To our beloved Black siblings, On this day, June 1st, 2020, we write to express our solidarity with you. In the past weeks, we witnessed the murder of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Tony McDade, and too many others. We then witnessed the escalating violence that the police have perpetuated in our shared communities, while people gathered and risked their lives to protest the ongoing police brutality with which this nation continues to reckon.

America has long used scripture (with buy-in from its church) to oppress its people. I have been brainwashed into believing the myth of American History as written by white men. I have been conned into buying the facade of the American Dream as painted by white men. As an Asian American Christian, white-adjacent model minority and simultaneous perpetual other, I have often been complicit in upholding this intricately woven (and incredibly strong!) web of lies upon which American society stands.

If you’re not here for the liberation of all Asian Americans, then your movement is not truly for Asian Americans. And if you’re not here for the liberation of ALL people, period, then you’re here for Empire.

This is a dispatch in the midst of the covid-19 pandemic that has made its way out of East Asia and has now gripped the West. The trajectory of the novel coronavirus travels along the flows of finance capital, with capitalism as its true carrier. It trickles down to the working class and undocumented and raciailized and queer people, who will face suffering both greater in measure and invisibility. Not all lives matter in the same way, especially not in these times.