more, click here.
Share your stories: raceAhead@newsletters.fortune.com
On Point
| Conservatives wrestle with “Black Lives Matter” phrase |
| The phrase “Black Lives Matter,” and the movement it suggests, continues to roil conservative critics and is deepening divisions along partisan lines. Some people, like Donald Trump and Rudy Giuliani, have publicly decried the phrase as racist. BLM supporters worry that the debate about the phrase deflects from the bigger issue at hand, which is about police and prison reform. |
| Washington Post |
| NBA stars take stand against gun violence during ESPYs |
| NBA superstars LeBron James, Carmelo Anthony, Chris Paul and Dwayne Wade opened the 2016 ESPY Awards with an emotional plea for police reform and a plan to end gun violence. It was widely praised as a true leadership play by the athletes, and a courageous attempt to speak to the issues top of mind for the fans and the country at large. |
| Bleacher Report |
| Donald Trump gives angry white people permission to vent |
| Donald Trump’s rise to the top of the ticket has allowed bewildered and angry white people to take private - even whispered – feelings about race, blame, privilege and influence, and make them public. Dozens of interviews show that Trump’s rhetoric have attracted supporters who often feel powerless and vulnerable, bringing to the surface both simmering anxieties, and murky calls for change. |
| New York Times |
| Disney debuts a Latina princess |
| A new Disney Channel series, Elena of Avalor, features the company’s first ever Latina princess. USA Today breaks down the genesis of the character, who seems to be a more of a mash-up Latina, with cultural nods in hair, dress and music to a variety of countries of origin. The company says that consultants worked with them every step of the way. I’m sure Twitter will let Disney know how well it did. |
| USA Today |
| The only black Republican senator gives powerful testimony |
| Senator Tim Scott (R-SC) took to the Senate floor yesterday to deliver a deeply personal speech about being repeatedly targeted by police, even while entering Senate offices. “Imagine the frustration, the irritation, the sense of a loss of dignity that accompanies each of those stops,” he said. It’s particularly notable since he’d not been leading on the issue of race in the past. In fact, influential NAACP leader Rev. William Barber once referred to him as a "ventriloquist’s dummy." |
| Washington Post |
The Woke Leader
| "Barack Obama, JD" publishes an academic paper |
| This week, Barack Obama published a scholarly article in the prestigious Journal of the American Medical Association, becoming the first sitting president ever to do so. Called “United States Health Care Reform Progress to Date and Next Steps,” it’s a full throated defense of the Affordable Care Act, and a roadmap for the next president on improving the health care system. Hit up #ObamaJama for the 'attaboys', stay for the health care geek talk. |
| Fortune |
| On being a black man in San Francisco |
| Richard Smith has been told he’s a "big, black guy." He’s also been mistaken for the "other" black guy at work. A Jamaican immigrant living and working in San Francisco as a software engineer, he knows he’s lucky. He also knows he’s different. In a thoughtful essay, he recounts the ways the world lets him know he’s not part of mainstream culture. “I thought it was normal to feel apologetic that I may have looked or seemed 'threatening' to passersby,” he writes. |
| Dev Color |
| Here is a list of 57 black-hosted podcasts |
| Laura Ober, the host of WAMU’s The Big Listen, a podcast about podcasts has worked over time on this essay. Not only is this an amazing list – I found several new ‘must-listens’ – it is a peek into the rapidly changing world of on-demand audio. It begins with a review of a recent keynote address delivered by the hosts of one of everyone's favorite podcasts, Tracy Clayton and Heben Nigatu, from Buzzfeed’s Another Round. “Critical to their success was sounding like themselves – young, shrewd, black women who worked in media.” |
| Medium |
Quote
|
|---|
