A Response to Atlanta Shootings
Tuesday’s horrendous murder of eight people, and the country’s larger response to the violence against Asian Americans, is yet again a reminder of how steep the hill is that we have to climb in building a culture that is permeated by religious, racial, and economic democracy. We are outraged at this racial violence and at how some have already begun to excuse it.
In this video, The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice features a conversation with Alvina Yeh, Executive Director at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, a national organization of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers dedicated to advancing worker, immigrant and civil rights. Alvina is a lifelong community organizer with experience in political, electoral, and issue-based campaigns. She is deeply passionate about building a movement where everyone has a fair shot in a thriving society.
Violence against Asian Americans is not a new phenomenon and some religious communities and segments of the labor movement have not always been on the right side of things—but we at the Wendland-Cook program remember what Alvina Yeh, the Executive Director at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, recently reminded us: that the work of liberation for Asian Americans is deeply connected to the work of liberation for all working people. And, as our Interviews in Racial Capitalism have shown, as long as racial capitalism continues to structure our religious, economic, and political visions of what’s possible, we’ll fall short of building communities that are democratic and in control of their economic, political, and religious lives.
We can’t view Tuesday’s events as a blip or outlier. Our work to build economic and ecological justice requires that we imagine and build communities that are deeply intersectional and therefore see violence against any community as violence against every community.
The work continues and we hope that you’ll take the time you need to be angry and grieve, but know that we are angry and grieving with you. Solidarity requires that we stand together in our own distinctive experiences of these horrors, but also that we commit to the work of building deeper religious, economic, racial, and political democratic communities together.
In solidarity,
Francisco Garcia
Joerg Rieger
Aaron Stauffer
Marcus Trammell
In this video, The Wendland-Cook Program in Religion and Justice features a conversation with Alvina Yeh, Executive Director at the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance, a national organization of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers dedicated to advancing worker, immigrant and civil rights. Alvina is a lifelong community organizer with experience in political, electoral, and issue-based campaigns. She is deeply passionate about building a movement where everyone has a fair shot in a thriving society.