Tuesday, October 27, 2020

Uprooting anti-Blackness in the Japanese American community

Nikkei activist Yuri Kochiyama, courtesy of UCLA Asian American Studies Center, sign by Katherine Nagasawa, WBEZ artist Mari Shibuya painting a portrait of Breonna Taylor, photo by Ellen M. Banner, The Seattle Times. 

Register now for a free series of digital workshops this fall and winter! Geared for non-Black Japanese American youth, community members—and all who wish to attend! These sessions will be moderated by Dr. Kyle Kinoshita and an intergenerational team of API organizers. Let's "clean our house" as a community so that we can better show up in solidarity for our Black siblings.  

Japanese American youth: What needs to happen in our community so that we can be powerful accomplices in the movement for Black lives? How can we ensure that our cries for “Never Again is Now!” are rooted in collective BIPOC action—not simply in the self-interests of non-Black Nikkei or API's? This upcoming webinar series will empower Nikkei young people—and others who wish to attend—through education, community-building, and dialogue. Join us for these much-needed learning sessions where we’ll be “cleaning our own house” and examining our history (such as the creation of the "model minority" myth and Black/Asian solidarity). By coming together to learn and connect, we hope to give youth the anti-racist tools they need to navigate the world today, and to lay the foundation for a future we all believe in.

Japanese Americans have survived forced assimilation, collective trauma, and racially motivated incarceration during World War II. Recently, we’ve had to navigate the world in an era where anti-Asian hate is an increasing threat. Our own experiences under white supremacy have created resilience and empowered activism in members of our community. Today, we wish to continue building on our civil rights work and values of social justice. As People of Color who carry our own history of oppression, we are also a settler group on Indigenous land, benefitting from a system built on the enslavement and oppression of Black people (and often upheld as the good, obedient “minority” to draw a wedge between us and our BIPOC siblings). In other words, the broader Japanese American community has work to do. Let's do this work together.  

Geared toward youth, open to all, and created through an intergenerational committee of API activists, this series is proudly presented by Seattle JACL and sponsored by the Robert Chinn Foundation. We are honored to have our workshops led by Dr. Kyle Kinoshita, an instructor with the University of Washington. Kinoshita previously served as Chief of Curriculum, Assessment, and Instruction for Seattle Public Schools, and helped to implement the ethnic studies program during his time with SPS.

Sign up for our Uprooting anti-Blackness series via this Google form.  


Webinar Schedule:
Part 1: Origins of racism and anti-Blackness
Saturday, Nov. 21, 2-3:30 p.m. (PT)

Part 2: Modern anti-Blackness and white privilege
Saturday, Dec. 5, 2-3:30 p.m. (PT)

Part 3: Weaponization of the “model minority” myth
Date forthcoming

Part 4: Advancing anti-racism in the JA community, past and present
Date forthcoming

Organizing committee includes McKenna Asakawa, Kyle Kinoshita, HyeEun Park, Jess Juanich, Emily Toshie Kawahigashi, Emma Sullivan, and Gabrielle Kazuko Nomura Gainor. 

Funding made possible by the Robert Chinn Foundation.




No comments:

Post a Comment

Uprooting anti-Blackness in the Japanese American community

Nikkei activist Yuri Kochiyama, courtesy of UCLA Asian American Studies Center, sign by Katherine Nagasawa, WBEZ artist Mari Shibuya paintin...