LIBERATION LECTIONARY -AANHPI MONTH

“Fight for what you believe in. But stop being so nice.” - Gloria Richardson

Solidarity in Black and Gold

This Week’s Scripture: Philippians 1

This month, we are reading through the book of Philippians. Read through the first chapter of Philippians this week. Key verses this week are Philippians 1:2-6
”Grace to you and peace from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ. I give thanks to my God for every time I remember you, always praying with joy for all of you in my every prayer, because of your partnership in the gospel from the first day until now. I am sure of this, that our God who started a good work in you will carry it on to completion until the day of Christ Jesus.” Philippians 1:2-6

Lesson:  Asian American, Native Hawaiian & Pacific Islanders Heritage Month

This week we set aside time to discuss the links between Black and Asian people in the United States and many other places. Known as Black x Gold Solidarity, a movement of people descended from the African and Asian diasporas is growing, in direct response to ending racist hate. Recent years are not the first time this solidarity has been showing up. 

We are lifting up prolific examples of Black people, Asian people, Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders who are fighting for the uplifting of all. 

May is Asian, Native Hawaiian, Pacific American Heritage Month – a celebration of Asians and Pacific Islanders in the United States. And more recently, the term has been broadened to include Native Hawaiians. Though both Pacifika groups and Native Hawaiians are often erased in the celebrations and remembrances.

A rather broad term, Asian/Pacific encompasses all of the Asian continent and the Pacific islands of Melanesia (New Guinea, New Caledonia, Vanuatu, Fiji and the Solomon Islands), Micronesia (Marianas, Guam, Wake Island, Palau, Marshall Islands, Kiribati, Nauru and the Federated States of Micronesia) and Polynesia (New Zealand, Hawaiian Islands, Rotuma, Midway Islands, Samoa, American Samoa, Tonga, Tuvalu, Cook Islands, French Polynesia and Easter Island).

The month of May was chosen to commemorate the immigration of the first Japanese to the United States on May 7, 1843, and to mark the anniversary of the completion of the transcontinental railroad on May 10, 1869. The majority of the workers who laid the tracks were Chinese immigrants. Interesting that both of these are points in history which elevate the United States as the focus of the Asian people we claim to celebrate. What special, sacred occurrences happened in May which are of significance to Asian people and Pacific Islanders? 

We know that there are other historical occurrences in the month of May which must not be overlooked in these so-called United States. These occurrences involve injustice, so they are not as widely published as important reasons to hold this time as sacred. But in liberation history, the history of resistance to oppressors, these moments - this momentum - matters much.

The Chinese Exclusion Act was introduced May 6th, 1882. Not twenty years after thousands of Chinese workers completed the precious railroads. This was the first significant law restricting immigration into the United States. In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year ban on Chinese laborers immigrating to the United States.

In December of 1941, the Pearl Harbor attack surfaced anti-Asian hatred to such a high that President Roosevelt signed off on the infamous Internment Camps, which displaced almost 15 thousand Asian people for years, especially Japanese people. These camps were utilized by Hispanic governments and other countries as well. Roosevelt himself called them “concentration camps.” 

Even without the heinous treatment of Chinese people, Japanese people and others, even before Pearl Harbor, the US was desecrating sacred spaces under the pretense of doing better by the land by raining massacre on indigenous people.  Native Hawaiian people must hold a special and important place in our fight for liberation across the United States, and in our understanding - and teaching about - US history. 

Polynesian and Pacifika peoples are often erased during the month that is meant to encompass their being amplified. How does this happen except that there are not enough resources in popular circulation for learning about these vast and varied communities - especially in a dignified way. 

Solidarity with people of Pacific Islands does not mean add pineapple to everything we eat for the month of May. It means looking for the stories told by their people, for their people - if we are invited and humbled. 

Considering this, Black and Gold solidarity has meaning for our reflections this month. Much of the history between Black people and Asian people in the United States has been mingled with pride and pain. We connect in our fights against colorism and classism, racial capitalism and patriarchal violence. We also have disconnects in the same situations. Conflict around corner stores and beauty supplies. Family traditions mocked and disrespected. Colorism and anti-Blackness. Widespread segregation in public spaces, despite many of our people living at similar income levels.  

