A picture of two Asian Americans in blackface at Washington University in St. Louis has gone viral on social media.
The picture is accompanied by comments from fellow student Morgan Bryant, a sophomore who is African American.
“There’s always something. I’ll start by saying this: I don’t want dialogue. I don’t want another resource center. I don’t want a summer reading book about anti-Blackness and racism neatly scribed into a series of poems. That’s not how Anti-Blackness/Racism/Misogynoir will be annihilated.
“I’m always put into these spaces listening to people ramble on and on about “poc solidarity”. I’m expected to sit there and sing “We Are The World” with all of the Black and Brown people surrounding me while knowing they’ll use me for my labor and toss me out when it’s done. My LIVED experiences show that POC Solidarity is nothing but another method of overworking Black bodies and having us do all of the footwork while everyone else cowers behinds us and continues to abuse us.“Anti-Blackness in the Asian community is just as violent and just as disgusting as it is coming from anyone else.
“These students attend my university & I’m expected to fight for them, too.”
According to Student Life, one of the students pictured shared Morgan’s post and offered an apology, calling herself “reckless.”
“Last night we were putting face masks on our faces, and we simply thought the shapes and patterns resembled tribal art. We know we were being very ignorant and inconsiderate, and we would really like to apologize for our immaturity,” the student wrote.
Other Asian Americans agreed with Morgan and said anti-Blackness among Asian Americans on campus was a problem.
An open forum organized by the Korean International Student Society and the Korean Students Association is planned for Thursday.
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