Online Discussion Confronting COVID-19 Racism

This event is online as a podcast here.

Announcement:
Across the world, the COVID-19 pandemic has intensified existing systems of racial violence while fueling the rise of right-wing and fascist politics. Yet the pandemic has also seen heightened organizing efforts by communities of color to counter racism and forge solidarity with other struggles beyond borders. This online panel brings together activists from the Asian diaspora in the US, Australia and Europe to connect local struggles and discuss the possibility of transnational organizing. How does racism in the different contexts relate to each other? What forms of anti-racist organizing are activists, workers, international students and other members of diaspora communities engaged in, and which organizing attempts have been successful and what challenges still remain? And how can we connect local movements to strengthen transnational solidarity among activists of color and their allies?

Date: Saturday, March 6, 2021
Time: 12 p.m. PST/U.S. – 3 p.m. EDT/U.S. – 9 p.m. CET/Europe – 4 a.m. CST/China (March 7) – 7 a.m. AEDT/AUS (March 7)
Topic: Confronting COVID-19 Racism: Asian Diaspora Organizing & Transnational Solidarity
Speakers: Gigi Mei (New York), Kimiko Suda (Berlin), Shan Windscript (Melbourne), and JM Wong (Seattle)
Moderators: Jule Pfeffer + Daniel Reineke

The speakers:

Gigi MEI received her MA in Peace & Human Rights Education from Columbia University. She currently works with Chinese international students, 1.5 generational Chinese immigrants and activists in engaging social justice organizing in the U.S. and beyond.

Dr. des. Kimiko SUDA is a sinologist/sociologist whose work focuses on Sinophone/Asian-diasporic issues, queer feminist identities, as well as empowerment through (post) migrant’s grassroots organization and cultural self-representation. She has been a team member of Media Empowerment for German Asians (MEGA, a project of korientation) since January 2020 and has co-directed Berlin’s Asian Film Festival since 2011. She just finished a post-doc research project on Anti-Asian Racism in the context of the Corona pandemic in Germany (Humboldt University Berlin, Germany).

Shan WINDSCRIPT is a PhD candidate at the University of Melbourne, an activist, and tertiary education unionist. She is finalizing her thesis on the history of diary-writing in the Chinese Cultural Revolution.

JM WONG is a queer community organizer, healthcare worker, policy advisor, and among other things, a space nerd and writer living on Duwamish lands (Seattle), via Malaysia/Singapore and many cities in between.

Reading list for the event’s Q&A:

English
Can Chinese Students Abroad Speak? Asserting Political Agency amid Australian Nationalist Anxiety (Shan Windscript)
China and the Australian far right (Kaz Ross)
‘Garbage’ and ‘cash cows’: temporary migrants describe anguish of exclusion and racism during COVID-19 (Bassina Farbenblum and Laurie Berg)
White Saviors “Rescuing” Asian Women & Who They Truly Serve (JM Wong)
Three deaths in a Chinese American diaspora (JM Wong)
Asian Film Festival Berlin
American Factory

Deutsch
Rassismus in der COVID-19-Berichterstattung (korientation)
Antiasiatischer Rassismus in Deutschland (Kimiko Suda, Sabrina J. Mayer, and Christoph Nguyen)
Asiatische Diaspora in Deutschland (Heinrich Böll Stiftung, Heimatkunde, Migrationspolitisches Portal)

Sponsors: This event is co-sponsored by gongchao.org, Made in China Journal, positions politics, and Critical China Scholars. The foundation Stiftung Menschenwürde und Arbeitswelt (Berlin, Germany) provided financial support for the technical platform.

For other events, please, see the “China and the Left”-series page.