We at Aunt Lute want to apologize for our silence on the growing violence against the Asian and Pacific Islander community, culminating in an attack that killed 8 people last week in Atlanta.
As a few of us on the Aunt Lute team are members of the API community, we have spent this week grieving. But the attack in Atlanta calls attention to a specific intersection of racism and misogyny that we feel, as an organization, the need to comment on. The fetishization of Asian women is racist misogyny. Some of the earliest US legislation restricting immigration came about in order to block Asian women from entering the country because it was assumed they were sex workers. Further, the criminalization of sex work is also misogyny and is an act of criminalization of vulnerable communities, including immigrants, trans folks, and others. Lastly, Asians are people of color. These are facts, and any effort to gloss over them or to pretend otherwise is an act of patriarchal white supremacy.
It is important to note the ways in which policing failed our communities over the course of this week. Reports that police held victim Delaina Yaun's Latinx partner in custody as she died, escorting the shooter out safely, are horrifying. They remind us that this conversation of oppression and how to dismantle harmful power structures is inherently intersectional. The ways in which Black and Brown bodies are not only undervalued but criminalized perpetuate the conditions by which all marginalized communities suffer, particularly Asian Americans in this time of sinophobia and exploitative capitalism.
Aunt Lute stands in opposition to patriarchal white supremacy. We will continue to share the stories that not only deserve to be heard, but are imperative to the transformational change we are working toward in our society. In the meantime, we mourn with you the loss of life and the fear that members of the API community experience today and every day.
Stop Asian American Pacific Islander Hate.
Justice for Sex Workers.
Latinx Lives Matter.
Black Lives Matter.
Below is an action resource plan for Asian Americans and allies by Annie Wu and Kim Saira.
https://www.pensandoxibanya.com/resouces
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