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Brief No. 1:

Countering Xenophobia & Anti-Asian Racism

In early April, the Coalition of Asian American Leaders (CAAL) held the first in a series of virtual sessions addressing the state of Asian Minnesotans, with the intention of tackling research, data, stories, community narratives and timely discussions that are pertinent to understanding the diverse and resilient communities that makeup Minnesota’s Asian population.

This session featured Dr. Erika Lee, one of the nation’s leading immigration and Asian American historians, and Minnesota Department of Human Rights Commissioner Rebecca Lucero. In a time of rising COVID-19 related anti-Asian racism and xenophobia, they provided both historical perspectives and an update on what measures are in place to protect our communities.

June, 2020

INTRODUCTION

CONTEXTMinnesota is the 22nd most populous state in the United States. Of Minnesota’s 5.6 million residents, 55% reside in the Twin Cities metropolitan area. Minnesota has seen a 29% growth in its population of color since 2010. According to MN Compass (2013-2017), Minnesota’s racial demographics are:

The rise in racism and xenophobia in response to COVID-19 is both old and new.

Public health crises have repeatedly been used to justify racism and xenophobia.

Issues are compounded by historical policies that shape current events.

Black communities, Indigenous communities and communities of color (BIPOC) are especially vulnerable to disproportionate impacts of COVID-19 because of intersecting gaps in access to healthcare, economic mobility, and racism/xenophobia.

• White: 79.5%• Black: 6.6%• Latinx: 5.5%• AAPI: 5.1%• Native/Indigenous: 1.1%

84-85% of the over 312,000 AAPI Minnesotans live in the Twin Cities metropolitan area (259,000+). 15-16% of AAPI Minnesotans live in Greater Minnesota (53,000+). As of the time of this report, MN Compass displays data on 11 AAPI specific cultural communities. Data on the Karen community is notably absent.

At the time of the April 10 webinar, 11.4% of MN’s total workforce had applied for Minnesota Unemployment Insurance.

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KEY THEMES

Figure 1: Venn Diagram

Description: Enforcement of human rights violations can be nebulous based on free speech protections and the limits of the Department of Human Rights, which enforces civil rights (ex. housing access, education and employment), and the Department of Public Safety, which handles crime. Depending on who is involved, the circles may begin to intersect.

The Minnesota Human Rights Act (Chapter 363A of MN Statutes) protects the civil rights of Minnesotans. The Minnesota Human Rights Act includes a greater number of protected classes than many other states. It should be noted that, while nationality is a protected status, immigration status is not. This is due to a policy overlap which precludes an individual who does not hold citizenship status from benefiting from protections of civil rights, which apply only to citizens. This operates independently of international human rights conventions.

The MN Department of Human Rights is the enforcement arm of the Minnesota Human Rights Act and protects civil rights for Minnesotans in cases involving issues such as fair housing and employment. If a civil rights violation escalates to the level of a crime, the Department of Public Safety gains jurisdiction.

Minnesota’s hate crime statute states:

“A person who [commits first, second, or third degree assault] because of the victim's or another person's actual or perceived race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, disability, or national origin is subject to a statutory maximum penalty of 25 percent longer than the maximum penalty otherwise applicable.”

The hate crime statute does not include the crime of murder since murder, in and of itself, is not prosecuted as a hate crime. The crime of murder is considered the most serious under Minnesota law and carries heavier sentencing. This means that hate crimes/crimes of bias resulting in the victim’s death may not be prosecuted by the state as a hate crime. While this is in the interest of carrying out a heavier sentence on the perpetrator, there is potential for a data gap in hate crime tracking.

It should also be noted that harassment, in and of itself, is not necessarily considered a hate crime. Additionally, calling a victim a derogatory name while in the process of committing another crime does not automatically denote a hate crime. In many cases, protections of the MN Department of Human Rights, the Department of Public Safety, and Free Speech overlap and conflict with each other, making hate crime investigation and prosecution especially complicated (see Figure 1).

MN Human Rights Act/MN Department of Human Rights

While Minnesota’s Human Rights Act is one of ths strongest in the country, Minnesota still has some of our nation’s worst racial disparities in employment, education, and health. Moreover, in this time of rising xenophobia and anti-Asian racism, the Department of Human Rights has emphasized the importance of utilizing the newly-created discrimination helpline to track incidents and understand what is happening for communities to better inform future action. Individuals do not need to personally assess whether what they experienced or witnessed qualifies as free speech, a civil rights violation or a hate crime in order to make a report.

