Here’s the problem I have with social media “activism”. Some of it is genuine, helpful information, educating the public on important ways they can take action to support women and Asian Americans, especially women of colour and Asian American women. However, a lot of the time we post on social media to show support, but there is no significant impact, a mark is barely made. Yes, it makes you look good, it appears to prove that you aren’t racist, misogynistic, xenophobic, but to call ourselves allies and activists we first need to take action in our own lives. If you are posting on social media, good for you, that is a step in the right direction. But we all need to take it further. Creating change starts with us, it starts with the people we spend time with, those we see in real life, and those that will listen to you. You have the power to shift the mindsets of those directly around you. So how do you do this?

First of all, call out inappropriate behaviour when you see it, no matter who it’s coming from. If you see or hear somebody perpetuating any form of violence or harassment against women or Asian Americans (or anybody for that matter!!!), intervene. If you have the opportunity, discuss with this person why the behaviour is wrong. If the situation is escalating, report the incident. As a bystander, you have the responsibility of speaking up when you know an action is wrong.

A discriminatory/ offensive comment or behaviour does not even need to set a discussion in motion. Talk with your friends and family about these issues. Ask them about their points of views, discuss the dangerous impacts of misogynistic and xenophobic behaviour, and most importantly, talk about the small ways everyone can help advocate for women’s and Asian American rights. This starts with each individual. Maybe this means catching yourself when you realize you have judged, stereotyped, or sexualized a woman for the way she dresses or acts. Maybe it means educating yourself about the terrifying levels of racist hate crimes against Asian Americans, especially since the beginning of COVID-19. Maybe this means listening to podcasts, watching shows, reading books and articles by and about women, and especially by and about women of colour and Asian descent. Main idea: educate yourself!!!

  I Can't Breathe/8:46

  The fact that George Floyd's now tragic final words were not the first time we have heard them in a similar situation from another black man he didn't know, is not the irony of this story.

It's the fact that here again was yet another black man having life choked out of him, by yet another white police officer, for allegedly committing another innocuous “crime”.  

Selling illegal cigarettes, failing to signal a lane change, reaching for ID as requested, buying skittles, sleeping in her bed...Living While Black.

On this day we watch America erupt in frustration and anger at a system. A system that so casually took a life, while grotesquely telling George to get up, all the time deliberately applying as much pressure as possible to the throat of a man, a human being, for committing the crime of “suspected forgery'. Listening with a look of boredom and his hand in his pocket, while this human being went from saying he couldn't breathe to crying out for his mother. A 44-year-old son, father, brother, uncle, friend cried out for mercy where there was none to feel or give.

As it has played out so many heartbreaking frustrating times across America, this is just another one of these times. Because it's not the first video we've seen of a black man or person of color being brutalized or killed by law enforcement.

So why is this different?

Is it the fact that they knew they were being filmed and didn't care or feel pressured to stop? 4 cops, 3 of whom could have stopped the murder and instead stood by again casually, while their partner took the life of an unarmed human who was on his face, in handcuffs no threat. Protect and serve.

People have been filming these brutalities more since the advent of cell phone video - like Philando Castile, Eric Garner and many others. Others like Sandra Bland have been pieced together from dash or body cam footage when released. And the Floyd murder comes a week after people were already reeling from the footage released of Ahmaud Aubery being hunted down and lynched, while the act was filmed by an accomplice.

Trying to make statements on social media with pointed hashtags, seem to fall on deaf ears of those who need to understand what it's truly like to be #LivingWhileBlack.

#JoggingWhileBlack #DrivingWhileBlack #BarbecuingWhileBlack #SleepingWhileBlack

Listening to the anguished pleadings of black mothers and fathers who fear for their sons' lives, begging society to stop killing them.

