Monday Matter: To my fellow Asian women, disenfranchised grief and a giveaway winner
Your weekly Foreign Bodies roundup
Every Monday, we send subscribers and gift recipients* of immigrant mental health and storytelling newsletter Foreign Bodies stories we recently inhaled and adored. This is also a chance to do some housekeeping and give shout-outs and all that jazz. Roundups are usually written by Fiza and edited by Farah. *Today’s roundup is available to all readers, patrons or not.
First things first
A little housekeeping
Remembering Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Soon Chung Park, Hyun Jung Grant, Sun Cha Kim and Yong Ae Yue.
Hi friends, like many of you, I’ve been broken-hearted over the tragedy out of my city last week. Frankly, I can’t come up with the right words to measure the grief and anger I’m feeling. But if you can, take a moment now and say the victims’ names aloud. The Asian American Journalists Association’s Frances Wang and Janice Yu put together this pronunciation guide to help:
For a crowdsourced list of resources in our collective fight against anti-Asian violence, I recommend this landing page. U.S. journalists looking to ensure fair and accurate reporting while covering the Atlanta shootings, please refer to AAJA’s guidance. If you need teaching and learning resources to support your Asian American students, stuvoice.org has a curated list to start off with. For mental health resources, the Asian Mental Health Collective is a prime place to start. The @asiansformentalhealth account on Instagram, which is managed by clinical psychologist Jenny Wang, features numerous helpful resources as well, including this set of tiles on talking to Asian elders. Sonia Weiser of the Opportunities of the Week newsletter launched the AAPI Journalists Therapy Relief Fund to help AAPI journalists. Those looking to apply for funding for mental health resources should fill out this form. Please sign the Asian Americans Advancing Justice solidarity statement as an individual or an organization here. AAAJ is the first and only nonprofit legal advocacy organization dedicated to protecting the civil rights of Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, and Pacific Islanders in Georgia and the Southeast. They’ve also put together a donation page on their site with all donations going directly to the victims and their families. Do sign up for their free bystander intervention and de-escalation training; I have. The organization also encourages folks to continue sharing stories with their affiliation's hate tracker, StandAgainstHatred.org, or another tracker of your choice. “Your experiences help us educate the public, empower others, and strengthen advocacy efforts for hate response and prevention,” AAAJ tweeted.
We have a giveaway winner! 🎁
Congratulations to Vishakha Dharba of Connecticut for winning a copy of Masuma Ahuja’s Girlhood: Teens Around the World in Their Own Voices! Vishakha is a multimedia journalist and producer originally from New Delhi, India, primarily covering stories at the intersection of politics, society, and culture. She's also the producer and host of a podcast on the history of the Indian diaspora in America, and the creative director of a South Asian anthology. If you'd like to connect, find her on Twitter or Instagram as @vishakhadarbha. Can’t wait to send you this beautiful collection, Vishakha! 📦
Something I wrote ✍🏽
For Colorlines, I spoke to three women about relearning their native tongues during the pandemic. Eva turns to Chinese cookbooks to connect with her Popo over WeChat. Kiran relearned Hindi to address virus misinformation in her South Asian community. And Rabia dreams of saving her native Kutchi.
A musical start to your Mondays 🎧
One international song to groove to, cry to, drive to and share
This week’s pick comes from my lovely friend, Hannah Bae. Here’s what she has to say about the song “Temple” by Thao and the Get Down Stay Down: Thao is incredible, and she used her mother's story of escaping Vietnam as inspiration for this gorgeous song. The video features Vietnamese dancers at a botanical garden in CA, shot right before the pandemic. I've had this tab open for MONTHS because this song is my inspiration to return to my people's painful history, even though it's so HARD.
Resource(s) of the week
Something helpful and interesting and cool (*storytelling opportunity)
The Asian Mental Health Collective works to normalize and de-stigmatize mental health within the Asian community through various projects, including their Ask a Therapist video series, this subtle asian mental health Facebook group and the #myasianmentalhealth community storytelling initiative. For more resources specific to supporting the AAPI community or the victims of the Atlanta shooting, please refer to the beginning of this newsletter.
The Uproot Project is a new collective network of environmental journalists of color dedicated to bringing diverse voices to the forefront of climate reporting. Read more about the project in this Neiman Lab write-up by our own Hanaa Tameez!
*VICE Canada, in collaboration with the TELUS Fund, is launching Take Care, a new documentary series about the mental health of young Canadians. They’re open for series pitches from Canada-based creators through April 16. The selected projects will receive production funding of up to $140,000 per project to a maximum of 75% of total eligible costs OR $5,000 per minute, whichever is less. Much more information available at vice.com.
Read this!
Personal stories I’m loving
A Letter to My Fellow Asian Women Whose Hearts Are Still Breaking (R. O. Kwon, Vanity Fair): “Still and always...I am so fortified, so alive, when I’m with us… You matter to me, we matter to me, and I would so much rather have us and our allies on our side than any of them. For we already belong.” This incredible and heartfelt essay absolutely tore me apart. Please make time for it. Read here.
I’m Helping My Korean-American Daughter Embrace Her Identity to Counter Racism (Heidi Shin, New York Times): “My daughter was the only kid who didn’t have a separate Korean name when we signed her up for Korean classes three years ago,” writes journalist Heidi Shin. “Though Korean was the language I spoke growing up in New York with my immigrant parents, I’ve forgotten many of the words I used to know.” In this excellent reported essay, Shin talks to experts about how to address anti-Asian racism with her daughter. “Kids begin to develop a sense of racial identity by age 3 or 4, Dr. Yip said. Once they enter grade school, they hear about race and racism from peers and the media they consume. ‘By not talking about race’ and what they’re hearing, Dr. Yip said, ‘you run the risk of intensifying stereotypes’ which can then lead to racism.” Read here.
