It’s the last day of May…
and we just want to say again, Happy Asian and Pacific Islander Heritage month from all the members behind @asiantheatre . As this month comes to a close, we thought that it would be important to use our platform to promote resources in relation to the cases of police brutality in America and world wide. We want to make it clear that we here at AsianTheatre believe in and support the Black Lives Matter movement. We stand in solidarity with the Black community at the injustices facing them.
Asians and Pacific Islanders have historically and systematically benefited from anti-black sentiments in society, and have perpetrated it in our lives and in our communities, unknowingly and not. It’s our job as part of the non-black people of color to unlearn our biases, prejudices, and stand up for the Black community.
Please check out the following organizations and sign the following petitions to bring justice for the countless Black people who have been victims of police brutality. We want to uplift Black voices, so if there are any further community organizations we missed, feel free to leave it in the comments and we’ll add them onto this post.
Masterpost on Google Docs of all bail funds in the U.S. & petitions
text “enough” and “floyd” (in separate texts) to 55156, then click the link in the text and sign the petition for Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, respectively
text “justice” to 668366 for Ahmaud Arbery
Reclaim the Block (donate)
Black Visions Collective (donate)
North Star Health Collective (street medic collective in Minnesota (donate)
Minnesota Freedom Fund (donate)
NAACP Legal Defense Fund
Resource website to look up local protests/donation sites/petitions (with translations currently in Spanish, Italian, and Dutch)
Fundraiser for Chrystul Kizer in Canada
Fundraiser/petition for Regis Korchinski-Paquet in Canada
Templates for petitions and other Black organizations to support
How to help if you can’t physically attend a protest.
ACLU’s video on what your rights are as a protestor
https://lettersforblacklives.com is a website that has letter templates to send to friends and family regarding BLM. it’s translated in a variety of languages and targets community specific anti-black sentiments
Reading and watch lists (x / x)
Since this is a theatre blog, we want to promote Black actors Jelani Alladin and Christiani Pitts, who are speaking up against police brutality on their Instagram pages/stories.
Finally, one of the most important things for us API to do is to start conversations with friends and family members about anti-Black sentiments in our community. Change in society starts with us. Please check out these resources on unlearning biases within the API community and how to talk to Asian American family members about police brutality.
6 ways Asian Americans can tackle Anti-Blackness in our families
20 allyship actions for Asian Americans to show up for the Black community
32 ways Asians perpetuate Anti-Black racism everyday (read it and unlearn it)
More links
We implore all our followers and contributors to read, share, and participate in protests and the discussion. No matter what, if you are non-Black you benefit from this systematic racism, and it’s time to show your support and understanding for their plight.
Much love and much power, from asiantheatre.
Link update for theatre fans (since this is after all a theatre blog)
https://instagram.com/broadwayforracialjustice?igshid=1h5z1rixiahb0
(@/broadwayforracialjustice) is calling for the theatre community to move past just hashtags and uplift BIPOC in the theatre community and combat racism in the theatre world
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@/broadwayblack uplifts Black workers in the theatre community and has resources like podcasts and videos featuring Black leaders
https://instagram.com/broadwayblack?igshid=1s5z1h8qonjoh
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@/broadwaydiversityproject shares news for diverse casting and productions, as well as information for issues in regards to racism that community members have faced
https://instagram.com/broadwaydiversityproject?igshid=2ka6zix4lkpw
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A broadway celebration/fundraiser for BLM featuring Black theatre artists
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5C6qVbA-xvw&ab_channel=BROADWAYSESSIONS
