Module 15 Prompt: Why do Asian Americans associate themselves with the Black LivesMatter and anti-black causes?Module 15 Concepts: Anti- Black Afro-Asian Solidarity Yellow PerilInstructions Add a n

Americans increasingly support anti-Black initiatives such as Black Lives Matter. Anti-Blackness theories demonstrate structural racism in Black American communities and biases existing in Asian American communities, through which disproportionate levels of incarceration, economic marginalization, and police violence against African Americans served into the economic system exist in the US.In some Asian American societies, the racial lines are drawn within a set of social hierarchies, which also include the conceptualization of anti-Blackness. Thus, given this intermingling of all these properties, Asian Americans must now also recognize and overcome their own prejudices as they work toward racial justice for all. According to scholar Claire Jean Kim, "Historically, Asian Americans have been located as a buffer between whites and blacks," helping to give rise to the currently widespread anti-Black sentiment among Asian Americans. Because of the hypocritical practices, Asian Americans imbibe the anti-Black ideologies for an illusory promise of being part of white culture. These have to be questioned and transformed to build a humanistic Asian American identity grounded on justice for all oppressed.Afro-Asian solidarity is made into a model for transcending past divisions and coalition-making against shared systems of oppression. Coalitions in the past, such as those in the Third World Liberation Front of the 1960s, were between Asian and Black activists demanding ethnic studies and racial justice. As activist Yuri Kochiyama wrote, "We Asian Americans must understand that our freedom is linked with the freedom of Black people and other oppressed communities." Today, many Asian Americans involved with Black Lives Matter see the movement as a common struggle against the same white supremacy that has long left them out. The Yellow Peril stereotype, which formerly positioned Asians as threats to white America, also shapes Asian American activism around anti-Black causes.Although the model minority myth usually disguises racism facing Asian Americans, anti-Asian attacks, and especially those since the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak, remind that they are subjected to systemic exclusion as well. As Columbia Professor Mae Ngai points out, "Just as 'Yellow Peril' was used to justify violence against Asians, racism remains a tool of division that pits marginalized groups against one another." Recognizing this shared struggle can enable Asian Americans to resist anti-Black narratives and work towards ending all racism.These sentiments have only strengthened my own anti-racist commitment. I grew up Asian American and witnessed Black stereotypes enacted in my own community, but I also witnessed similarities in how systemic racism treated both communities. To stand with Black Lives Matter is to reject anti-Blackness and acknowledge that justice for one people is justice for all oppressed peoples. Afro-Asian solidarity for me is the promise of a future where our shared struggles are recognized and freedom is mutual.