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While Minnesota’s Human Rights Act is one of ths strongest in the country, Minnesota still has some of our nation’s worst racial disparities in employment, education, and health. Moreover, in this time of rising xenophobia and anti-Asian racism, the Department of Human Rights has emphasized the importance of utilizing the newly-created discrimination helpline to track incidents and understand what is happening for communities to better inform future action. Individuals do not need to personally assess whether what they experienced or witnessed qualifies as free speech, a civil rights violation or a hate crime in order to make a report.

Race and COVID-19While Chinese Americans have a rich history of contributions and struggles in the United States, they are not the largest percentage of Asian Americans living in Minnesota. Currently, Minnesota is home to 36,671 Chinese Americans and 161,490 Southeast Asian Americans (including Hmong, Vietnamese, Cambodian, and Lao; Karen communities were not counted in the most recent MN Compass report available). As such, Minnesota’s reported instances of anti-Asian bias related to COVID-19 and China often involve Asian-Americans who are not of Chinese descent.

Anecdotally, it is known that people of color, especially African Americans and Latinx Americans, have a higher risk of exposure to COVID-19 and are contracting the virus at higher rates due to over-representation in jobs considered “essential,” generational lack of access to suitable healthcare, and other social determinants of health. As of the time of this report, there are no standardized demographic questions associated with COVID-19 testing, making data difficult to track.

As COVID-19 began a rapid spread within the United States, a series of key events occurred informing the need for the CAAL webinar on countering xenophobia and anti-Asian racism:

• January 31, 2020: President Trump issues a “Proclamation on Suspension of Entry as Immigrants and Nonimmigrants of Persons who Pose a Risk of Transmitting 2019 Novel Coronavirus.” Dr. Erika Lee notes that “temporary” travel bans 1) set a precedent and often last longer than originally stated (Ex. Executive Order 13769); and 2) are tied closely to the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the first American policy to target a specific Nationality.

• April 1, 2020: The Washington Post publishes an op-ed by former Presidential candidate Andrew Yang in which Yang calls on Asian-Americans to “embrace and show our American-ness in ways we never have before.” The op-ed faces strong backlash.

•  April 6, 2020: Minnesota launches a helpline for reports of bias, discrimination and harassment that reports incidents to the Minnesota Department of Human Rights.

• April 10, 2020: CAAL Webinar on Countering Xenophobia and Anti-Asian Racism convenes 500 participants and is briefly interrupted by racist trolls.

• April 20, 2020: News breaks of a carve-out in the $2 billion CARES Act blocking stimulus checks to ~1.2 million citizens who are not in the military and are married to and file taxes jointly with an immigrant who does not have a social security number.

•  April 22, 2020: Governor Walz announces the Community Resiliency and Recovery Workgroup, chaired by Lt. Governor Flanagan and Commissioner Lucero, which will review policymaking and other opportunities to help communities of color.

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SESSION 1: COUNTERING XENOPHOBIA AND ANTI-ASIAN RACISMOver 600 participants registered for the webinar on April 10, with around 500 attendees. The event was recorded and later shared on youtube.

CAAL’s Executive & Network Director Bo Thao-Urabe began the session by acknowledging that racial/anti-immigrant bias/discrimination is neither new nor unique to AAPI communities. She went on to acknowledge the importance of solidarity with and honoring the histories of other communities, including but not limited to Black/African-Americans; Native/Indigenous people; LGBTQ people; and immigrant communities. She identified the spectrum of bias/discrimination (see figure 2) and the spectrum of impact to demonstrate what racist and xenophobic acts look like and how they impact the individual, community and policies (see figure 3).

Figure 2: Spectrum of Bias, Discrimination, Hate slide

Figure 3: Impacts of xenophobia and racism slide

At this point, the session was disrupted by a hacker or hackers using racist language and obscene gestures. CAAL staff disabled all participant microphones and the chat. The interruption lasted for several minutes and is discussed in the Nakagawa addendum to this report.

Dr. Erika Lee began by stating that xenophobia and anti-Asian racism we are seeing as a result of COVID-19 is both old and new. Dr. Lee gave an overview of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant bias/discrimination in American history. In this overview, she noted that United States immigration policy has always been rooted in white supremacy. As such, there is a troublingly consistent history of broad anti-immigration movements being rooted in the belief that immigrants as individuals and immigration as a concept forms an existential threat to “traditional white American values” and way of life. This existential threat is then framed as a national “crisis” requiring a militarized response against individuals. Examples of militarized responses against “new” individuals is the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Minutemen militia at the Southern border. Dr. Lee went on to note that part of the existential threat includes xenophobic association of immigrants with disease. This association has happened with numerous new immigrant

populations during every wave of immigration to the United States. Examples include the “German Flu” during periods of German immigration and Cholera being strongly associated with Irish immigrants. Xenophobia against Chinese immigrants manifested in large part based on their “strange food,” a misconception that has persisted into the current public health crisis in assertions that COVID-19 is caused by the consumption of bat meat.

