The Tulsa Race Massacre

On the 100th anniversary of the Tulsa Race Massacre, we remember all those who were killed and the survivors who bravely continue to share their stories so that we never forget this painful part of our history. Take a moment to learn about what happened: https://t.co/RiqrSpKGNz

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) May 31, 2021

We Should. But We Can’t

A once-in-a-century pandemic cannot be the only thing that slows mass shootings in this country. It’s time for leaders everywhere to listen to the American people when they say enough is enough. pic.twitter.com/7MEJ87Is3E

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 23, 2021

Hatred And Violence

Even as we’ve battled the pandemic, we’ve continued to neglect the longer-lasting epidemic of gun violence in America. Although the shooter’s motive is not yet clear, the identity of the victims underscores an alarming rise in anti-Asian violence that must end.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 17, 2021

Yesterday's shootings are another tragic reminder that we have far more work to do to put in place commonsense gun safety laws and root out the pervasive patterns of hatred and violence in our society.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 17, 2021

Michelle and I pray for the victims, their families, everyone grieving these needless and devastating killings—and we urge meaningful action that will save lives.

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) March 17, 2021

As if these things aren't related and based on centuries of sexualized and submissive stereotypes of Asian women. White supremacy is rooted in misogyny and racism. https://t.co/C42KyqTGIP

— Millie Tran (@millie) March 17, 2021

When men frame a murderer's actions in terms of him "having a bad day" I can't help but hear them telling the world that they themselves are one bad day away from murdering women, & demanding empathy & recognition for that fact.

— Amal El-Mohtar (@tithenai) March 17, 2021

He had a really bad day. Women die because men have bad days. https://t.co/E8Wn2qocva

— Tressie McMillan Cottom (@tressiemcphd) March 17, 2021

White supremacist classist patriarchy is dangerous because it insists on dominance. It leads white men to think we all have to pay for their “bad day.”

Because apparently the racist, misogynistic fetishization and abuse of Asian women is just a white dude having a “bad day.”

— brittany packnett cunningham is on extended break. (@MsPackyetti) March 17, 2021

It’s not economic anxiety, diabetes, or sex addiction. It’s racial hatred. Stop playing on my phone.

— Openly Black Studs Twerkel. (@thewayoftheid) March 17, 2021

Take Up Space

We are shaken by the violence in our city that has left 8 ppl dead, including members of the Asian American community. We are gathering info about what happened & the needs of directly impacted are. Now is the time to hold the victims & their families in our hearts & with light pic.twitter.com/Hft5H7IZNW

— AdvancingJusticeATL (@AAAJ_Atlanta) March 17, 2021

I want to know their names, who and what they loved, the people they had waiting for them at home, everything they hoped for. I want to know the fabric of their days and the contexts of their lives.

— kat chow (@katchow) March 17, 2021

"Racism against AAPI Americans is not new.

Otherization of AAPI Americans is not new.

But the motto of the United States is E Pluribus Unum: 'Out of many, one.'

Asian-Americans are part of our country’s plurality.

We are some of the many, and we’re part of that one."#gapol pic.twitter.com/o2lzNb4iIy

— Dr. Michelle Au (@AuforGA) March 15, 2021

In less than 48 hours, we had a historic Asian Oscar moment with multiple firsts in 93 years—then a mass shooting targeting 3 Asian-owned businesses. This is how terrorism works—you’re not allowed to feel safe, accepted, or valued. We can resist. Take up space. Make noise.

— Min Jin Lee (@minjinlee11) March 17, 2021

Last night's shooting & the appalling rise of anti-Asian violence stem frm a sick society where nationalism has again been stoked & normalized. Anti-Black & anti-Asian racism & violence run in tandem in the U.S. Both grps were brought here for labor but never meant to be citizens

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

Even as this country was recruiting Chinese men to come do the labor white workers would not, they barred Chinese women from entering the U.S. in order to ensure the men would not settle and start families in America.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

Then this nation passed the Chinese Exclusion Act to prohibit Chinese laborers from immigrating to the U.S. altogether. This nation's most egregious racist laws and racist Supreme Court rulings targeted Black and Chinese people because of the believe both were unassimilable.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

We had to get an amendment to the Constitution to guarantee Black Americans citizenship in their own country, and Chinese Americans had to take a case all the way to the Supreme Court in order to have their own citizenship recognized. https://t.co/7qY7M4f6ln

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

If you look at racial real estate covenants -- provisions placed on homes that restricted ownership by race -- they almost always restricted two races: Black and Asian.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

And, of course, during World War II, Japanese Americans were placed in internment camps but German Americans were not. And German prisoners of war were allowed to eat in restaurants in the American South that Black Americans soldiers home on leave were barred from.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

