Statement on Comments by Alison Collins

Chinese Progressive Association

For nearly 50 years, the Chinese Progressive Association has worked to build a world where all of us can live and work with dignity and respect — a world where all of us have access to healthy and safe jobs, housing, healthcare, and affordable and quality education. We believe the only way we will achieve this vision is through multiracial solidarity. Racial justice and building multiracial solidarity is core to who we are and our values as an organization. That is why we have so deeply committed to building multiracial alliances, solidarity across communities of color, and unlearning anti-Black racism in the Asian community. We are also committed to learning the histories and diverse needs of the Asian community.

As we address the comments made by Commissioner Alison Collins, we must recognize the charged and difficult context for our community. We are still collectively grieving the murder of 6 Asian women in Georgia, the recent deaths of Asian elders due to violence, and the ongoing attacks on Asian American community members here and nationally. We are marking over one year of heightened xenophobia, racism, and economic struggle, since our businesses were first to shut down and our community members were devastated due to the pandemic. Meanwhile the ongoing debate about how to support our students and families as we move towards safe and equitable school reopening, lacks a real grounding in the voices of students and families most impacted, including Asian immigrant households.

It was in this context that we read with dismay and disappointment the comments made by Commissioner Alison Collins of the SFUSD Board of Education, a Black woman and an elected leader CPA has partnered with. They were hurtful and reflect a lack of nuanced understanding of Asian American communities, denying the history of Asian American activism and solidarity, perpetuating harmful stereotypes and treating us as a monolith. In a city that is over ⅓ Asian and a school district with over 30% Asian students and 6% Pacific Islander, that is unacceptable. Chinatown is home to the largest number of families living in SROs. Our community members experience wage theft, unemployment and underemployment, mental health crises, and live in crowded multigenerational homes to make ends meet. Our communities are complex and diverse, and the rise in harassment over the last year has underscored how harmful invisibilization of our communities and our realities can be. This is especially true for working class Asian Americans — including CPA’s members — and working class Southeast Asians. These comments, while 5 years old, only deepens the pain the community has already been feeling. 

Over the last week, we have needed space to listen to the reflections and concerns of our youth and adult members. Our members were hurt and upset by these comments, and some felt that they showed Commissioner Collins was not fit to lead. At the same time, many called for a need to stop pitting our communities against one another, while others wanted to give Commissioner Collins a chance to heal and rebuild the relationship and trust lost as an elected public official. Overwhelmingly, our members were concerned about the deep, painful and ongoing impact of racial trauma on Asian and Black communities, the divisions and racial tensions that exist between our communities, and the need for unity.

Commissioner Collins has been a strong partner to CPA. In 2019, along with Commissioner Jenny Lam and Commissioner Faauuga Molina, she co-sponsored the Our Healing in Our Hands Resolution, which led to increased resources for mental health and wellness for SFUSD students. In our work with her, she demonstrated a deep commitment to Asian American and Pacific Islander communities and a willingness to learn about and advocate for our communities. 

To move forward, we must do the hard work of challenging white supremacy and address the real ways anti-Blackness and anti-Asian racism have harmed all of us, with humility and complexity. This includes centering the pain and experiences of Asian Americans in this moment and the horrific impact of anti-Asian racism, xenophobia and targeting, without dismissing or diminishing the pain and experiences of Black people and other people of color. This includes recognition that anti-Blackness exists in Asian American communities and that we must partner with other communities of color to examine and dismantle anti-Blackness as a part of white supremacy. 

This also includes calling for personal accountability from a Black woman leader, as challenging as that is in a system that pits Black and Asian people against each other, even as we continue to demand accountability from institutions that hold greater power than any one individual. This includes recognizing how the leadership of women of color and Black women in particular have been undervalued, attacked and undermined; from relentless anti-Black attacks on Commissioner Collins as a Black woman, to attacks on Commissioner Jenny Lam as an Asian woman speaking out for her community. It is undeniably clear that there is still much work to be done to heal from wounds both from individual and systemic racism across our school district. 

