On Painful Anniversaries, Anti-Asian Hate, and Solidarity in the Face of Hate

March 16, 2022 by Pharoah Bolding in Anti-Asian Hate, current events, Equity, Race Talks, White Supremacy

TW: Anti-Asian hate, violence, murder, fetishization.

Today marks the one-year anniversary of 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long murdering eight people in a mass shooting spree at three Atlanta, Georgia, area spas, which Long claims happened due to his "sex addiction." Long's actions led to the senseless murders of Xiaojie "Emily" Tan, 49; Daoyou Feng, 44; Delaina Yaun, 33; Paul Michels, 54; Suncha Kim, 69; Soon Chung Park, 74; Hyun Jung Grant, 51; and Yong Ae Yue, 63.

The murders of these eight people, living their lives and trying to make a living, were not isolated incidents.

Attacks against Asian Americans have been on the rise since the start of the pandemic. The FBI reported an increase in anti-Asian hate crimes since 2019. The group Stop AAPI Hate has tracked nearly 11,000 hate incidents against Asian Americans from March 2020 to December 2021, with more occurring in 2021 than 2020. Most of those incidents targeted women from AAPI communities.

With racial attacks on the rise, AAPI communities are increasingly fearing for their safety with very little accountability for the actions of those initiating hate crimes. A recent survey published this month from the National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum (NAPAWF) found that 74% of Asian American and Pacific Islander women reported experiencing racism and/or discrimination over the last year. 53% said the perpetrator was a stranger or someone they didn't know. For East Asian respondents, in particular, 51% of women said they feel less safe today than at the start of the pandemic.

As we look at the anniversary of a violent and hateful act, I feel so much pain for my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues. As a person of color, a Black person, I feel this pain deeply because I know how terrifying it is to believe you might not make it home today. I know how horrifying it is to think that your loved ones might not make it to the dinner table tonight. But what I really feel, deep inside my soul, is exhaustion.

I'm tired. I've been tired. One thing I'm so tired of is watching as communities of color have to acknowledge painful and traumatizing anniversaries while asking for justice and safety that never come. Many of my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues are also tired. I know many of you are hurting, scared, still trying to reconcile why this has to be your reality and why there is so much hate in this world. I don't have answers. But you do have me – my support, care, and solidarity.

I stand with my AAPI friends, family, and colleagues on this painful anniversary and every other day of the year too. I stand with AAPI women and femmes on this painful anniversary and every other day of the year too. I will always stand with you and fight for your right to live, to exist, to thrive, not to be objectified and fetishized by white supremacy and hate. And we'll keep fighting together to make it so that the only anniversaries we're observing are celebrations, not trauma.

On Soapboxing, Milk Crating, Racism, and Ukraine

March 01, 2022 by Pharoah Bolding in current events, Equity, Race Talks, White Supremacy

The fact that there are droves of white people up in arms over Black people sending their support to the citizens of Ukraine while calling out the European-flavored racism and white supremacy that is blatantly on display as Black folx are trying to flee an under siege Ukraine clearly says four things about white U.S. Americans.

On Black History Month, Paying Black Folx, and "Exposure"

January 27, 2022 by Pharoah Bolding in Black History Month, Black Lives Matter, Consulting, DEI, Equity, Race Talks, Representation, White Supremacy, Trainings

Hello, white U.S. Americans who organize events and programming for your company or organization. It's that time of year when the air is crisp, winter is well underway, and white "professionals" reach out to Black speakers, consultants, and facilitators to speak at their corporate events as panelists and teachers to "celebrate" Black History Month. You reach out to us to share our stories, pain, and lived and learned experiences with your white organizations during the shortest month of the year, continuing the cycles of melanated pain porn for white consumption that your organizations have trafficked in for decades.

And you're still asking us to do this for little to no compensation.

On Anti-Asian Sentiments, Ingrained Anti-Blackness, Michelle, and Sandra

January 20, 2022 by Pharoah Bolding in White Supremacy, Race Talks, current events, Black Lives Matter, Anti-Asian Hate

We can't talk about the horrific murders of Michelle Allysa Go and Sandra Shells without examining the ugliness at the intersections of the patriarchal white supremacist national sentiments around homelessness and housing insecurity. We also can't talk about what happened to Michelle and Sandra without examining mental health advocacy and the perceived and perpetuated value of Black and Asian women in the United States. And we definitely shouldn't be having conversations about Michelle and Sandra's murders without incorporating an ever-evolving understanding of the deeply ingrained passive acceptance of anti-Blackness and anti-Asian hate that has permeated this country's mindset for hundreds of years.

On Acronyms, Action, and Schoolhouse Rock

December 24, 2021 by Pharoah Bolding in Equity, Inclusion, Human Resources, Boards and Committees, White Supremacy, Race Talks

(Not so) hot take: legitimate equity and inclusion an acronym or committee does not make.

All of the BJEDI, JEDI, IDEA, DEI, EDI, and other assorted acronyms you can come up with will not replace action and initiatives that gradually build stronger and more sustainable workplace cultures. Acronyms don't matter if you aren't putting in the work. Acronyms are just words. Those words are nouns until you make them verbs and just verbs until you decide to put in the hard work that makes them action verbs.

Schoolhouse Rock taught a whole generation that but you wouldn’t know it by lookin’ at that generation running victory laps with their acronyms and committees.