Dear Aunty & Uncle: Let’s Talk About Racism

Dear Aunty & Uncle,

Last time we talked about how:

This past week has made us uncomfortable, upset, and scared, but how our black brothers and sisters have been living with this pain, sadness, and fear everyday of their lives.
We are a part of this problem, but we have the ability to listen, learn, and help make a change.
All lives cannot matter until Black Lives Matter.

Now, I know what you may be thinking:

“Why is everybody overreacting over the death of one man?”
But it is so much more than that. So today, let’s talk about RACISM.

The protests, activism, “recklessness,” “maara maari,” whatever you may be calling it is not just a result of the death of George Floyd. It is a result of the hundreds of years of racism, which has been a never-ending problem in our country, whether we’ve personally seen it or not.

Let’s Imagine:

Imagine for a moment, if in the 1600s, Europeans tried using “natural laws” and reasoning to decide (and make the whole world believe) that white people were better than everyone else. And then they decided to take over countries that were not theirs (like the United States) to get more money for themselves and the royal families.

Imagine that some of the Europeans wanted to make even more money and decided they wouldn’t pay for the work that helped them get their products from plants, animals, food, etc.

Imagine that South Asia was located in a really convenient spot for contact between Europe and America. Because South Asians weren’t white, and would probably not know how to escape from unknown land, Europeans forcibly brought our ancestors to America.

Imagine if our Indian ancestors were enslaved (owned by other people) on foreign land and forced to do hard work against their will, without getting paid, to help white people become more rich.

Imagine if, because of the laws at the time, our Pakistani ancestors’ children (and their grandchildren) were legally born into slavery just because their mothers and fathers were slaves.

Imagine if, even after slavery was declared illegal, our Sri Lankan ancestors were physically, socially, and emotionally separated from the rest of America because of laws, policies, and practices that favored against them.

Imagine if several years ago, instead of you having the opportunity to immigrate to the United States, you (as our parents) were born on U.S. soil and were treated differently because of your skin color (and not for being stereotypically smart or educated, but because of the history of our nation looking down upon you and devaluing your life). It didn’t matter what you said, did or achieved–the color of your skin determined your future.

Now imagine if today, instead of following your dreams, your South Asian kids are struggling just to stay alive. Not because we are not smart, motivated or driven enough. But because our ancestors were enslaved, our grandparents were segregated, and our parents continue to struggle and fight for equal rights that we were never given in the first place.

Imagine we live in a society that isn’t changing as times are changing. Imagine we live in a nation that was created by putting white people’s wealth before the lives of people of color. Imagine our South Asian children are living with the consequences of our country’s past today.

Now replace South Asia/South Asian with Africa/African American/Black. Because this is not an imagination. This is part of their reality.

Racism

Along with our individual racism and biases, there is something known as SYSTEMIC or STRUCTURAL RACISM. This refers to the combination of our history, social practices, policies, cultural norms, etc. that contribute to the racial inequalities and injustices that black people in America face.

Here is a great animated video that explains what systemic racism is and what we can do about it:

Let’s think about these questions together:

What are some of the biases we hold?
We will go over common ones in the South Asian community in a later post.
But take a few moments to think about the unfair beliefs you may hold about Black people, White people, Mexican people, Asian people, Muslims, Hindus, people with disabilities, the list goes on (and I know a few popped into your head just by reading their categories!).

Can you see how black people don’t choose their living conditions and lifestyles?
Let’s understand how the history of race, racism and slavery are impacting black people’s access to opportunities today.

What can we do to help support equal opportunities for everyone?
-LEARN more (like you are today!)
-WORK on our racist thoughts and actions
-VOTE for good leaders
-DONATE to organizations
-SUPPORT people of color
-PROMOTE helpful policies and laws

Thank you for another great discussion and for keeping an open mind in learning more! I know it’s a lot to take in, so please feel free to go through this topic again or more in depth! Tomorrow, let’s talk about your concerns of how “We are also minorities who struggle,” the idea of Privilege and what that means for us as South Asians.💕

Extra Credit

Now I know we all love telling our kids to get those extra credit points! So here are some additional resources I think you may benefit from now or whenever you have the time. There are more in-depth ones (feel free to ask), but these are good foundational videos to show us some of the realities of race and racism.