Asians for Black Lives

Resources and call to action

• The Cross Cultural Solidarity History Education Project

  • Black / Asian Solidarity - Historical Resources

  • Books on Black / Brown Solidarity

• Black Lives Matter Toolkit from Muslim Anti-Racism Collaborative

• South Asians & Black Lives

• The Secret History of South Asian and African American Solidarity  

• For post 9/11 analysis on solidarity with Black communities: read a chapter from Deepa Iyer’s book, We Too Sing America, called “Ferguson is Everywhere” that provides community stories along with a framework for discussions and political education.

• 26 Ways to Be in the Struggle Beyond the Streets

• Harm Accountability & Healing Toolkit

• Bay Area Transformative Justice Resources

• The Autobiography of Malcolm X (Purchase)

• Angela Davis, An Autobiography (Purchase)

• Black History Month Library

• Because We’ve Read

  • A Muslim led, radical reading group. Covers topics related to international solidarity & abolition

• Noname Bookclub

  • An online community dedicated to uplifting POC voices

• An Essential Anti-Racist Reading List

• Resources on Dismantling Systematic Racism

• Reading Towards Abolition: A Reading List on Policing, Rebellion, and the Criminalization of Blackness

Prison Abolition:

• Believers Bail Out Transformative Justice Reading Group

• “Are Prisons Obsolete?” by Angela Davis

• Black Solidarity & Decolonization 

• Rooted in Slavery: Prison Labor Exploitation (Free JSTOR Account Required)

• "A Jailbreak of the Imagination"

• “Is Prison Necessary?”

• Beyond Prisons Podcast

Bite Size Perspectives:

• This History of Solidarity Between Asian and Black Americans

• What does Asian and Black racial solidarity look like?

• Fight Anti-Blackness With Our Asian Parents

• Opinion | How the myth of a “model minority” words to divide Americans

• Opinion: Immigrant communities are indebted to the civil rights movement. But when will they grapple with their own anti-Blackness?

• A message for Asian American students in affirmative action’s aftermath

• Donate to help protesters get out of jail around the country with bail funds. Then, donate to Black-led organizations in your area and to South Asian and Asian American organizations with an explicit commitment to be in solidarity with Black communities. Every dollar does count.

  • Donate to the Atlanta Solidarity Fund to bail out arrested protesters 

  • Donate to the Minnesota Freedom Fund to bail out arrested protesters

  • Donate to Jacob Blake’s GoFundMe to help with medical, familial, and legal expenses

  • Donate to the Milwaukee Freedom Fund to bail out arrested protests in Wisconsin

  • Donate to Black Youth Project 100

  • Donate to the George Floyd Memorial Fund

  • Donate to the Black Visions Collective

  • Donate to Reclaim the Block

  • Donate to Campaign Zero

  • Donate to Atlanta Black Owned Business Relief 

• Continue supporting mutual aid networks like the Metro Atlanta Mutual Aid Fund (MAMA), the Asian Americans Advancing Justice mutual aid fund, and the Black Trans Travel Fund.

• Show up safely on real streets or coordinate South Asian solidarity actions on digital streets. With digital conversations, plan an agenda to discuss: “How can South Asians show up for Black lives?” Discuss using the guides in Step 4, and then come up with a plan of action with 1 individual action + 3 collective steps (examples: deepen my own analysis and share it; support a local group; commit to 2 community conversations; ask a place of worship or cultural group to make a statement of solidarity).

• Sign a letter of solidarity (for Asian American groups and individuals) organized by the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) in Minnesota

  • Then ask others to take a stand. Ask your networks, organizations, places of worship, and campus groups to make solidarity statements. Check out @SouthAsians4BlackLives on Instagram for visuals and messages.

• Sign the petition by The Movement for Black Lives to demand for the end of militarization in communities of color.

• Support and learn about the #DefundThePolice initiative

• Learn more about what it means to reimagine public safety through the People’s Budget LA

• Understand and Support the Demands from Black Communities. Insist on investments in communities and divestment from law enforcement. Here’s a report from MPD150 (link) and a mini-syllabus on prison & police abolition (link). You can take an Abolition in Policing workshop from Critical Resistance here, and see demands from Color of Change (link) that address use-of-force, profit motives in policing and more in the wake of the murders of Ahmaud Arbery, George Floyd, Tony McDade, Sean Reed, and Breonna Taylor.

• Support and advocate with Imam Jamil al-Amin Action Network

• Support and join local organizations

  • Community Movement Builders

  • Project South

  • Southerners on New Ground

  • Black Youth Project 100

  • IMAN Atlanta 

  • National Coalition to Protect Civil Freedoms

  • Los Vecinos de Buford Highway

  • Housing Justice League