Model minority myth buy-in, especially for Asian people of high-income, is a setback for more intentional solidarity, support for Reparation and Redistribution. 

So, why should faith communities remember AAPI month? Consider the ongoing anti-Asian racist violence across the country and think of what stony roads we trod through those same death valleys. 

Why should we strive for and be intentional about Black x Gold solidarity? Remember the young and old people who deserve the abundant life that our partnership can build. We have not made it faster on our own, we must know that we can go much further together. 

Prayer / Poem: I Can’t Breathe

Perhaps the most famous current Black and Asian performing artist, H. E. R. wrote a song in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder called “I Can’t Breathe”. The fierceness of the lyrics in this song makes us think of our ancestor Gloria Richardson, who was born May 6th, 1922 in Maryland. She was very well known for her fearlessness in the face of white violence. Learn more about Sister Gloria this week.

This song juxtaposes the seasons we are celebrating. Ascension comes after resurrection, but there are so many of our people who are not with us right now. They cannot breathe. We lift up this song for our prayer and meditation time this week, because it is a reminder that even in a season of ascending, of lifting up, we can lift up the names of those we are breathing for. We are lifting up the names of those whose souls ascended long before they should have. 

“Starting a war, screaming, "Peace" at the same time - All the corruption, injustice, the same crimes - Always a problem if we do or don't fight - And we die, we don't have the same right - What is a gun to a man that surrenders? What's it gonna take for someone to defend her? If we all agree that we're equal as people, then why can't we see what is evil? I can't breathe. You're taking my life from me. I can't breathe. Will anyone fight for me?

How do we cope when we don't love each other? Where is the hope and the empathy? How do we judge off the color? The structure was made to make us the enemy- Prayin' for change 'cause the pain makes you tender. All of the names you refuse to remember - Was somebody's brother, friend, or a son to a mother that's crying, singing I can't breathe. You're taking my life from me. I can't breathe. Will anyone fight for me? Will anyone fight for me?

Trying times all the time. Destruction of minds, bodies, and human rights. Stripped of bloodlines, whipped and confined: This is the American pride. It's justifying a genocide. Romanticizing the theft and bloodshed that made America the land of the free. 

To take a Black life, land of the free: To bring a gun to a peaceful fight for civil rights. You are desensitized to pulling triggers on innocent lives, because that's how we got here in the first place. 

These wounds sink deeper than the bullet your entitled hands could ever reach. Generations and generations of pain, fear, and anxiety. Equality is walking without intuition; saying the protector and the killer is wearing the same uniform. The revolution is not televised.

Media perception is forced down the throats of closed minds. So it's lies in the headlines.  And generations of supremacy resulting in your ignorant, privileged eyes. We breathe the same and we bleed the same - But still, we don't see the same.

Be thankful we are God-fearing. Because we do not seek revenge. We seek justice, we are past fear. We are fed up eating your sh-t, because you think your so-called "Black friend" validates your wokeness and erases your racism.

That kind of uncomfortable conversation is too hard for your trust-fund pockets to swallow. To swallow the strange fruit hanging from my family tree - Because of your audacity to say all men are created equal in the eyes of God. But disparage a man based on the color of his skin. Do not say you do not see color. When you see us, see us. We can't breathe”

Song: Arise, by William Murphy

This song says “Arise oh God and take your place” Listen and dance as the vocalists sing “you are good!” and “You been better to me than I been to myself”. What are the ways that God is rising up in your life? How is the Lord showing up and being better to you than you have been to yourself? Maybe you are calling on the Lord to arise today. This season of Ascension, remember that even though the work of Jesus on earth is done, the Lord is yet at work preparing a place for us. For all our souls to rest in God, so that we can rise up too. 

Listen to the song HERE

SOURCES & SYLLABUS

Billboard.com Interview w/ HER

Time Magazine on Black + Asian Solidarity

Stanford Exhibit : Timeline of AAPI History

US Gov Site: Landing Page for AAPI Month

Gloria Richardson Remembrance: Born May 6th, 1922 - Departed July 15th, 2021. Take some time this week to remember this fierce ancestor. More HERE