Once more for the people in the back: BLACK LIVES MATTER. Periodt. The collective social upheaval that has taken over the US & spreading across the globe has been timely, empowering, liberating, gut-wrenching, costly, and eye-opening for so many of us. After witnessing the inhumane death of George Floyd in MN to the silence around Breonna Taylor's murder in KY, all in short succession after Amy Cooper's shameful Karen actions in NYC & Ahmaud Arbery's murder in GA within such a short period of time during this global pandemic, something has profoundly & (hopefully) irreversibly shifted. In this episode, Minji takes a moment to start one of many discussions on racism, anti-Blackness sentiments, & the Black Lives Matter movement with actress & writer Neka Wright. While it feels like there is too much to even start, we really must start somewhere. Neka walks us through her identity as a Black-Filipina woman, including her experiences becoming aware of her color upon coming to America as a military child, recognizing the compassion & problematic parts of her Asian family/community, & finally accepting herself in all her amazing glory. Together they unpack the complex conversations happening on & offline in their communities, the culture of silence, privilege, what it takes to be a decent (& then stellar) ally, plus strategies for long-term impact long after the protests die down. No one claims to have all the answers, but we call on each other & everyone out there to do our best to protect our Black community.
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Music in this episode includes "I forgive you, I’m sorry" by Jennifer Chung
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This podcast is part of Potluck: An Asian American Podcast Collective
Produced by @marvinyueh
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"Inheriting" is a show about Asian American and Pacific Islander families, which explores how one event in history can ripple through generations. In doing so, the show seeks to break apart the AAPI monolith and tell a fuller story of these communities. In each episode, NPR’s Emily Kwong sits down with one family and facilitates deeply emotional conversations between their loved ones, exploring how their most personal, private moments are an integral part of history. Through these stories, we show how the past is personal and how to live with the legacies we’re constantly inheriting.
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