Black Women Deserve Therapists Who Look Like Us (Sylene “SylJoe” Joseph, Zora): “I didn’t need a sympathizer or yes-man or enabler. But I did need a professional cognizant of the layers of being a dark-skinned, West Indian immigrant with locs raised conservatively and living radically.” An essay about how unconscious bias creeps up in mainstream therapy practice. Read here.
Los Ángeles (Cristià Santana, Guernica): “We’re going to see the angels/my father says but in Spanish/because my mother and I do not/know English yet… This is the year Nixon resigns and/the rumble in the jungle takes place/My parents are still married Perhaps/they’re still in love.” Some beautiful words by poet and interdisciplinary artist Cintia Santana to kick your week off. Read here.
Anti-Asian Violence Must Be a Bigger Part of America’s Racial Discourse (Alexander Chee, GEN): “I realized how starved Asian Americans are for having a raw, angry, and complicated portrait of being Asian in America.” An essential conversation between Alexander Chee and Minor Feelings author Cathy Park Hong on identity, white flight and feeling invisible as an Asian American. Read here.
In Its Joy, ‘Minari’ Expands the Boundaries of the American Dream (Hannah Bae, Bitch Media): “While Minari contains and articulates heartbreak as it follows a family of Korean American immigrants who move to Arkansas in the 1980s, what is most noteworthy is the strong current of humor and mischief—plus joy, reverie, and curiosity—that runs throughout this gentle, sun-dappled family drama,” writes Bae. “I confess that I felt particularly on edge any time white Arkansans entered the frame. My fear was two-pronged: At a time when reports of violent, anti-Asian attacks are on the rise in the United States, I am acutely aware of the threat of racial hatred. And as a Korean American with ties to the South—my husband was born and raised 20 miles from Chung’s family farm, and I grew up in Virginia and central Florida—I also hoped for a humane portrayal of this community and region that I know well.” Loved this essay on Lee Isaac Chung’s feature film, Minari. Read here.
In the news
Relevant news coverage that doesn’t really fall under our larger mission to de-stigmatize through personal storytelling, but is still essential reading for anyone who wants to stay up-to-date on immigrant and refugee mental health and well-being.
Chinese Truck Drivers Face Extra Barriers Finding Mental Health Care (Kayla Hui, DocumentedNY.com): “Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, truck drivers have been overworking to deliver essential goods on deadline, often exceeding their 11 hour on-the-road driving limits,” reports Pulitzer Center fellow Kayla Hui. “The long hours, lack of sleep and social isolation have taken a toll on drivers’ mental health. That’s especially true for Chinese immigrants who face cultural and financial barriers that harm their mental health.” Read here.
It’s OK to Grieve for the Small Losses of a Lost Year (Tara Parker-Pope, The New York Times): In this piece, Parker-Pope writes about disenfranchised grief. “We've all experienced loss this past year,” she tweeted, “but many people don't feel they have the right to complain. Give yourself permission to grieve the small and big losses.” Read here.
New research 📑
Black Hispanic individuals hardest hit by COVID-19 (Boston Medical Center, Journal of Immigrant and Minority Health): A new study titled “Intersectional Disparities Among Hispanic Groups in COVID-19 Outcomes” shows the disproportionate impact of COVID-19 on Hispanic groups within the United States, with the most severe outcomes, including death and intensive care, among Hispanic Black individuals. Read and download here.
+1
One sorta unrelated story on my mind
The Crow Whisperer (Lauren Markham, Harper’s): I was looking for a piece of longform writing to escape to this weekend and came across this story about a woman in Oakland trained in human-animal conflict mediation. “Buigues told me that she had been transfixed by animals since childhood, often finding them better companions than people,” reports Markham. “In her twenties, she went on a hiking trip in Utah with her boyfriend. Ravens followed them everywhere, as if seeking her attention, and she began talking to them. Buigues and the birds seemed to have a common understanding.” But she’s “wary of calling herself a psychic or a medium. ‘I’m just an old punk rocker,’ she says, ‘who happens to be able to communicate with animals.’” Read here.
Bookshelf
Books and collections I’m currently reading (plus reader-recommended works!)
Just finished: Kink: Stories, edited by R.O. Kwon and Garth Greenwell, is a groundbreaking anthology of literary short fiction exploring love and desire, BDSM, and interests across the sexual spectrum featuring writers Callum Angus, Alexander Chee, Vanessa Clark, Melissa Febos, Kim Fu, Roxane Gay, Cara Hoffman, Zeyn Joukhadar, Chris Kraus, Carmen Maria Machado, Peter Mountford, Larissa Pham and Brandon Taylor.
Reader rec from Alice W.: The Island of Sea Women by Lise See, set on the Korean island of Jeju, follows best friends Mi-ja and Young-sook, two girls from very different backgrounds, as they begin working in the sea with their village’s all-female diving collective.
Remember, we always have tons of wonderful stories and resources available at foreignbodies.net.
Love to see it
Shout-outs, thank-yous and more
Please sign up for bystander intervention and de-escalation training if you can:
I’ve shared this list of resources in the newsletter before, but just in case you missed it:
Me, every single day 😩
A reminder.
That’s it for now.
Did you absolutely hate this? Open to criticism and suggestions. See ya later!
Love,
Fiza
Special thanks to our Foreign Bodies Sustaining Members Kris B., Hannah B., Safurah B., Alex C., Alma C., Rebecca C., Rodrigo C., Esmé D., Katie H., Jack L., Liz S., Puja S., Roz T., Diane W. and my mama.
Thanks so much for this excellent list of resources and reading, Fiza.