AAPI Lives Matter.  End White Silence.  

For my Asian American and Pacific Island brothers and sisters, 

What can I say that can be healing? 

 This letter is structured by my statement this summer to the peaceful protests over black and brown lives lost, and by a conversation with my faith community, North Decatur Presbyterian Church. 
 
I acknowledge your pain.  I stand in mourning and grieve with the families of these Georgians: Delaunay Ashley Yaun, 33, of Acworth; Xiaojie Tan, 49, of Kennesaw; Daoyou Feng, 44; Paul Andre Michels, 54, of Tucker.  The other four names of victims are not yet released. Six of the eight Georgians were Asian American women. 
  
Each person is a beloved child of God.  Every individual is sacred.  Their deaths are an affront to all of us.   

This sickness of racism, xenophobia and gender based violence is an American condition.  Easy access to guns is an American condition.  Racism, xenophobia, and gender based violence are in our culture. Easy access to guns is in our culture.  We must heal this sickness.  We must reduce easy access to guns.

Racism, xenophobia, and gender based violence are a part of our hard history.  We must confront our past in order to heal.

Our nation’s history of racism is intolerable.  

We will listen to the AAPI community and support them as we respond.  We will focus on humanizing the lives of the victims of these crimes, not the perpetrator.  .

To our church community, we need true repentance that separates whiteness and nationalism from Christianity.  We must speak up, teach, and disciple our people away from racism.  

I lift up these voices from our AAPI brothers and sisters: 

I honor and thank Representative Bee Nguyen and Senator Michelle Au for their grace and eloquence at a press conference today and I acknowledge and thank Georgia WIN List for the link: 
https://www.facebook.com/gawinlist/videos/285936293097613

Thank you to NPR for this compilation of stories from our AAPI citizens:
Anti-Asian Attacks Rise During Pandemic. Read NPR's Stories On The Surge In Violence

Thank you to Christianity Today, The Better Samaritan Blog, for bringing us the voices of AAPI Christian leaders: Asian American Leaders on Atlanta Murders: "I Want You to Step In"

Representative Nguyen was featured on CNN to discuss the attack on Asian Americans in Metro Atlanta this week. You can view the clip here: https://twitter.com/OutFrontCNN/status/1372331071812083715
 
Representative Park was also featured on CNN yesterday to discuss the same events: https://twitter.com/CNNnewsroom/status/1372262429388894210