Hope is an engine for us to be able to create change and do great work
Asian American Courage
With anti-Asian racism and violence threatening our communities, how do we draw courage from our parents’ struggles and experiences, so we can find our own strength and find the language to share this with our children?
As a Korean American and Black American, Janet Damon is standing against all forms of racism by telling her story and standing with community.
“My parents raised us as rooted in more than one culture. That gave us the gift of being always in two spaces.
“My Black father grew up in the Jim Crow South. He met my mom in Korea when he was in the military. When she came to the US, she was confused about the struggles of Black Americans. ‘But you're all Americans. Why is this an issue? You're all Americans, right?’ My dad talked to us about race, drawing from his experience with othering and segregation to build bridges and make connections. I watched my mother go through a racial awareness as she learned beside us.
“Being in a military family, we moved a lot. I was a favored student while in New Orleans, and when we moved to Colorado, I felt isolated as the only child of color at school when we moved to a predominantly white town. Even as a child, I knew I didn’t want any part of practices that make people feel excluded, where one group oppresses another group, or approves of violence or othering.
“I believe that communities are only strong if everyone takes the responsibility to take care of one another. In my workshops on anti-racism and anti-bias, we re-center ourselves back into our truest nature, which is to connect as a community. I grieve for my Black community and my Asian community when they are impacted after an incident of racial violence. And in allowing myself to grieve, I am able to develop a habit of hope.
“Hope is an engine for us to be able to create change and do great work. Without hope, we allow ourselves to internalize fear, preventing us from dreaming of a different way of being. When I see people at a prayer vigil or a rally, I see a village of support. Being all together and seeing all the faces illuminated by candles remind me that we are far more than the people who hate. We just have to remember that there are far more people who want to do better and want to be better. And that is the foundation of change.”
