by Women Who Submit Leadership Team
Cover image from the media toolkit for Asian American Day of Action.
Xiaojie Tan
Daoyou Feng
Soon Chung Park
Hyun Jung Grant
Suncha Kim
Yong Ae Yue
Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez
Paul Andre Michels
Rest in power.
Another act of white supremacist misogynist violence has torn a hole in the world.
Again, women who should be living, loving, creating, eating, laughing, hugging their families, working, writing, resting, women who should still be here to live their cherished and beloved lives, are gone.
Again, the institution of policing extends its empathy to a man who acted out of white entitlement.
Again, those in power throw around insulting excuses. “A bad day.” “Sexual temptation.”
Again, a white-centered media tries to gaslight us by hesitating to call the gunmen’s murder of eight people, seven of them women, six of them Asian women, as anything other than white supremacist and misogynist.
Again, Women Who Submit mourns the lives of the women whose lives were cruelly cut short by a man who viewed them as disposable, a man who was cushioned and encouraged by a system that confirmed those views and abetted his actions.
WWS members are AAPI. We are mothers and grandmothers. We are workers. Immigrants. The children of immigrants. We reject a world where women of color are expected to live in fear of their lives being severed at the hands of a violent white person. We reject surveillance and policing “solutions” that only increase harm done to Black, brown and indigenous communities. These responses only increase the harm done to AAPI women and all women of color already made vulnerable by jobs that demand enormous emotional labor with scarce protection in return: hospitality, personal care, sex work. Our hearts are with the loved ones of Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong Ae Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, and Paul Andre Michels. We reject their erasure. We affirm their irreplaceable humanity.
We know that no words can bring them back and make the world whole again. We know that this is not the first act of violence towards Asian American and Pacific Islander communities, that this violence is older than the United States, and has increased dramatically over the past year, and that denouncing the pattern of racism, harassment and assault is not enough. Declarations are not enough. They must be paired with action. We encourage all of our readers to take action with us.
We want to amplify the voices of those in our literary community who celebrate AAPI life and resist white supremacy culture. Please join us in showing love and gratitude to these organizations:
Asian American Writers’ Workshop
Asian American Literary Review
Hmong American Writers’ Circle
We believe words can be a balm and a fire. We have deep love and respect for these writers and we hope you will let their words ignite you to demand transformative change:
Sex Work is Care Work by Jean Chen Ho
A Letter to My Fellow Asian Women Whose Hearts are Still Breaking by R.O. Kwon
The Atlanta Shooting is Another Reminder that the Police are Not Our Friends by Steph Cha
Sundress Publications Interview with WWS Member Muriel Leung, by Julie Leung
They Pretend to Be Us While Pretending We Don’t Exist by Jenny Zhang
We encourage everyone to follow and support these organizations that advance justice for Asian American and Pacific Islander communities.
Asian Americans Advancing Justice
Japanese Americans for Justice
We will continue working for a world that uplifts the dignity and humanity of AAPI women.