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Dr. Erika Lee began by stating that xenophobia and anti-Asian racism we are seeing as a result of COVID-19 is both old and new. Dr. Lee gave an overview of anti-Asian and anti-immigrant bias/discrimination in American history. In this overview, she noted that United States immigration policy has always been rooted in white supremacy. As such, there is a troublingly consistent history of broad anti-immigration movements being rooted in the belief that immigrants as individuals and immigration as a concept forms an existential threat to “traditional white American values” and way of life. This existential threat is then framed as a national “crisis” requiring a militarized response against individuals. Examples of militarized responses against “new” individuals is the formation of the Ku Klux Klan and the Minutemen militia at the Southern border. Dr. Lee went on to note that part of the existential threat includes xenophobic association of immigrants with disease. This association has happened with numerous new immigrant

populations during every wave of immigration to the United States. Examples include the “German Flu” during periods of German immigration and Cholera being strongly associated with Irish immigrants. Xenophobia against Chinese immigrants manifested in large part based on their “strange food,” a misconception that has persisted into the current public health crisis in assertions that COVID-19 is caused by the consumption of bat meat.

Dr. Lee went on to draw parallels between xenophobia and emetophobia/disease anxiety and its recurrent nature in American history. She made special note that COVID-19-related bias and discrimination is similar to Yellow Peril sentiment. Dr. Lee noted that many Asian-Americans face a “triple burden” around COVID-19:

International (assuming family in Asia)

Domestic (rise in xenophobia in addition to risk of exposure)

Calls to “pre-prove” loyalty to the USA, which supports a false narrative that Asians bear responsibility for COVID-19

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Dr. Lee concluded with an overview of both broad policy and specific instances of xenophobic behavior against individuals resulting from xenophobia such as immigration acts limiting immigration from specific countries. Examples of policy included the Chinese Exclusion Act (the first US immigration policy based on barring a specific Nationality/race from entry), barring Haitians from entry based on fear of AIDS, and limiting/barring West African immigration during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Examples of xenophobic behavior against individuals included a practice of using noxious chemicals to “de-louse” immigrants from Central and South America and burning Chinese houses in Honolulu to eradicate Bubonic Plague. Commissioner Rebecca Lucero began with a quote by Adrienne Maree Brown, “Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.” Commissioner Lucero described ways in which BIPOC communities (especially Black and Latinx people) are at increased risk of exposure to/death from COVID-19 due systemic inequities. These include over-representation in low-paying jobs now considered “essential,” existing long term/underlying health issues tied to social determinants of health, and fear of seeking hospital treatment due to the current political climate on immigration. She noted that Minnesota is not seeing disproportionate rates of infection in the same ways as New York, Chicago, and LA but that all Minnesota data is based on self-reporting and has not been disaggregated. Commissioner Lucero went on to assert that the “virus doesn’t discriminate but impact does,” meaning that BIPOC individuals and communities will likely experience disproportionate negative fallout from both gaps in healthcare and economic fallout.

Commissioner Lucero highlighted Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan’s discrimination helpline (launched April 6, 2020) and the Minnesota Civil Rights Enforcement Agency. The helpline was formed by a “perfect storm” of new state administration and a rise in reports of anti-Asian incidents. Notably, the helpline can be used by witnesses, as well as victims of bias. The helpline is also being used to gather geographic data of incidents with the intent of targeted neighborhood outreach and healing. She mentioned that incidents must rise to the level of the Human Rights Act for the Department of Human Rights to investigate. She also advised anyone under direct threat/imminent danger to call 911. Commissioner Lucero concluded by sharing some stories of individuals experiencing bias/discrimination to highlight the power of bystander intervention and the power of community solidarity. Examples included children and adults calling on behalf of their parents. In one case, a man’s father was accosted at a grocery store and told to “go back to China.” The incident escalated to the man’s father being grabbed by the collar, at which point a security guard intervened. In another instance, someone called on behalf of their mother, who was called “Chinawoman” by another woman, and given the finger. Because of time and the earlier interruption, participants were unable to engage directly with Dr. Lee and Commissioner Lucero. Bo Thao-Urabe asked each speaker one question, based on questions submitted to CAAL staff. Commissioner Lucero was asked how the MN Department of Human Rights is making resources available and accessible to those in need. Commissioner Lucero responded that translators are available for anyone who calls the hotline to be able to speak in the language most comfortable to them.

