012 - Letters for Black Lives

Asian Americana

How do we act as allies to the Black community when we see injustice? How do we start those actions and intentions from our homes and communities? We explore the story of how hundreds of people came together from all around the world to work on a letter — a letter that would be translated into 40 plus languages and help everyone start talking to their families and communities about supporting Black lives.

Or listen on Apple Podcasts, Spotify, Google, Stitcher, or RadioPublic.

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You can find the Letters for Black Lives project on their website. The full list of published translations can be found here.

The supplemental resource document, featuring a guide to follow-up conversations, can be found here.

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First, this is not an open letter to all Black people from all the AZNs telling them how much we love them and asking for a cookie in return. It's also not even a letter *for* Black people. The letters aren't addressed to *them*.

— Gary Chou (@garychou) June 10, 2020

We're not utilizing words as weapons in the service of "being right" or simply showing we are down for the cause. We're using them to try to open some very complicated, messy, stuck doors. pic.twitter.com/hw11gfllBB

— Gary Chou (@garychou) June 10, 2020

One of the organizers, Gary Chou, has written an in-depth twitter thread further explaining the intentions and philosophy of the Letters for Black Lives project. We encourage you to read it to get a better sense of the project beyond our episode.

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National Bail Fund Network: https://www.communityjusticeexchange.org/nbfn-directory Know Your Rights Camp: https://www.knowyourrightscamp.com/ Campaign Zero:...

In this episode, Aishwarya mentioned watching a special clip from Patriot Act with Hasan Minhaj. You can watch the full video above.

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NPR’s Code Switch did a great piece about the original Letters for Black Lives project in 2016. You can find it here: A Letter From Young Asian-Americans To Their Families About Black Lives Matter

Kat Chow, formerly with NPR’s Code Switch, also wrote this very thoughtful piece: 'Model Minority' Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks

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Finally, here are some links to other resources that may be helpful to you. We’ve not checked every single resource linked, but hopefully these are useful starting points for you to learn more and do further work.

Asian American Advocacy Fund resource list
Asian American Organizing Project resource list
Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit
Asians4Black Lives Twitter and Instagram