Because of the Chinese Exclusion Act and explicitly racist immigration policy, the Asian population in the United States stayed relatively low until after the Civil Rights Movement and then we saw large numbers entering the U.S.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

And what has followed -- in reaction to the Civil Rights Movement and Black demands to dismantle white supremacy -- has been an enduring an attempt to use Asian immigrants and Asian Americans as a wedge against Black Americans.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

But the truth is that Asian Americans are only held up as a model to justify inequality and injustice visited upon Black Americans, but are seen by many white Americans as a problem and forever foreign otherwise. In other words, our struggles have always been tied together.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

I stand with my Asian-American brothers and sisters, just as so many of you have stood with us. I grieve. We must own all of this history -- ALL OF IT -- and determine to fight for a truly multiracial democracy where we all can be free.

— Ida Bae Wells (@nhannahjones) March 17, 2021

The reported shootings of Asian American women on Tuesday in Atlanta is an unspeakable tragedy – for the families of the victims first and foremost, but also for the AAPI community — which has been reeling from high levels of racial discrimination. https://t.co/rBVPnrEBps

— Stop AAPI Hate (@StopAAPIHate) March 17, 2021

A statement from the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum makes the important point of how anti-Asian violence disproportionately impact women #StopAsianHate pic.twitter.com/npEpv31Oy1

— philip lewis (@Phil_Lewis_) March 17, 2021

Terrorism At The Capitol

Here’s my statement on today’s violence at the Capitol. pic.twitter.com/jLCKo2D1Ya

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) January 7, 2021

The way news outlets shielded us from viewing the horrific murder of a white woman committing a criminal act at the Capitol Building yesterday, is the dignity that I desire from the media when unarmed Black people are murdered by the police. Instead we get trauma porn.

— Dr. Theresa Chapple (@Theresa_Chapple) January 7, 2021

All of Black Twitter tonight, ESPECIALLY Black Women: pic.twitter.com/BDqGSaoQpG

— April (@ReignOfApril) January 7, 2021

The Brink Of Explosion

Cush Jumbo reading Malcom X’s The Language of Violence. pic.twitter.com/ZyJblqwzyc

— Steven Kavuma (@_StevenKavuma) May 28, 2020

The Cops Have Always Been The Violent Ones

This boy had his hands up when an NYPD ofcr pulled his mask down and pepper sprayed him. ⁦@NYPDShea⁩? Mayor ⁦@BilldeBlasio⁩? pic.twitter.com/YtXDOoVckA

— Sherrilyn Ifill (@SIfill_) May 31, 2020

Share widely: National guard and MPD sweeping our residential street. Shooting paint canisters at us on our own front porch. Yelling “light em up” #JusticeForGeorgeFloyd #JusticeForGeorge #BlackLivesMatter pic.twitter.com/bW48imyt55

— Tanya Kerssen (@tkerssen) May 31, 2020

****

https://twitter.com/sottcalum/status/1266934559821750272

https://twitter.com/ava/status/1266948036653015041

****

https://twitter.com/IssaRae/status/1266775661739302912

This is the moment Minneapolis Police fired on our CBS News crew with rubber bullets. As you can see, no protesters anywhere near us- we all were wearing credentials and had cameras out. Our sound engineer was hit in the arm. #cbsnews pic.twitter.com/UAy7HYhGnL

— Michael George (@MikeGeorgeCBS) May 31, 2020

****

I cannot believe what I just witnessed. They pulled up onto the square with a police siren on and did this. #Louisville pic.twitter.com/65o2lgZCJh

— Natalie Neysa Alund (@nataliealund) May 30, 2020

https://twitter.com/kikimurphy_/status/1266936387124826113

Leaders Around The World

Proud to see Oluwaseun @AyodejiOsowobi in this list. She’s an @ObamaFoundation Leader who’s organizing young people in Nigeria to help end sexual violence, and her work embodies what our foundation is all about: passing the baton to the next generation. https://t.co/JSkUnRtaoD

— Barack Obama (@BarackObama) November 18, 2019

Two Words

Fuck you.

Those are my two words.

Fuck you to gun fetishists who think that their “right” to own an arsenal trump my right to make it through the day without being shot dead.

Fuck you to Second Amendment absolutists who claim that any common sense restrictions on guns are a blow to liberty.

Fuck you to those who reread that same Second Amendment. Want to read it? Here it is.

A well regulated Militia, being necessary to the security of a free State, the right of the people to keep and bear Arms, shall not be infringed.

The “right to bear arms”, in the plain meaning of the text, is a corollary to the necessity of a militia. The last time I checked, people aren’t exactly being called up to join volunteer brigades.

It’s On Us

ItsOnUs.Org