Dr. Lee was asked how academics are looking at issues of racism/xenophobia. Dr. Lee responded that most people in her field are focused on rapidly shifting platforms (from in-person to online) and how to help their most vulnerable students. To watch a full recording of the session, visit CAAL’s youtube page for the video.

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Dr. Lee concluded with an overview of both broad policy and specific instances of xenophobic behavior against individuals resulting from xenophobia such as immigration acts limiting immigration from specific countries. Examples of policy included the Chinese Exclusion Act (the first US immigration policy based on barring a specific Nationality/race from entry), barring Haitians from entry based on fear of AIDS, and limiting/barring West African immigration during the 2014 Ebola outbreak. Examples of xenophobic behavior against individuals included a practice of using noxious chemicals to “de-louse” immigrants from Central and South America and burning Chinese houses in Honolulu to eradicate Bubonic Plague. Commissioner Rebecca Lucero began with a quote by Adrienne Maree Brown, “Things are not getting worse, they are getting uncovered. We must hold each other tight and continue to pull back the veil.” Commissioner Lucero described ways in which BIPOC communities (especially Black and Latinx people) are at increased risk of exposure to/death from COVID-19 due systemic inequities. These include over-representation in low-paying jobs now considered “essential,” existing long term/underlying health issues tied to social determinants of health, and fear of seeking hospital treatment due to the current political climate on immigration. She noted that Minnesota is not seeing disproportionate rates of infection in the same ways as New York, Chicago, and LA but that all Minnesota data is based on self-reporting and has not been disaggregated. Commissioner Lucero went on to assert that the “virus doesn’t discriminate but impact does,” meaning that BIPOC individuals and communities will likely experience disproportionate negative fallout from both gaps in healthcare and economic fallout.

Commissioner Lucero highlighted Governor Walz and Lt. Governor Flanagan’s discrimination helpline (launched April 6, 2020) and the Minnesota Civil Rights Enforcement Agency. The helpline was formed by a “perfect storm” of new state administration and a rise in reports of anti-Asian incidents. Notably, the helpline can be used by witnesses, as well as victims of bias. The helpline is also being used to gather geographic data of incidents with the intent of targeted neighborhood outreach and healing. She mentioned that incidents must rise to the level of the Human Rights Act for the Department of Human Rights to investigate. She also advised anyone under direct threat/imminent danger to call 911. Commissioner Lucero concluded by sharing some stories of individuals experiencing bias/discrimination to highlight the power of bystander intervention and the power of community solidarity. Examples included children and adults calling on behalf of their parents. In one case, a man’s father was accosted at a grocery store and told to “go back to China.” The incident escalated to the man’s father being grabbed by the collar, at which point a security guard intervened. In another instance, someone called on behalf of their mother, who was called “Chinawoman” by another woman, and given the finger. Because of time and the earlier interruption, participants were unable to engage directly with Dr. Lee and Commissioner Lucero. Bo Thao-Urabe asked each speaker one question, based on questions submitted to CAAL staff. Commissioner Lucero was asked how the MN Department of Human Rights is making resources available and accessible to those in need. Commissioner Lucero responded that translators are available for anyone who calls the hotline to be able to speak in the language most comfortable to them.

Dr. Lee was asked how academics are looking at issues of racism/xenophobia. Dr. Lee responded that most people in her field are focused on rapidly shifting platforms (from in-person to online) and how to help their most vulnerable students. To watch a full recording of the session, visit CAAL’s youtube page for the video.

Minnesota and the U.S. has seen continued concerns and experiences of anti-Asian bias and hate, as well as a stark reminder of the violence and oppression Black communities experience in all areas of society, most visibly at the hands of the police. This conversation and the ongoing pandemic leaves these questions to be explored further:

FUTURE CONSIDERATIONS

As Dr. Lee explained, we know that what is happening in this moment is both old and new.

From history, we know that community responses sometimes gave rise to other developments, such as immigration acts leading to the Asian “model minority” myth that explicitly pit Asian communities against Black communities. Given this, as we approach responding in this moment, what long-term negative impacts can we work to avoid in community response?

As we “rebuild” systems, who will benefit?

How can this work be done in a way that does not fuel or promote anti-Blackness?

How do we navigate the creation of solutions that will not ramp up criminalization of other BIPOC communities and avoid supporting systems that enable further policing, surveillance and harm? Specifically, how does Commissioner Lucero’s advice to call 911 work and not work for the AAPI and broader community?

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What has worked (or not worked) in the past when organizing against public health crisis-based xenophobia? What can be learned/improved?

What aspects of the current community response are new?

What is the holistic response needed to address acts of hate rooted in racism/xenophobia?

