With the COVID-19 pandemic neither behind us or solely ahead of us, this zine
offers a way to make meaning of the coronavirus crisis through long-standing
practices of care that come out of Asian American histories and politics. We bring
together first-hand accounts and analyses from our communities, including
health and service workers and caregivers on the frontlines, students, people
living with chronic illness, journalists, and organizers. Together, this collection of
stories, essays, and artwork shows how we experience, resist, and grapple with
a viral outbreak that has been racialized as Asian, is spoken of in the language of
contagion and invasion, and reveals the places where our collective social safety
net is particularly threadbare.
This moment of precarity and disaster reminds us that we cannot rely on the state
for our wellbeing. The legacies of imperialism, capitalism, and patriarchy undergird
forms of violence that unevenly expose many in our communities to further risk,
rendering people disposable.
Yet, in this moment, we also see how revolutionary love and care can reshape our
world. We see the urgency, necessity, and radical possibilities of decarceration,
language justice, healthcare and housing access, economic redistribution, and
mutual aid. Our dreams, visions, and desires for an alternative world and future can
be realized. We are made of communities with deep collective knowledge on how
to care for each other and the earth around us. Together, we can survive and build
interdependent communities of resistance.
With love,
Salonee Bhaman
Rachel Kuo
Matilda Sabal
Vivian Shaw
Tiffany Diane Tso
