Community Over Accomplishments: Lessons from AAPI Women Lead
I’ve been following AAPI Women Lead for so long now that I signed up when they posted about needing volunteers for their event!
I’ve been to many AAPI spaces, and I often notice Southeast Asians (SEA), South Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Hawaiians missing from the conversation and the stage.
It just doesn’t sit right with me that these voices are missing. Being Vietnamese American, there are plenty of times when I don’t feel a sense of “belonging” in Asian spaces. Maybe because most of my childhood girlfriends are Filipino, I feel more belonging in Daly City than in Little Saigon 😅
I’m only speaking from my experience as a SEA.. So when there’s the “model minority myth”, I’m like… Where?! Who? That’s not my story and so many other Asians that I grew up with in Richmond, CA (Laotian, Mien, Filipino, Indian).
So when I witnessed the women on the stage and they were Southeast Asians, Pacific Islanders, Filipinos, Palestinian — these are women’s voices who I often don’t get to hear nearly enough from.
And I’m not saying that one type of Asian is more important than the other, but Dr. Connie Wun made a great point. When we say “AAPI”, where is the PI? What is the totality of AA? Who is missing from the table?
I loved the theme of the event, “Building New Worlds”. I’m likely butchering it, but Dr. Wun said something about forgetting about DEI. Not wanting to be “included” in the world that’s already here but rather building a new one where there isn’t a need to be “included”.
I also appreciated that throughout the day-long event, there were acknowledgements to the original stewards of the land, to the slave labor on which the USA was built on, to how the teachings came from black women.
Other takeaways from the event (words from the panel and fireside chat):
Do not “microdose rest”
Asian hate did not start in 2020, it started hundreds of years ago due to imperialism and colonization
Be careful of having an extractive relationship with the land, be careful of capitalistic agriculture
Be gentle with the Earth
How you define the problem is how you define the solution
Some people are elders and some people are just old 🤣
We are all ancestors and stewards in training
How we’re in community with each other >>>> accolades, achievements, awards
Using the acronym SWANA (Southwest Asian and North African) >>>> Middle East. The term “Middle East” was created to separate us.
The work we do here is to fight against the forces that are pitting us against each other
I’ll probably sign up every year to volunteer if I can 😅
Which takeaway resonates with you?
Links and Resources
Learn more about AAPI Women Lead
Donate to AAPI Women Lead
Read their IPAR Report, “Naming our Rage, Building Our Power”
