I wrote this litany in response to the massacre of eight people, includes six Asian American women in Atlanta on March 16, 2021. I come out of the Christian tradition and I wrote this especially for my AAPI siblings for whom this spirituality is part of their journey.
ONE:
The history of racism in the United States is long: exclusion, Internment, burnings, murders, and countless other aggressions towards us — yet too many are seeing this for the first time.
ALL:
We are not invisible.
I am seen.
I see you.
We are visible.
ONE:
Too many have heard our cries only to intellectualize our anger, wanting us to slip into silent, well-behaved, model-minority tropes that have lead to being the target of abuse and violence.
ALL:
We are raging.
I am angry.
You are angry.
Our rage is real.
ONE:
Our elders are being targeted, not because they are weak, but because they have been deemed vulnerable and unworthy of human dignity.
ALL:
Our elders are under attack.
Elders: I am loved and respected.
Others: You are loved and respected.
ALL:
Our elders are worthy of dignity.
ONE:
AAPI women know what it means to be exoticized, objectified, sexualized, and constantly under the white male gaze. You know that anywhere, acts born of misogyny and the constant threat of sexual violence is real.
ALL:
Our sisters are under attack.
Female Identifying folx: I am seen.
Others: You are seen.
ALL:
Sisters, we are with you.
ONE:
Too often those around us want us to respond to anti-Asian hate with anti-Blackness that only serves to uphold systems of white supremacy and systematic racism.
