A12: Learn your history. This work is not done in a vacuum, and is part of a tapestry of Asian American movement work that extends far back into our history. We honor those who came before us by always remembering their indelible influence in all we do now. #SlantdRevolution
A11: In practice, this means we must prioritize engaging with Black- and Brown-led movements, and help support and amplify those efforts both inside and outside the community. #SlantdRevolution
A11: We can be better co-conspirators by remembering and reinvigorating that tradition of working beyond our own immediate interests, and to instead understand how this battle is necessarily interconnected with the work of other Black and Brown communities. #SlantdRevolution
A11: The Asian American Project emerged out of a long political history of Asian Americans working in partnership with other Black and Brown people towards the larger goal of achieving Black liberation and ending white supremacy. #SlantdRevolution
A10: One should see one's privilege as concrete evidence of how the system creates that privilege through violently denying justice for others. Being complacent in (and seeking to protect) the security of one's privilege is what is most harmful. #SlantdRevolution
A10: I have witnessed several incidents in which my partner (who is Black) has been the target of overaggressive policing. Part of my positionality in these incidents is watching it unfold against someone I love while knowing I am not personally in danger. #SlantdRevolution
A10: I am cognizant of myself as a cis-straight East Asian American woman, with the privilege of higher education access and training in academia. These aspects of who I am afford me protections that are not afforded to others. #SlantdRevolution
A10: I think that part of committing to racial / social justice work is to also always do the work of exploring self, which includes spending time thinking about the influences of privilege on our lives and positionality. #SlantdRevolution
A9: Also, take advantage of existing resources. I will never pass up an opportunity to amplify the @LettersForBL project, for example. #SlantdRevolution
A9: To facilitate these conversations, we must challenge ourselves to stay informed about the facts, and to try and stay safely engaged even when conversations become frustrating and difficult. Changing minds is often slow & incremental, but definitely possible. #SlantdRevolution
A9: Especially in this moment, I think ALL OF US have a responsibility to commit to #BlackLivesMatter, and to engage difficult conversations broadly but also in our immediate social circles about pressing need for radical change around police & criminal justice. #SlantdRevolution
A8: My self-care, esp now during quarantine, is creating a moment of physical solitude, and granting myself forgiveness to put (dayjob, blog, parenting) work aside for a little while. It is finding a few minutes of quiet, and not feeling guilty about taking it. #SlantdRevolution
A8: There is no one-size-fits-all self-care model. Instead, when we restore value in the nourishment of one's mind, body, and spirit, we can start to make space for each person to restore themselves -- however that might look difference for each of us. #SlantdRevolution
A8: Part of practicing self-care is recognizing the value of oneself, particularly in the face of a white supremacist and patriarchal system that devalues the lives and labour of BIPOC/BIWOC. Sustaining ourselves is essential to sustain our movements. #SlantdRevolution
A8: LOL, it's hard to feel like I can talk a lot about self-care when the pandemic has really forced me to deprioritize self-care in order to survive day-to-day. Not something I would recommend. #SlantdRevolution
A7: I believe each morning, each of us should ask what we're going to do *today* to involve ourselves in the broader fight for social justice, and challenge ourselves to do something uncomfortable but powerful towards that end. #SlantdRevolution
A7: Social justice work is a marathon, not a sprint. We can and should be working in tandem to subvert systemic racism and patriarchy, each attacking the ways in which white supremacy buttresses itself according to our own strengths. #SlantdRevolution
A7: I am personally a proponent of viewing social justice work as a lifelong pursuit, and therefore to find ways to integrate activism sustainably into your day-to-day world. Adapt your activism to fit your life, your talents, and your overall aspirations. #SlantdRevolution
A7: Getting more involved in activism starts with internalizing the fact that social injustice is all around us, and part of the very fabric of our world. We are all stakeholders, and therefore have both the responsibility and leverage to work to change things. #SlantdRevolution
A6: I help amplify Asian American writers because I believe in the power of helping our community to wrest back the agency to tell our histories and stories for ourselves and to ourselves. #SlantdRevolution
A6: The Asian American experience is powerfully dynamic, varied, and diverse. Part of how white supremacy reinforces itself is by erasing the the robustness and diversity of the Asian American voice. #SlantdRevolution
A4: Even working to amplify our stories - in defiance of expectation that we should be marginalized and silent - can be a radical act. To speak out and demand to be heard, to challenge authority and the status quo with a vision of a better future, is powerful. #SlantdRevolution
A4: I have also been involved in direct actions to address the absence of AsAm journalists and other journalists of color at NBC, Fox, and other media outlets, and to hold those outlets accountable for incidents of on-air racism. #SlantdRevolution
A4: Other forms of action can also be transformative. As a college student, I was heavily involved in petitioning school admin to meaningfully address AsAm student mental health, depression, and deaths by suicide. #SlantdRevolution
A4: For two decades, I've lent my body to mass protest actions to oppose the shooting deaths of unarmed Black folks by police -- the first I participated in sought justice for the murder of #AmadouDiallo in 1999. #SlantdRevolution
A4: I've had the opportunity to engage several transformative efforts over the years, each meaningful and impactful in their own ways. #SlantdRevolution
A3: In the current moment, revolution is seeing the many ways in which the world still fails to live up to a vision of what the world might be - just, equitable, a place where all people can thrive - and to act to transform our world towards that better vision. #SlantdRevolution
A3: To answer the question of what "revolution" means to me, I'm going to paraphrase Grace Lee Boggs and Jimmy Boggs: Revolution is loving your community enough to want to change it.
#SlantdRevolution
A2: To the extent than an identity has been "reclaimed" for me, it is the identity of an unapologetic and boldly feminist Asian American woman -- in the face of myriad stereotypes that Asian American women be meek, submissive, apolitical, and seen but not heard. #SlantdRevolution
A2: I don't know about "reclaiming" my identity. It feels as if my sense of self as an Asian Am woman has not ever been absent, lost, or rediscovered. Rather, I have spent most of my life evolving the many ways in which the personal is political and vice versa. #SlantdRevolution
