For APIDAS Who Want to Do The Thing

My beloved APIDA siblings,

Earlier today, as I was talking to my partner, I wondered, “What would it take to make me less angry?” Would arresting the officers who killed George Floyd do it?

No. It would not.

This work and this moment is about George Floyd, but it’s not just about him. It’s about the way we as a society have collectively participated in and bought into the lie of white supremacy and caused untold harm to not only our Black siblings but our own communities.

We are here to do this work so that liberation can be had for all.

For some of us, this will be our first foray into anti-racist work. We can’t just be here for this week or support our Black siblings and communities for this week. We have to be willing to put in the work, even when it’s achingly slow. Like our spiritual ancestors in APIDA activism, some of us may not see the work completed in our lifetime. By doing this work, we will forever change the way we look at and live in this world.

Starting tomorrow, we at Diverging invite you to go on this journey with us in the coming weeks. We will be working through our understanding of our relationship with whiteness as APIDA (Asian Pacific Islander Desi Americans), boost Black voices whom we have found helpful and instructive, and dive into learning together.

We each have a role to play in this movement for liberation. Some of us will be protestors, some of us will be educators in our community, and some of us will fight for justice in our everyday interactions.

In this series, we’ll explore some of the ways that we can participate, whether it be through protesting, amplifying Black voices, financially supporting bail funds and Black-owned businesses.

This series is intended as a mutual learning aid and a collective call to action. Together, we will explore different ways to support our Black siblings in this movement, and hopefully we’ll all have learned something.

We won’t pretend to have all of the solutions - we don’t. We invite you to join us and do the thing.

Lovingly,
Aimee Sher, Diverging Editor-In-Chief

Earlier this week, Diverging published a letter to our Black siblings who are protesting against police brutality and systemic racism in our society. We at Diverging recognize that words are not enough, and that there is still so much left to do. This is the continuation of that work.