November 17, 2017

From our president, Tung Nguyen:

Rich people think that they are smart, and they are in the short term, but as the House just passed a bill to widen the already abysmal income gap, they don't understand history or nature. The laws of physics apply here--for every action there is an equal and opposite reaction, and everything tends toward chaos. An unequal society can only be stable as long as the inequalities are reasonable and people have hope. Once the winners really do take all, then the rest of us will have nothing to lose. 300 million sheep stampeding in the same direction will obliterate a pack of wolves. To quote John F. Kennedy, "those who make peaceful revolution impossible will make violent revolution inevitable."

November 16, 2017

From Nikki Chau, our tech guru and restorative yoga teacher:

Inspirational article from BLM cofounder Alicia Garza on cultivating resilience, which we all need right now

"I am a commitment to a durable and resilient heart. To get closer to my commitment, I strive to practice yoga at least five times a week; to practice meditation for 10 minutes each day, and to purposefully envision solutions and freedom for ten minutes a day.

I practice not to be perfect, happy, or joyful, although I am grateful if and when being happy or joyful is an unintended consequence of my practice. I practice in order to feel. To look squarely at what is. I look courageously at my flaws, my sadness, my fear of disappointing people, my own disappointment because I want to have a heart that is durable and resilient. That breaks apart and can be put back together again. Both and, not either or."

Link to article

November 15, 2017

From Phi Nguyen. Phi, along with other advocates, community members, and lawyers, spent the last three days at Stewart Detention Center, speaking with Vietnamese Americans who have been detained by ICE, to see what relief, if any, may be available to them. Here is one of her reflections from her time with the folks who are facing deportation:

No day at Stewart is easy, but day 3 was particularly tough for me, most likely because of the cumulative effect of talking for three days to people who look like my dad, my cousins, and my uncles and who, despite being behind bars, still respectfully smile and say "Chao, Co" when they see an older Vietnamese woman. Today, I spoke to a young Vietnamese man who came to the U.S. as a refugee in 1975 when he was 1 year old. He didn't even know he wasn't a citizen until he was put in removal proceedings; and like me, his English is better than his Vietnamese. I also spoke to another Vietnamese man who owned a nail salon before ICE picked him up and jokingly asked if he could do my nails for me when I put my hands up to say goodbye (yeah, they are pretty busted). My heart breaks to know that my people with our history of war, trauma, and persecution are now being rounded up and told that they need to go back to the country that millions risked their lives to escape. But my heart is also uplifted by the resilience and scrappiness of our people and the unwillingness to go down without a fight. Over the last few days, we've heard from several detainees that the food at Stewart is terrible (potatoes all day everyday and chicken once a week) but that those who have the means to buy better meals at the commissary are sharing with their Vietnamese brothers. We also received some poems (penned in Vietnamese) from one of the detainees today. I can think of few other survival tactics that are more quintessentially Vietnamese than sharing food with our family and writing poetry.

And of course, I am so incredibly grateful to be a part of this fight with these brave, bighearted, and endlessly compassionate human beings.

November 14, 2017

From one of our Atlanta members, Andrew Quyen Leba:

LATENIGHTOFFICETHOUGHTS: I remember growing up that Vietnamese-American men were always thought of as Viet-thugs and gangsters, and being told that we were the "bad" ones—the ones who would traffic drugs, carry knives, steal your car radios, and drive ricers. So I'm pretty darn proud of seeing five sons of Vietnamese war refugees volunteering over the weekend at a pro bono citizenship clinic to help immigrants from Bangladesh, South Africa, Eritrea, Mexico, Colombia, Burma, China, and Nigeria become US citizens. Special thanks to IRC and Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta for hosting us. (Note: we did not steal those bagels.) #sonsofrefugees #fullcircle #VietBoyzIIMen #vietboysalwaysgood 💯

November 13, 2017

From one of our Southern California members, Hong-My Basrai:

#metoo

Standing up for oneself doesn’t stop at denouncing sexual violence but all forms of violence, including the kind aiming at mental torture. It started with a few words, or an act of bullying with the intention to make the other feel small, devalued, lessened, disqualified.

The insinuating words are as sly as the groping hand reaching into the intimate part of the victim; or worse, as hurtful as that thrusting organ or body part, robbing the other of either innocence, health, confidence, or all of those combined.

I have experienced this form of violence many times in my life: in the workplace, in the streets, among people I socialize with, and as recent as yesterday.

Don’t ever doubt yourself in the face of violence, however subtle it might be, when it is stalking you. Seek help. Seek alliance. And denounce it when you have gathered enough concrete evidence. Trust me, like a hungry fox, the perpetrator of violence will keep coming back for more bites.