NZ in the News: Washtenaw County women leaders of Asian heritage speak out on hate, violence, and healing

Source: Concentrate Media.com
Author: Jaishree Drepaul-Bruder, Photos: Doug Coombe
Article excerpt below, click to read the full article

Although anti-Asian racism and violence have gained attention nationwide over the past year, female leaders of Asian heritage in Washtenaw County are envisioning a greater shift towards solidarity, strength, and healing.

"It's an agonizing point in time, but I'm hopeful," says Melissa Borja, an assistant professor of American culture at the University of Michigan (U-M). "Because what we know is that Asian-Americans are organizing very forcefully to say that it's not okay to be made scapegoats for the pandemic, and it's not okay to use anti-Chinese rhetoric against us."

Borja, a native Michigander currently based in Indianapolis, is uniquely positioned to lend insight. Not only is she herself a member of the Asian-American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community, but she's also an affiliated researcher with the Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center. Last April (with support from U-M's Center for Social Solutions and Poverty Solutions), Borja founded Virulent Hate, a project dedicated to raising awareness around the escalation of anti-Asian racism during the COVID-19 pandemic. The initiative tracks anti-Asian hate crimes reported in the media and identifies trends in order to shape public policy, improve public understanding of anti-Asian hate incidents, and guide community activism. The research has uncovered an unsettling trend: women are the victims of 68% of reported incidents.

"The experience of Asian-Americans across the country has been really hard in the past year, but thankfully they've found really amazing and creative ways to respond to the racism and violence that they've experienced," Borja says.

We asked 10 female Washtenaw County leaders of Asian heritage to share their personal reflections on the past year and weigh in on where we need to go from here. Here's what they had to say.

Lori Roddy

A transracial, transnational Korean adoptee, Lori Roddy says her identity as an Asian-American shows up differently. Growing up, she did a lot of explaining who she was as she responded to the question, "where are you from?"

Today, Roddy is the executive director at the Neutral Zone, a diverse, youth-driven teen center in Ann Arbor. The Ann Arbor resident says it's a dangerous time to be Asian, but luckily, she has been supported by others of Asian and Pacific Islander heritage in the community.

"It's outrageous that we live in a country where our former leadership blamed Asians for their grief, loss, and struggle," she says. "I'm grateful for my leadership role at Neutral Zone, where I have the opportunity to create a space for young people to feel safe."

Roddy stresses that the Neutral Zone is a place where youth are supported to build their leadership skills and develop the courage to lead much-needed change not just in Washtenaw County, but across the country.

"If you want to create a society that's inclusive, then we need to support our young people who will be helping to create that vision. That's my part in this awful mess," she says.


Praveena Ramaswami

Over the last year, longstanding community leader and advocate Praveena Ramaswami has given a lot of heartfelt thought to the large Asian population (particularly its senior citizens) on the north side of Ann Arbor, where she resides.

"If something happened to them, do they know how to report it and who to contact? We need an organized community for outreach so that everyone feels seen and safe," Ramaswami says.

She points to research from Stop AAPI Hate, showing that 16 AAPI hate incidents were reported in Michigan between March 2020 and February 2021.

"Just speaking to people in our community here in Ann Arbor, I know that the actual number is higher, but they were not reported perhaps due to fear and/or lack of information on how or why it should be reported," she says. “I ask that our schools, nonprofits, and civic and public organizations keep our [Asian American, Pacific Islander, South Asian, and Asian] community on their radars with proactive outreach to access services.”

Ramaswami, who is of Indian heritage, refers to herself as "an immigrant of immigrants" because her parents were immigrants to Canada and she was born and raised there. Having lived in Michigan for over 21 years, she's seen lots of change, but says so much more is needed.

"I'm looking for solutions and ways to help people who don't have a voice," she says. "We can be angry and hurt, but we can also use this time as an opportunity to build bridges in our community."

Linh Song

For many in Washtenaw County, Linh Song is a familiar face. The former Ann Arbor District Library board member is the only Asian-American on Ann Arbor City Council.

In April, Song introduced to council a resolution condemning anti-Asian hate crimes, mirroring one passed by the Michigan legislature after Michigan Sen. Stephanie Chang introduced it in March. Although Song's resolution passed unanimously, she says she was taken aback when some council members expressed discomfort with the resolution's references to condemning white supremacy and white terrorism.

"I had to explain that we are not condemning white people, and that we need white allies," she says. "I came to the city council with the mindset that we can't just push out policy. We must actually reform ourselves internally."

Song says making a statement to help the AAPI community feel recognized and cared for is the bare minimum that must be done. And she understands all too well the need to feel safe.

Song's parents were refugees from Laos and Vietnam, fleeing in the mid-'70s. Growing up in Michigan, she remembers her mother cutting out newspaper pictures of Vincent Chin, a Chinese-American man beaten to death by two white men in Highland Park in 1982.

"My mom was scared because she said my father's face looked like [Chin's]. And today she and my dad are scared again," Song says. "Looking at the last year and what we have to do now is painful. But we have no choice but to hold a mirror up to what has happened before, what is happening now, and what will continue to happen — unless we confront this sickness."

Click here for the full article with all ten features on AAPID women leaders in our community