Elected officials should be held accountable to the people they represent. To that end, we ask Commissioner Collins to offer a genuine apology that recognizes the harm, wrongdoing, and breach in trust with Asian American students, parents and community members. We ask her to commit to deepening her understanding of the varied experiences of Asian Americans, what we are fighting for, and the ways we have been harmed by stereotypes like the model minority myth, especially those of working class immigrant, Southeast Asian and Pacific Islander, undocumented, incarcerated, LGBTQ communities, so that she can better serve the Asian American families in SFUSD. If she is not able to do so, we ask that she step down from her role on the Board of Education. We hope that she will take this moment to reflect on the complexity of our community and what it takes to truly practice solidarity.

We also call on other members of the Board of Education and elected leadership in San Francisco to deepen their understanding of the Asian American community, anti-Asian racism and harmful stereotypes like the model minority myth, and how white supremacy and racism has harmed Asian Americans and pit us against other communities of color.

Over the last year, and especially these last few weeks, the attacks on the community have felt relentless. We are tired of the constant feeling of not belonging. And we all want something different. We need a more complex, humane, and courageous conversation about racism, white supremacy and how it has harmed Asian Americans as well as other communities of color, often pitting us against each other. This dialogue, however, must go hand in hand with real action to address the deep racial inequities in our schools and communities. We must refocus on what working class students of color need at this moment — to safely and equitably reopen our schools for students and school personnel while increasing the academic and mental health support for remote learners. On the one-year anniversary of shelter-in-place and the global pandemic, we call for a united leadership that will lead us toward a safe reopening of schools and a recovery where we can all thrive.

###

 

於高勵思評論的聲明

華人進步會

 

在將近50年的時間裡，華人進步會致力於建立一個人人享有尊嚴和尊重的生活和工作的世界——一个人人都能享受健康安全的工作、住房、醫療保健以及可負擔的優質教育的世界。我們認為實現這一願景的唯一途徑是多種族團結。種族正義和建立多種族團結是我們作為一個組織存立的身份認同和價值觀的核心。這就是為何我們如此堅定地致力於建立多種族聯盟，構建各膚色社區之間的團結以及在亞洲社區擯棄反黑人種族主義。我們同時致力於學習亞裔社區的歷史和多樣化的需求。

當我們回應高勵思專員的評論時，我們必須認識到我們社區依然處於充滿壓力和困難的環境。我們仍然集體哀悼在佐治亞州被謀殺的六名亞裔婦女、因遭受暴力而喪生的亞裔長者，為在此地和全國范圍內對亞裔美國人社區成員的遭受的持續襲擊感到悲痛。我們正經歷著一年多來加劇的仇外心理、種族歧視主義以及經濟危機，繼商業關閉後我們的社區成員也遭受疫情重創。同時，如何支持學生和家庭安全、公正地重返學校正在熱議中，然而卻缺乏真正來自基層的包括學生、家長和深受影響的亞裔移民家庭他們自身的聲音。

正是在這種情況下，我們為高勵思的言論感到沮喪和失望。高勵思是三藩市聯合校區教育委員會的成員，一名黑人婦女，也是和華人進步會有合作關係的一位民選官員。這些有傷害性的言論反映了對亞裔美國人社區缺乏細緻入微的理解，否認亞裔美國人積極創變、團結共進的歷史，加深一直存在的有公共危害性的刻板印象，並把所有人想像成同一個模樣。對於一個居民超過三分之一是亞裔、學區超過30%亞裔學生及擁有6%太平洋島國人口的城市而言，這樣的言論是不能接受的。唐人街是散房家庭分佈最多的地方。我們的社區成員正面臨諸如工資盜竊、失業、就業不足、心理健康危機、居住在擁擠的多代家庭中維生等挑戰。我們的社區是豐富多樣的，在過去一年中，騷擾頻仍凸顯了非透明化對我們社區的傷害之巨大。對於包括華人進步會會員在內的工人階級亞裔美國人和東南亞工人階級來說尤其如此。高勵思的這些評論雖然已過去5年，但只會加深社區已在承受的痛苦。

