ASIAN AMERICAN RACIAL JUSTICE TOOLKIT

In 2016, in the context continued state violence against people of color and the persistent power of white supremacy, Asian American organizers released the Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit.

This toolkit represents the work and thinking of fifteen grassroots organizations with Asian American bases living in the most precarious margins of power: low-income tenants, youth, undocumented immigrants, low-wage workers, refugees, women and girls, and queer and trans people. It reflects their experiences with criminalization, deportation, homophobia, xenophobia and Islamo-racism, war, gender violence, poverty, and worker exploitation.

All of the modules are designed to begin with people’s lived experiences, and to build structural awareness of why those experiences are happening, and how they are tied to the oppression of others. By highlighting the role of people’s resistance both past and present, the toolkit also seeks to build hope and a commitment to political struggle.

This toolkit reflects our analysis of the interconnectedness of issues and constituencies within the structures of white supremacy. In addition to workshop modules, we offer some of our experiences and lessons learned in working to dismantle structural racism.

PART 1: RACIAL JUSTICE TRAININGS

This section includes 15 modules spanning Asian American Identity, Model Minority Myth, Gender & Patriarchy, White Supremacy, Race & Working Class + Immigrant Struggles, For Black Lives, Colonialism, & Islamo-Racism.

PART II: RACIAL JUSTICE MOVEMENT MOMENTS

Each organization chose to share a piece of curriculum that was important for their organization in racial justice movement moments.

PART III: RESOURCES

Including Affirmative Action & Prison Industrial Complex Fact Sheets, Hetereopatriarchy Discussion Guide, Muslim & Islam FAQ, as well as the SEA Community Letter on Black Solidarity and A4BL Principles & Protocols

TRANSLATIONS

In 2023,  we TRANSLATED the Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit into 11 Asian languages, including Hindi, Nepali, Tagalog, Bangla, Korean, Hmong, Chinese, Arabic, Punjabi, Vietnamese, and Khmer!

Since the Toolkit’s release in 2016, it has become even more crucial today to share political education, especially in our communities' languages. When we don’t, we risk losing our communities to misinformation, apathy, or misguided political agendas. This became particularly apparent at our Convening where many of our member organizations shared their challenges in building working-class bases and retaining membership. You can check out other learnings by watching our Convening recap video here!

ORGANIZATIONS

Now a project of Grassroots Asians Rising, the Toolkit began as a project hosted by Asian American Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment (AAPI FORCE-EF), which is a California statewide formation whose purpose is to advance state politics, campaigns and other issues that support low-income AAPIs by building statewide AAPI civic engagement infrastructure and serving as a resource for emerging AAPI organizations. The founding organizations are APEN, CPA, KRC, and FAJ.

 

The Toolkit project includes the following organizations:

Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN)

Chinese Progressive Association - San Francisco (CPA)

Korean Resource Center (KRC)

Filipino Advocates for Justice  (FAJ)

CAAAV: Organizing Asian Communities

Providence Youth Student Movement (PrYSM)

Desis Rising Up and Moving (DRUM)

Khmer Girls in Action (KGA) 

1Love Movement

AYPAL: Building API Community Power  

VAYLA New Orleans

Freedom Inc. 

Korean American Resource and Culture Center

Mekong NYC

VietLead

APPRECIATIONS

We thank Evelyn and Walter Haas, Jr. Fund, Rosenberg Foundation, Wallace Alexander Gerbode Foundation, The California Endowment, The California Wellness Foundation, Unbound Philanthropy for their generous support of this project. Special thanks to the Friends Doing Good giving circle and National CAPACD.