#apia

[wouldyourathervisit]

Would you rather visit

Baháʼí House of Worship, Wilmette, Illinois 🇺🇸

Bahá'í House of Worship, Kampala, Uganda 🇺🇬

Templo Bahá'í de Sudamérica, Santiago, Chile 🇨🇱

Bahá'í House of Worship, Apia, Samoa 🇼🇸

Bahá'í Gardens, Haifa, Israel 🇮🇱

Voting ended onJul 25

[davidstanleytravel]

A dancer from Siva Afi Entertainment in Apia, Samoa, is wearing a taupou (ceremonial princess) headdress.

[weareamarvel]

i was straight showin off my molars when you showed up

[onmywaytoparadiise]

[riverofmolecules]

I want justice for anti-Asian violence — but not at the expense of Black people

The story made for click-y headlines: Daniel Dae Kim and Daniel Wu swoop in to save the day with a handsome bounty. Last week, the two actors announced that they’d offer $25,000 for tips leading to the arrest of a suspect in the assault of a…

Reacting to just hate crimes is an example of acute sympathy over everyday empathy, vengeance over justice. It's why news stories are often about individual bad actors (a racist white person) and not systemic failures (hegemonic racism that will regardless of any individual, through policy and structure).

Wong acknowledges that many Asian Americans are rightfully angry and grieving right now, bemoaning what they see as inaction with regards to these assaults. But she points out that APEN, as well as other Oakland-based organizations, like Asian Health Services and East Bay Asian Local Development Corporation, have been hard at work for years trying to solve unemployment, lack of mental health resources, and other problems that create the conditions for violent crime. “We are here serving our communities every day — and we need more resources.”

Since the problems that engender crime stem from white supremacy, the solution isn’t to implement a white supremacist policing system — it’s to destroy the white supremacy that endangers all BIPOC. These problems also include the gentrification in the San Francisco Bay Area that continues to further marginalize and displace BIPOC, as well as the model minority myth, or the belief that all Asian Americans are successful because we work hard and stay in line, wielded to deny the systemic oppression of other communities of color and pit us against each other, explains Kalaya’an Mendoza, a Filipinx American activist and co-founder of Across Frontlines.

As an example: “Oakland Mayor Blames Crime Wave Against Asians on Defunded Police; Black and Asian Activists Disagree”

"What we feel is important and what I felt in that moment was triggered by the image of a white woman using dogwhistle tactics to create a fracture between the Asian community and the Black community," Fife said.

"The liberation of Black people means the liberation of all of us," Bas responded. "I want to say to my Asian brothers & sisters, we were used. We were used. I was disrespected in my community. I was silenced and disrespected."

Just as Bas has backed the Black residents in her district, they too have come out in support for the Asian American community of Oakland.

The Black Bay Area, a group focused on retaining a space for the Black population in San Francisco, has raised almost $15,000 to be donated between the Asian Health Center in Oakland and the Vietnamese Health Center in San Francisco.

The Anti Police-Terror Project, a Black-led coalition, also defended the two groups from the mayor's remarks, tweeting: "We won't let Mayor Libby Schaaf drive wedges between Oakland's Black and Asian communities to stop us from refunding our communities and investing in services that actually keep our neighborhoods safe."

[pplndplcs]

Samoa, 1962

[hoshidoru]

[apalegacy]

Happy Asian Pacific American Heritage Month! Follow & Like Our Posts this month as we celebrate local leaders from the APA community. This year, we're featuring local public servants with extraordinary stories. Adrian Tam, Bee Nguyen, Ravi Bhalla, Todd Gloria, & Vanna Howard.