These are modern day slave times, where the color of your skin determines not just your rights but your fate. And there are different rules for the perpetrators of your fate. Time and time again we see a white person brandishing a weapon at police or having just killed people and he is taken in peacefully. There is no being thrown to the ground and having an officer sit on your throat, choking the life out of you. A man swings a machete at police telling them to leave and is allowed to retreat into his home. And at each telling come the comments “if he was black, he'd be dead.”

It's tempting to say that this has all just happened in the last 3 years, since the election of an openly racist President and many other unapologetically racist elected officials. But they didn't invent racism and intolerance, they merely made it fashionable to express it openly. This pre-existing bigotry has found a home on social media and while people say how could this be happening in 2020, I say how could it not?

The people who killed Ahmaud Arbery, said he wouldn't stop and explain why he was running in the neighborhood. There are now endless stories and videos of white people demanding that a black person explain who they are or what their business is in the building, to calling the police when challenged about their unleashed dog. The young man laying on the front lawn spread eagled while 5 police officers train their guns on him from behind their cars, as if he was a mass murderer. His crime? Rolling through a stop sign. Family screaming at him to not move, while his 90-year-old grandmother went to his aid in her bathrobe. Only to be thrown to ground by the same officers.  

This is Living While Black.

During slavery, white citizens were deputized to be able to detain, question and ultimately punish blacks as they saw fit. It could be for a suspected crime or for just walking down the street. This continued into the Jim Crow era and exists today albeit in a slightly different form. This belief has clearly been passed along generationally to the present time. How else do you explain the casual way in which whites feel they have the right to detain, question and ultimately punish black people today? I don't mean that it is taught verbally but clearly learned by the 2 systems at play when it comes to enforcing the law both minor and major crimes.

The numbers in health care show the depth to which this racist behavior has gone. Black patients getting substandard treatment by doctors. Black women are 3 - 4 times more likely to die from pregnancy related causes than white women. Black babies die at twice the rate of white babies in their first year.

Certain racist practices set up decades ago still affect black people today-such as red lining. Black people deliberately blocked from getting loans, mortgages or being able to buy homes in certain neighborhoods continues in 2020.

All of this combined with the capricious abuse of authority by the police leads us to where we are today, in the streets demanding change.

It's not the Klan we have to fear. It's the white person walking their dog who by her words, threatens the possibility of death, knowing full well the power her words hold.

Look to yourself white America.

There are too many funerals to be this innocent because this is not new. 1968, 1992, 2020

Stop saying: Well what was he doing to bring this on himself? Why was he in that neighborhood? Oh he had drugs in his system. He must have been resisting. Why was she sitting in her car?

And please stop saying “I don't see color”. You must see color to see the inequities and naked brutality of life, that a lot of people of color live every day.

This President is a morally bankrupt fascist, who has long advocated for violence against African American citizens, going back to 1989 when he called for the execution of the Central Park 5. He put a bounty on their heads by publishing the names, addresses and phone numbers of the exonerated boys. To this day he maintains their guilt. In Minneapolis, the head of the police union spoke at a Trump rally, wearing “Cops For Trump” shirt along with white supremacist badges. A cop in New York can be seen laughingly flashing the white power sign during the protests. Just as white people need to call out racism as they see it, police need to call it out on their own. The now endless videos coming out of wanton police brutality in the face of peaceful compliant protesters must not stand.

They-whoever they are- talk of “a few bad apples” in the force and more training is required. Reality check: You can't train or teach someone to be empathetic or compassion where there is none. Where someone has been raised and conditioned to see people of color as inferior, their lives not having the same worth. Whether it's equal access to medical care, education or available housing. Or equal access to fair treatment under the law.

Talk. Listen. Learn.

A few thoughts that would be good t-shirt slogans provided they are backed up with action. We can all be keyboard warriors. For some that's all they can do but for the rest we need you to show up.

Fascism is like a boa; inhale an inch and you'll never get it back.

Don't Stand By When You Can Stand Up

Times change but the color has not.

It's not Black vs white. It's everyone vs racists.

Justice delayed is Justice denied- MLK