在過去的一周中，我們創造了必須的空間來傾聽我們青少年會員和成年會員的想法和感受。這些負面評論使我們的會員受到傷害和不安，有些人認為評論表明教委成員高勵思不再適合擔任領導職務。同時，許多人呼籲停止在社區之間相互抗衡，而另一些人則希望給教委成員高勵思多一次機會，以重建民選官員在民眾心中已失去的信任、療癒社區的傷痛。絕大多數會員感到關切的是，種族創傷對亞裔和黑人社區造成深遠、痛苦和持續的影響，我們所需的正是社區團結。

教委成員高勵思一直是華人進步會有力的合作夥伴。在2019年，她與教委成員林謙悅和教委成員莫力加共同贊助進步會青年計劃的「我們的治癒之手」決議，為三藩市校區學生提供更多心理健康方面的資源。在我們與她的合作中，她作出對亞裔美國人和太平洋島民社區的堅定承諾，並表達希望增進對我們社區的了解、促進其發展的意願。

要向前邁進，我們必須理性挑戰白人至上主義，反黑人及反亞裔的種族主義，這些主義確實傷害了我們。然而我們要以謙卑的態度去處理這錯綜複雜的問題。這包括集中亞裔美國人此刻所受痛苦的經歷；反亞裔的種族主義，仇外的心理而針對亞裔所引起的可怕影響。在處理的同時又不能忽視或降低黑人及其他有色人種所受的痛苦經歷。即是要確認反黑人主義是存在於亞裔美國人的社區，我們必須與其他有色人種社區合作來審視並逐步去除去源自白人主義的反黑人主義。 

這還包括一位黑人婦女領袖呼籲個人問責。縱使制度陷黑裔及亞裔彼此對立，我們知道繼續要求比個人有更大權力的機構問責是很大的挑戰，但向個人問責亦具一定的挑戰性。這包括有色人種的婦女，尤其是黑人婦女的領導地位被低估，受到攻擊及破壞；那無休止的對黑人婦女專員高勵思 (Collins) 的反黑人攻擊，亞裔婦女專員林謙悅(Jenny Lam)因為她為社區發聲亦受到攻擊。無可置疑，我們還有很多工作要做，整個校區由個人到制度都要療治創傷。

民選議員要為其代表的民眾負責。因此我們要求高勵思(Collins)專員向我們真誠道歉，承認造成的傷害，不當的做法及破壞與亞裔美國學生，家長及社區會員之間的誠信。我們要求她付起責任去加深了解亞裔美國人受到各種的經歷，我們在爭取甚麼，我們受到的傷害，類似少數族裔是模範的定型神話，尤其是工人階級的移民，亞太裔島民，無證移民，關押的群眾，同志群體的社區，才能更好地服務三藩巿校區的亞裔美國家庭。如果她做不到，我們便要求她下台，解除教育委員的職務。我們希望她此刻反省我們社區的複雜性，真實團結的要素。

我們亦呼籲三藩巿其他教育委員當選領袖深入了解亞裔美國人社區，反亞裔種裔的主義及定型的神話對我們的傷害，以及白人至上主義及種族主義對亞裔美國人造成的傷害，更陷他們與其他有色社區之間的對立。

過去一年，特別是上幾個星期，社區感到無情不斷的襲擊。那種不斷感到的無歸屬感，我們真的厭倦了，我們需要大改變。我們需要更複雜，更人道，更大膽的對話，討論種族主義，白人至上主義是如何的傷害亞裔美國人及其他有色社區，很多時還陷我們與其他社區對立。但這對話必須與真正行動齊頭並進，以解決我們學校及社區嚴重的種族不平等現象。我們必須重新關注現在工人階級學生的需要 – 為學生及學校職工重新開放學校，是安全及平等的學校但同時又要為遠距的學生提高課程及心理健康的支援。在居家令及全球大疫情一週年，我們呼籲建立一個統一的領導層，引導我們朝著安全重新開學和實現向蓬勃復甦的方邁進。

###