New year, re-visiting old haunts

The year of our Lord Two-Thousand and Twenty-Four is the Year of the Dragon. According to the Chinese zodiac, the dragon is a symbol of power and authority. The personality traits of a person born in the year of the dragon are charismatic, intelligent, confident, and they are naturally lucky and gifted. If you are a believer, then this year will bring prosperity and good fortune. 

I believe this year will be one of serendipity and wellbeing. I'm especially hopeful after how hard and heartbreaking 2023 ended ("roller coaster" -- that was 2023, but more on that later). I'm looking at this coming year the way a boxer might look at their next fight after taking a beating during the last one: I'm tired but want to go at it again.

As for this little space (does anyone even blog anymore?); no posts in 2022 or 2023. I've been busy, distracted, pulled in another direction (more on that, too, later). But something told me to come back here, to open this door and look inside.  

Perhaps it's time to pick up where I last left off...     

We are watching

Thank you, Daniel (#StopAsianHate)

Stand with us (#StopAsianHate)

Friends & Allies,

Stand with us in grief, awareness and solidarity. (And add your name to the community statement here):

Excerpt from A Community-Centered Response to Violence Against Asian American Communities; Asian Americans Advancing Justice/Atlanta & Georgia NAACP; March 18, 2021

"For centuries, our communities have been frequently scapegoated for issues perpetuated by sexism, xenophobia, capitalism and colonialism. Asians were brought to the United States to boost the supply of labor and keep wages low, while being silenced by discriminatory laws and policies. From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, to the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War II, to the forced migration of refugees from US-led military conflict in Southeast Asia, to post-9/11 surveillance targeting Muslim and South Asian communities, to ICE raids on Southeast Asian communities and Asian-owned businesses, Asian American communities have been under attack by white supremacy.

Working class communities of color are disproportionately suffering from the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic. The Trump administration’s relentless scapegoating of Asians for the pandemic has only exacerbated the impact of Asian business owners and frontline workers and inflamed existing racism. The hyper-sexualization of Asian American women and the broad normalization of violence against women of color, immigrant women, and poor women make Asian American women particularly vulnerable. Hate incidents against Asian Americans rose by nearly 150% in 2020, with Asian American women twice as likely to be targeted.

We are calling on our allies to stand with us in grief and solidarity against systemic racism and gender-based violence. Violence against Asian American communities is part of a larger system of violence and racism against all communities of color, including Black, Brown and Indigenous communities.

In this time of crisis, let’s come together and build just communities, where we are all safe, where all workers are treated with dignity and respect, and where all our loved ones thrive."

Thank you, Michael (#StopAsianHate)

From filmmaker, activist and ally Michael Moore:

"For well over 24 hours we’ve had to listen to white media and white law enforcement tell us they can’t for sure call the Georgia massacre of Asian women at three Asian-American businesses a 'hate crime.' Do the cops and cable news think we’re that stupid? They also won’t just say these words: 'It’s a mass murder of women.'

If a white Christian man went into a Black business and killed mostly Black people, what would you call that? Or six Jewish women are slaughtered in a kosher deli? Or 8 lesbians slaughtered in a gay bar? 'We’ll need to do more investigation before we determine if this is a hate crime. The suspect has told us his murder spree had nothing to do with the fact they were lesbians/Jews/Blacks. He basically was just having a bad day.' So they take the word of a mass murderer over what their and our own eyes actually see! 'Well, he said he wasn’t motivated by racism.' Unbelievable. Once again, we are shown, if you’re white (and not too poor), you can just make shit up and the police will believe you. They’ll even take you to Burger King (white mass murderer at the Black church in Charleston), or offer you a bottle of water and let you go (Kenosha killer) when your hands are raised and you’re trying to turn yourself in.

Do you wonder what it’s like to be an Asian-American this morning — 'my own country and its police and its media will not even acknowledge my existence or the existence of racism and violence against me. Will anyone stand with me?'

Will we? Will you, cable news? Can you just straight up say what this is? A hate crime against Asians and women? SAY IT!

And will someone please explain to me why every time they arrest one of these sick white men for murder, the cops never pull their guns and shoot them like they do innocent unarmed Black men who have done nothing wrong (other than being born Black) and are just walking home? 'Shoot Blacks first, ask questions later' is the motto of American law enforcement.

(P.S. I long for the day when we have a media not owned and/or run by nearly all white men. In fact, I long for the day when the media isn’t owned at all, where profit isn’t the primary purpose of its existence - and where peacekeepers answer to the community and are overseen by the neighborhoods.)"