March triggered by terrorist mass shooting in Atlanta
By
Steve Ahlquist in
UpRiseRI
“We’re here today to honor Asian lives and all the Asian lives that have unfortunately been lost due to shootings and hate crimes,” said 16 year old Dexter Keegan, an organizer with The Collective Youth Program in South Kingstown, Rhode Island. “This is important to me because I think human life is so special, and I just want to value it.”
The South Kingstown event was conceived by youth organizers “out of a desire to mourn the loss of all those who have passed away due to anti-Asian violence, and to condemn the white supremacy that exists therein.”
The specific
act of violence triggering this rally was the murder of eight people, including
six women of Asian descent in Atlanta on March 16, but
anti-Asian hate crimes have been on the rise in the United States preceding
these murders and have continued afterwards.
After
a series of speeches at Old Mountain Field (included in original article) the rally marched to Dale Carlia Corners to
hold signs, chant and sing as passing motorists honked horns in support.
“We are brought here today to mourn the senseless murders of six Asian women who died at the hands of white supremacy and the countless crimes that affect Asian lives daily,” said Keegan to the crowd of about 35 people who attended.
“White
supremacy does not exist in a vacuum. It was invented by white European men and
imported into our county and numerous others. This is a white problem in our
majority white town. We should be working to dismantle it…”
“See
us! See the Asian Americans! See us!” said Aya. “See us. Educate yourselves.
Learn what the model minority myth is. Learn what white fragility is. Learn
what white silence is, and work with
us in solidarity as allies.”
“We’re
very upset and horrified and in mourning about what happened in Georgia,”
said Bella Robinson, executive director of COYOTE RI, a sex
workers’ rights group. “We recognize that Asian hate is real, racism is real,
transphobia, homophobia and whoreaphobia is real. One thing we didn’t
understand was that the public was more concerned about what these women were
doing and lacked any support of spa workers, sex workers – and we know some of
them were sex workers.
“So
what society is saying is that if they were doing sexual services, they
deserved no sympathy and no protection… I hope we can think about, as we move
forward – When things happen to spa workers, sex workers – I don’t care if they
are porn performers, working in a strip club… These are mothers, sisters, aunts
and members of our community…”
“Every
day we need to dismantle systems of oppression and the way they impact our
neighbors based on their identity – Asian, Black, LatinX, LGBTQ – these
identities and different groups are impacted more than I might be,” said Sarah Markey, one of the founders of The Collective. Markey noted the introduction of a bill in
the Rhode Island General Assembly that would ban “teaching
about racism or other forms of marginalization, or help students understand or
examine systemic systems of oppression…”
“We grieve for those killed on March 16 and recommit ourselves to working in solidarity in our shared interests with local groups in the broader AAPI (Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders) diaspora,” said Joshua H Blaine reading a statement from SURJ RI (Showing Up for Racial Justice). “First and foremost we name this act for what it is: An act of white supremacy and misogynist violence. The spas and the women were targeted because of the individuals’ intersectional identities…”
Steve Ahlquist is Uprise RI's co-founder and lead reporter. He has covered human rights, social justice, progressive politics and environmental news for nearly a decade. atomicsteve@gmail.com
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