How can Asian American communities create safety, when the harms of racism and xenophobia are so deeply rooted in our society?

We’ve spent time unpacking the simplistic solution of hate crime enforcement, then learning how local activists rallying against anti-Asian hate often reveal a much deeper history of neglect and under-resourcing of immigrant communities.

In this third of three episodes on community responses to anti-Asian racism during the pandemic, we speak with four people — Rachel Kuo of the Asian American Feminist Collective; Sammie Ablaza Wills of API Equality in Northern California; and Suja and Iram Amir from American Muslims Uncovered.

From seeking non-policing solutions for conflict management, to helping intergenerational communities understand how to express what they need most, to challenging the racism that festers in schools across the country, each voice in this episode challenges Asian Americans to ask for fundamental change in how we achieve safety for our communities.

Credits

• Produced by James Boo and Julia Shu
• Sound mix by Timothy Lou Ly
• Music by Blue Dot Sessions and Epidemic Sound
• Self Evident theme music by Dorian Love

Shout Outs

• Thanks to Rachel Kuo and the entire leadership of the Asian American Feminist Collective, Sammie Ablaza Wills of APIENC, Suja Amir of the Asian & Latino Solidarity Alliance of Central Virginia, and Iram Amir of American Muslims Uncovered for sharing their time with us.

Self Evident is a Studiotobe production, made with the support of our listener community. Our show was incubated at the Made in New York Media Center by IFP. 

Resources, Reading, and Listening

• “We Want Cop-Free Communities: Against the Creation of an Asian Hate Crime Task Force by the NYPD” by the Asian American Feminist Collective
• “Internal Affairs Investigating Columbus Park Incident” by The Lowdown
• “Charges Dropped in New York City Jaywalking Incident” by ABC News
• “Trusting Abundance: A Conversation With Sammie Ablaza Wills” by Lia Dun for Autostraddle
• “Race, Policing, and the Universal Yearning for Safety” featuring Phillip Atiba Goff for the Ezra Klein Show
• “The Store That Called the Cops on George Floyd” by Aymann Ismail for Slate