Thread by @angiekayhong

It's #AAPIHeritageMonth! I've always been a little overwhelmed at how to honor #APIDA/NHPI stories, esp after such overexposure in recent years. I've been processing a lot over the past, present, and future ... 1/

We can tell stories to complicate the binaries of black/white in the U.S. We can address racial triangulation and wedge dynamics. We can address overlaying and intermingled theologies that make up our faith , about how we see God and the church. #AAPIHeritageMonth 2/

We can tell stories that don't center East Asians. We can include #APIDA and #NHPI stories. We can address colorism, militarism, and our unresolved traumas related to our transpacific immigration journeys, riddled with half known war and poverty stories, and survivalism. 3/

We can avoid an essential "Asian" identity that excludes multiracial and mixed Asians, queer Asians, Blasians, disabled Asians, adoptees, and Asians that aren't from Cali or New York. The fastest growing Asian populations are in the Southern U.S. We are all "Asian" enough. 4/

We can work to delink from any nostalgia around our Asian cultural values. If the cultural value brings you and others harm, then what value is it? Korea, China, Japan, The Philippines, Tonga, India, have changed. So can we. 5/

We can work to bring identity markers of our history & presence to the U.S. I spent years at laser shows of the Confederate army carved on Stone Mountain, but didn't see/learn anything that resembled me growing up. Confederates lost, btw. 6/

We can accept that we have some sh*t to work out amongst ourselves, our families and relationships, AND other ethnic and racial communities. We can understand how the colonial project undergirds 99.99999% of all of this. 7/

We can care about the undocumented, poor, and marginalized among us and not pretend they're not there bc we're preoccupied with our own shame associated with achieving success and assimilation. #AAPIHeritageMonth 8/

We can do all of this work while a) not resorting to anti-blackness, b) healing from our own racial wounds, and c) refusing to be treated like white allies by white ppl AND other POC. #aapiHeritageMonth 9/

We can join in the work that people are already doing. If you feel like you're the only one in your community, go on the internet and look for the #AAPI orgs that are doing the work. They're out there and they have a lot of wisdom on how to go about it all, collectively. 10/

And to the #aapi Christians, we can examine why we feel that our ethnic/racial identity is in competition with our Christian identity. Why and how did these parts of ourselves get bifurcated, when all of it was created by God in the first place? 10/

Work can be done w/o allegiance to or approval from the gaze of celebrity Christians, seminaries, megachurches, or Christian influencers. You don't need to display or exploit yourself to get people to care about you as an Asian. Justice work is more than hurt feelings& tears. 11/

You don't need to do this work publicly, loudly, individually, or self-sacrificially. Just be faithful. Freedom and liberation are everyday practices. Commit to the long game with others, bc you weren't meant to live a life of short sprints alone. #AAPIHeritageMonth end/