#Asians4BlackLives

I am never quite sure how to begin talking about anti-black racism among diasporic South Asians and Pacific Islander communities. After all, indigenous Fijians are essentially black. Many Indians brought to Fiji to work as indentured servants were also much darker-skinned, when compared to their Indian-born counterparts. While Indo-Fijians are often prejudiced against native Fijians, in part, due to years of white settler colonialism and supremacy, firangis have a harder time telling us apart from one another.

So not to take away from the fact that many Pacific Islanders and South Asians are often perceived as black in the U.S., anti-blackness in South Asian and Pacific Islander communities is real. This is a great resource authored by friends at Queer SAAN to start the conversation in our communities about anti-blackness: It Starts at Home: Confronting Anti-Blackness in South Asian Communities. While the criminal injustice system is not about to root out the daily violence that we are all subjected to, the revolution does start at home.

Additional resources

Prezi: Confronting Anti-Blackness in Asian/American Communities and Organizing

NBC: The Secret History of South Asian and Black Solidarity and BlackDesiSecretHistory

I Became So Exhausted With Proving My South Asian Identity That I Started to Ignore It

ChangeLab: Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans

Why Ferguson is Our Issue: A Letter to Muslim America

The Revolution Starts with My Thathi (Dad): Strategies for South Asians to Bring #BlackLivesMatter Home by Sasha W.

Victimization of the South Asian Community: Why Unjust Policing is Not Just a Black and White Issue

India Abroad: So That All Our Grandparents Walk Freely