a lingering thought
This post is an adaptation of an Instagram story I wrote in March 2021 during the height of attention toward anti-Asian racism. At the time, it was a mix of thoughts on that specific topic along with general feelings toward the state of our society. I have omitted a section about Canada’s Japanese internment camps, lingering anti-Asian policies and references to specific points in time because I believe the words are broadly relevant and want them to live in a space outside of Instagram “stories”. I find myself thinking about some of the words that I wrote then during many times of collective grief. —
Our society isn’t designed to change. It’s designed to uphold its current design.
It is not broken - it is working as intended, and it has always been predicated on the oppression and dismissal of minorities. Superficial things change, we toll around incrementally - but it is designed to absorb atrocities without any real change happening - its function is to defend itself, and defend the principles of the privileged who set it up. We have calcified racism, discrimination into the core of our society.
We are walking around in a world that’s foundations, laws, institutions are propped up by 100s of years of oppression. The streets we walk, where and how we live - the built forms - down to millimetres of a sidewalk - or lack thereof - the ideals suggested we reach for - our education systems - what we’re taught, what we aren’t taught - who made the systems of teachings, who they benefit, why - what they omit to get there.
We glean over our genocide of Indigenous people, their displacement, and the ongoing oppression today.
We have been encouraged to accept and participate in systems that oppress our neighbours, through layers of class and racial segregations with nothing but the opportunity for incremental variances every 4 years. Often the variances that do happen have marginal impacts and are tossed aside - years of struggle for years of backstepping, down a path that’s already going down an undesired direction. Low participation entrenches this further but does not alter the fundamentals of the road.
Continuing to facilitate the charade of these politics is so bizarre to me. We didn’t invent them. In Canada, in the year 2022 , we have people being forced to swear alligence to a “King”, it was a “Queen” moments before, and all of our politicians have to do it. There is a quote by Irish political leader James Connolly, upon the visit of George V, the grandfather of Elizabeth II that goes - "We will not blame him for the crimes of his ancestors if he relinquishes the royal rights of his ancestors; but as long as he claims their rights, by virtue of descent, then, by virtue of descent, he must shoulder the responsibility for their crimes." - and yet we continue to recognize the benefits of history some have had whilst abdicating them the responsibility of that same history.
Why do we not try something new? Why should this not have been a reckoning? We know the answer. White supremacy, class supremacy, the patriarchy, the status quo. Every system we have was invented by people. We should have faith in ourselves to build new ones, just as the ones we adhere to today were built.
People tune out, become apathetic and engage only when the top-down ideological system feels its weight on them. The national stuff, the big stuff, the things we can’t turn away from - the tragedies - the reality is we need to be tending to the roots. The material realities of those of us with the least, the language, the small stuff, the ground-up systems that keep the machine turning, and asking - do we need to be weeding and planting new? Do we need to pause this machine?
We need to dissolve the illusions we have set up in this continued cycle of abuse, of ourselves, of each other, of the planet - with those most vulnerable among us feeling the brunt.
- March 2021 -
Asian women. Women.
Two nights ago Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, Paul Andre Michels, Julie Park, Hyeon Jeong Park, and 2 others not yet named.
Asian women. Black women. Hispanic women. Indigenous women. Black men. Asian men. Trans men. Trans women. Women. Us. Human Beings.
The year to the date of the murder of Daniel Prude is in a few days - a month ago Ahmaud Arbery - in two months, George Floyd.
Two weeks ago Sarah Everard. Thousands more to systemic oppression.
- November 2022 -
The week I’m posting this here it’s the shooting in Colorado Springs at an LGBTQIA+ nightclub. Daniel Aston, Raymond Green Vance, Kelly Loving, Ashley Paugh and Derrick Rump. It’s the systematic oppression of workers in Qatar, while we watch the world cup. It’s women fighting for freedom on the streets in Iran. In Afghanistan. Ethiopia, Tigray. Chad. Myanmar. Innumerable ongoing catastrophes. The ongoing war in Ukraine. The repercussions of overturning Roe. The water crisis. COP27...
We are in a cycle of death because of compounding pressures of disparities. Racism. Misogyny. Classism. Discrimination. Exploitation. It’s built into everything around us. The ones we charge with change are willing to absorb an escalation in violence - but not one that accelerates betterment in a meaningful way. There will be no ground-up solutions from top-down leaders.
It starts with you and me. Not just here - with every interaction and choice you make. When you choose not to pay attention to the folks with power - to focus on the details - when you allow friends to ignore and dismiss the serious conversations you want to have - what you choose to support and put your energy into. What language you use and why.
If you’re sitting in sadness, that’s good. Sadness is an act of resilience. It’s an expression of connective tissue to ourselves, to others. You’re affected, you care. Sadness is strength. It’s understanding. Allow yourself to grieve. We have lost thousands of memories never made, stories, opportunities and passions from our lost neighbours, mothers, sisters, strangers.
Use it to self-educate, to get curious, to educate those around you - to stop violence physical, emotional and hidden - to put in work and make change by changing every day.
We must plant new roots in mutual aid, adaptability and equity. The systems today are not broken - they are functioning as built. The struggle to break them is often the cause of violent ripples. We have to recognize this and build with the intent to break and rebuild. Design to reconcile our own fallibility. There will be no change without it.