AAPI for Black Lives: Having Conversation About Race

Updated: March 2021

Resources for discussing racial injustice with family and friends

“Our challenge, as we enter the new millennium, is to deepen the commonalities and the bonds between these tens of millions, while at the same time continuing to address the issues within our local communities by two-sided struggles that not only say "No" to the existing power structure but also empower our constituencies to embrace the power within each of us to crease the world anew.”

― Grace Lee Boggs, The Next American Revolution: Sustainable Activism for the Twenty-First Centur

It is not a new development that AAPIs are against and actively work to fight forms of oppression in support of the Black community. From even before the American Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s to recent events surrounding the murder of George Floyd at the hands of white police, AAPIs have and will continue to be allies to the Black Lives Matter movement. We aim to further dispel the myth of the “model minority,” which often paints the AAPI community as often silent or undeserving to take part in dialogue about race and inequality. Addressing these heavy and painful, yet very necessary and transformative, issues start from within ourselves, our households and our communities. It can be extremely hard to begin to talk about race and racial injustice for many AAPIs, especially in conversation with close family or friends. However, it is so important to be able to contribute to dialogue around improving our understanding of race to better unite against any acts of injustice. Below are resources we have compiled as aid in confronting family, friends and colleagues on racial injustice, and what we as AAPI can do to stay actively informed and engaged by amplifying dialogue and supporting the Black community as best as we can.

Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit. The Toolkit is a project hosted by Asian American Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment, which is a California statewide formation whose purpose is to advance state politics, campaigns and other issues that support low-income AAPIs by building statewide AAPI civic engagement infrastructure and serving as a resource for emerging AAPI organizations. The founding organizations are APEN, CPA, KRC, and FAJ.

Letters for Black Lives. Letters for Black Lives is an initiative that is fully crowdsourced in providing multilingual translations on how individuals can converse about race and anti-Blackness in the household. See the Asian American (English) version, which is also available and translated into other languages.

Talking About Race by the Smithsonian National Museum of African American History & Culture. The guide contains topics divided into digestible and conversational sections, and is focused on encouraging discussion about race as educators, parents, colleagues and so forth.

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