An Exciting Time for Asian Liberation
I want to write about our Asian Leaders’ Workshop, led by Tim Jackins in California, USA, in August 2014. Over a hundred of us gathered on the University of California campus.
Our constituencies came in so connected to each other. Good work has been done in the last several years. Thank you, Azi, for helping us South, Central, and West Asians come together, build good relationships, and work toward our common liberation. I’ve noticed that our liberation has become much more visible. We are speaking out more about the oppression we face, and other Asians are learning how to back us. We are also learning more about other Asian constituencies.
The Muslims at the workshop were a powerful group. They led a number of tables and topic groups for Muslims and allies and were visible in other ways, like at creativity. Muslim liberation is moving forward. It was exciting for me, someone with Jewish heritage, to back Muslim liberation and also to be thought about so well by the Muslims at the workshop. I can see more clearly how Jewish liberation needs Muslim liberation to move forward and vice versa. I got a bigger picture of the work we can do together. Azi led a fantastic Shabbat celebration. We got to sing a lot and have fun together as Asians. We sang a song used in the Israeli peace movement. It was nice to be together in a struggle against all oppression.
There were three young people at the workshop and about fifteen young adults. I led a support group for us, and we had fun together playing and learning about each other. We are central to Asian liberation work. We bring laughter, connection, and new ideas. I liked seeing so many of us taking this work on for ourselves. That is what we need to move forward.
Overall I am just so excited. The discharging Tim is having us do on early discouragement and isolation is working! I came back from the workshop more hopeful and thinking more about what I wanted for myself and the world. I could see how powerful we Asians are. As the majority of the world’s population, our liberation is essential to all liberation. We are moving in the direction of being more visible, and the entire RC Community is beginning to understand how much our liberation matters. Congratulations to us!
Anonymous
Hartford, Connecticut, USA
Reprinted from the RC e-mail discussion list for leaders
of South, Central, and West Asian-heritage people
1 Azi Khalili, the International Liberation Reference Person for South, Central, and West Asian-Heritage People
2 “Back” means support.
3 Shabbat is the Jewish Sabbath. It is a tradition at RC workshops to celebrate Shabbat on Friday evening as a way to contradict anti-Jewish oppression.
4 “Taking this work on” means undertaking this work.