Author: Soya Jung

Soya has been active in the progressive movement for over 30 years. During the 1990s she worked as a reporter at the International Examiner, communications and policy staff for the WA State House Democratic Caucus, and executive director of the Washington Alliance for Immigrant and Refugee Justice. She was the founding chair of the Asian and Pacific Islander Coalition, which formed in 1996 to restore food and cash assistance for low-income immigrants and refugees in Washington State. During the 2000s she worked at the Social Justice Fund, a public foundation supporting progressive organizations in the Northwest, and consulted for various institutions like the Western States Center, the Philanthropic Initiative for Racial Equity, the Nonprofit Assistance Center, the City of Seattle, and the Washington State Budget & Policy Center.

At ChangeLab Soya has authored two research reports: "Left or Right of the Color Line: Asian Americans and the Racial Justice Movement" and "The Importance of Asian Americans? It’s Not What You Think", and co-authored the Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit. She has convened numerous public events uniting scholars with social movement activists to explore race, gender, war/empire, and Asian American identity. Her writing has been published in Othering & Belonging: Expanding the Circle of Human Concern, and cited in places like the Routledge Companion to Asian American Media, ColorLines, and The Guardian.

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Real national security demands an end to white supremacy.

The following is a statement by Asian and Pacific Islander organizations in Washington State to express solidarity with Muslim, Arab, and South Asian communities facing violent anti-Muslim backlash. While the statement is specific to Washington, we encourage organizations in other parts of the country to use it as a model for their own public statements. 

Research shows that since the attacks of 9/11, the largest number of terrorist attacks in the United States have come not from Muslim communities, but from violent white supremacist, antigovernment, and other antidemocratic groups. Yet this fact has not been the basis for America’s War … Read more “Real national security demands an end to white supremacy.”

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Today’s API movement: confronting racism, capitalism, and war

 

Over the past year, growing numbers of Asian Americans have taken up the call for #ModelMinorityMutiny, rightly pointing out the falsehood of Asian American uplift, but more importantly, rejecting the very idea that chasing after such a precarious and inhumane notion of success is something even worth doing. In reality, Asian Americans have been mutinying for a while now. In this spirit, several people asked me to share the following remarks, given during a recent panel discussion titled, “What Can Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders Do About Racial Justice?” at the National CAPACD conference in Washington, D.C. Hopefully … Read more “Today’s API movement: confronting racism, capitalism, and war”

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I dream of Asian America #JusticeForAkaiGurley

This February, a grand jury indicted rookie NYPD Officer Peter Liang on charges related to the fatal shooting last November of 28-year-old Akai Gurley. Gurley, an unarmed African American man, was killed when he stepped into the stairwell of the public housing building where his girlfriend lived with their two-year-old daughter. At the time, Liang and another officer were conducting a vertical patrol, a routine tactic in which police officers sweep public housing buildings in search of criminal activity. Liang drew his gun and fired a bullet that hit Gurley in the torso, killing him.

Liang’s indictment has sparked protests … Read more “I dream of Asian America #JusticeForAkaiGurley”

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Five Things You Can Do Right Now!

 

Show up. There are protests continuing everywhere to interrupt business as usual, and put the focus squarely on demands to value Black life. Street heat is part of how we all get free. Show up. Speak up. Here are resources on actions taking place in different parts of the country. Please share any links that are missing in the comments below. #ThisStopsToday Ferguson solidarity actions Donate. ChangeLab has just given $2,000 to bail funds to support those who are putting their bodies on the line for BlackLivesMatter. Join us. Dig deep. This is our liberation, and we must invest… Read more “Five Things You Can Do Right Now!”
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What Does Model Minority Mutiny Demand?

A new generation of young Black leaders have ignited a movement. They have awakened the nation and the world to the longstanding, daily brutality of state violence against Black lives. There have been daily protests against police brutality in U.S. cities for over four months now, disrupting business as usual, shutting down intersections, bridges, tunnels, transit stations, and highways with clear demands for justice and accountability. And they won’t stop soon.

Alicia Garza, Opal Tometi, and Patrisse Cullors are experienced organizers who created Black Lives Matter as an ideological and political container not only for the demands to end the … Read more “What Does Model Minority Mutiny Demand?”

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The Racial Justice Movement Needs a Model Minority Mutiny

 

It had cost me twelve years of my time,
to realize what a nickel and dime,
hustler I had really been,
while the real hustlers are ripping off billions,
from the unsuspecting millions,
who are programmed to think they can win. 

– Lightnin Rod, Hustlers Convention, 1973

Hip hop emerged in spite of the brutal logic of capitalism, out of centuries-old traditions, to insist upon and amplify black voices and black political consciousness. But as Brittney Cooper, Questlove, and Jeff Chang have recently pointed out, it has been exploited to the point that black cool now serves as transnational currency … Read more “The Racial Justice Movement Needs a Model Minority Mutiny”

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Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans

For weeks I have been in awe of the organizers and writers – Rev. Osagyefo Sekou, Jamala Rogers, Malkia Cyril, Ta-Nehesi Coates, john a. powell, Falguni A. Sheth, and so many others – who have placed the situation in Ferguson into critical historical and political context. This despite persistent attempts by police, elected officials, and mainstream media to erase that context with vilifications of black political protest and black life. I write this post to express my solidarity and rage, and to offer a response to the disturbing question that I’ve heard asked, … Read more “Why Ferguson Matters to Asian Americans”

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Deeper Than Words: Donald Sterling’s Racism and the Model Minority Myth

By now much virtual ink has been spilled about the racist comments made by Los Angeles Clippers owner Donald Sterling. I’m not going to draw any more attention to that. Instead, I want to focus on a pattern of racial discrimination lawsuits against Sterling, and on the complex and critical role that Asian Americans play in battles over race.

More disturbing and worthy of bigger news than Sterling’s verbal faux pas are the civil rights lawsuits that his real estate business has faced. Sterling is best known for owning the Clippers, but his wealth comes from real estate investments he … Read more “Deeper Than Words: Donald Sterling’s Racism and the Model Minority Myth”

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Asian American Organizing: The Flipside of Conditional Privilege

I’ve had the pleasure of interviewing some impressive people as part of our research at ChangeLab. The breadth and depth of these conversations have revealed how complex Asian American racial identity is, and how few spaces we have to talk about it meaningfully. They’ve also revealed a deep desire to approach the subject with an eye toward resistance and action, to contest white supremacy from diverse and authentic Asian American experiences.

With the recent online debate over Asian American privilege, I’ve been thinking about how the quandary of facing both conditional race privilege and racial subjugation plays out in … Read more “Asian American Organizing: The Flipside of Conditional Privilege”

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On Asian American Privilege

The explosion of online race talk about Asian Americans lately is enough to make your head spin. Are we progressive or conservative? Are we rich or poor? Are we privileged or oppressed? And the thorniest of all: are we allies or colluders on the question of anti-blackness?

The challenge of discussing race on Twitter is that nuance gets stifled by character limits and thumb fatigue. But the short answer is: Asian Americans are all of these things. This can be seen in research on Asian American political views and poverty, and in our reports on Asian Americans and race. … Read more “On Asian American Privilege”