Asian-Americans pen Black Lives Matter support letter to their communities

A group of Asian-Americans has created a letter to their families in support of the Black Lives Matter movement. A video explaining the project is below the fold. The project began as an idea that Christina Xu had for her own parents. Concerned about what she felt was a lack of empathy for the deaths of Alton Sterling in Louisiana and Philando Castile in Minnesota, Xu wrote the letter and then shared it via Google Docs and Twitter.

“The project took off really fast,” Xu said. “There was so much interest and energy around this issue from hundreds of people, most of whom I’ve never talked to before. It was magical that this idea resonated with so many people.”

Contributors wrote about why they support the Black Lives Matter movement, and many stepped up to translate. Now, the crowdsourced letter has become Letters for Black Lives, which has spread beyond the Asian-American community, as Americans of other races and people in other countries have become involved. In five days, more than 200 people contributed to the letter, which has been translated into more than 20 languages.

Xu was also concerned about the Asian American community’s response to the Minnesota shooting in particular, since initial reports stated that the St. Anthony police officer who opened fire on a compliant Castile was of Asian descent. Referencing the shooting of Akai Gurley by Chinese-American NYPD Officer Peter Liang, Xu tweeted “Asian Americans who support BLM, we need to get ahead of our community organizing another pro-Liang rally, talk to your families today.”

Xu’s project joins other solidarity efforts such as APIs4BlackLives in Minnesota and Los Angeles, as well as a national call for solidarity that was made by the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.

Watch the video below.