To other Asian-Americans out there, I hope you’re doing ok mentally and staying safe physically in light of recent events. To everyone else as well, please remember a few things as you support Asian-American communities
- This is absolutely no reason to talk over BLM or pitch either communities against each other. We need to be uplifting of one another against white supremacy. Know that the phrase Asian Lives Matter, while with good intentions, does the same harm as All Lives Matter. Promote these phrases instead when possible: StopAsianHate, TheyCantBurnUsAll, AsiansAreHumans, ProtectAsianLives
- Remember that there are regions outside of East Asia. SE Asians often face more racism and are even more heavily underrepresented in media, they deserve full protection and support as well. Blasian (black/asian) people exist too and they should not be overlooked either
- Refrain from insensitive phrases along the lines of “if you like anime/kpop/vocaloid you should be paying attention” because you should not need a reason to care about human lives. Not only do these usually refer exclusively to East Asia media, our worth isn’t based on how much our content entertains you
- While I am referring to an incident in America, be mindful that racism against Asians does not only happen in the US. Anti-Asian racism has ridiculously spiked in Europe as well (within the UK, Italy, Greece, Spain, France, Germany to name a few countries specifically) as a result of the pandemic
Second part