“I signed the “Anti-Asian Racism in the Time of #COVID19” Statement because It has grieved me to witness the suffering of my Asian-American friends during the Coronavirus pandemic. Whiteness is insidious. It is a political construct created to determine one thing: Who is ordained to rule on this land?

The Coronavirus revealed that the scapegoating of the AAPI community rises from the same place that has led some Americans to “conserve” white dominance thru voter suppression, gerry-mandering, VoterID laws, closing polling places and switching polling stations. It rises from the same place as children in cages at our southern border, as treaties broken for land exploitation, as white churches splitting to keep pews pure and LGBTQ people out. It rises from the same place, but the logic of whiteness sees the AAPI community through a different lens. Whiteness deems the AAPI community, “perpetual enemy,” and moves white-washed minds to attack.

Shalom teaches us we are all connected. My flourishing is dependent on the flourishing of the AAPI community. The opposite is also true. An assault against the AAPI community is an assault against us all—the whole church and our whole nation.“

Lisa Sharon Harper, Founder and President of Freedom Road, LLC

You can read the AACC statement here.