What is the role of policy and law and institutional level responses? Currently Incidents must rise to the level of Human Rights Act for the Department of Human Rights to respond. For the incidents that do not reach this level, what responses exist between relying on bystander intervention and the Human Rights Enforcement Agency?

What long-term community-level and cultural work is needed to prevent, address and respond to acts of racism and xenophobia? What does this work look like both in communities targeted by racism and xenophobia and those doing the targeting?

How can community-based organizations become co-responders since many community members may not want to report it? All racist and xenophobic acts are harmful, but may not be against any laws, so what might we do to support more restorative approaches in communities to address the harm and heal communities?

How do we continue to ensure government and policy makers are responsive and accountable to communities beyond the helpline?

How can community organizations and institutions (who are often more trusted than government by those most impacted) be resourced and validated to supplement government response to racism and xenophobia?

What is the role of government and policy makers in combating the root causes of these incidents, not just responding to individual experiences of racism and xenophobia when they occur?

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Summary by Jon F. Jee Schill

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This morning, I participated in a webinar titled "Countering Xenophobia and Violence Against Asian Americans During COVID-19." This otherwise enlightening and insightful session was disrupted for a few minutes (it seemed interminable) by one or more "zoombombing" racist and xenophobic trolls, who carpet bombed the chat space with the most vile, vulgar, and violent comments imaginable. Racist and xenophobic epithets, obscene interjections, and incoherent verbal assaults briefly targeted BIPOC individuals and communities. Thankfully, the session administrators moved quickly to close the chat space, and there was no further intrusion for the remainder of the session. Unfortunately, this also meant that participants were unable to interact with each other and to post questions and comments for the speakers.

On a personal note, this was the first time I've experienced a zoombombing incident, and I have to admit that I was physically and emotionally shaken by this virtual and all-too-real encounter with hate and rhetorical violence. Although I have witnessed and have experienced this kind of racism and xenophobia throughout my life, there was and is something deeply visceral and disquieting about confronting this in real time in this virtual but immediately lived context, and endured collectively with a cohort of presumably like-minded people, where social distancing became at once attenuated and violated. In that moment, we were living embodiments of the session's themes and questions of what it means to be displaced but fully located - we know precisely where we stand and how we're perceived - in this world and in this time of COVID-19.

This moment was simultaneously clarifying, denigrating, inspiring, disorienting, and activating. It's not often that you become the subject of an object lesson playing out in real time. What a rare and resonant opportunity for us to individually and collectively know in heart, mind, and spirit what we are up against and how we must move forward.

We may know intellectually that those who insinuate themselves into our lives simply to declare and pretend to themselves that they are meaningful, are relatively small in number. But we are mistaken, and we risk everything if we casually dismiss them as the fringe and as negligible. As Erika Lee noted, this kind of event is not anomalous or isolated but has been and continues to be historically normative, especially in times of social upheaval and crisis.

We have to remember that this so-called fringe of zoombombing racist trolls is also the outer edge, the surface, of a body politic that is deeper and broader: a body politic that voted for, enabled, and ushered in the Current Occupant who has handled the "Chinese virus" with demonstrable incompetence and with utter disregard for its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.

Today's session also raises questions about how to move forward in the face of viral racism and xenophobia. In at least one way, the zoom hackers succeeded: they socially isolated and silenced participants by closing off discourse with each other and direct interaction with the speakers. With the chat space closed down, we were structurally relegated to silence. Unfamiliar as I am with Zoom, I don't know if there are other strategies, technical or otherwise, to stem this kind of hacking

and trolling. I certainly don't fault the decision to close off chat. It seemed the most expedient way to go at the time. But are there additional tactics for dealing with this problem without unduly monitoring or restricting access? Are other meeting platforms more amenable and secure?

In any case, technical solutions beg the question of how we might effectively and ethically and proactively address the way forward, around, and through the crisis confronting us.

In part, the session asked and answered its own questions about the challenges and possibilities for anticipating and countering systemic forms and practices of oppression. Erika Lee emphasized the significance of understanding our history of xenophobia and racism as a convergence among patterns and forces of oppression established in the past, manifesting in the present, and opening possibilities for the future. Rebecca Lucero offered hands-on resources aimed at preventing, intervening in, and documenting COVID-19-related discrimination. Bo Thao-Urabe advanced the necessity and inherent value of direct community access and participation in planning and decision making involving proactive, not only reactive, approaches and strategies for countering xenophobia and violence in our communities.

A message and lesson that resonated for me from start to intrusion to finish was this: In the face of both expected and unanticipated challenges, we must find creative pathways to accompany one another, by way of our collective human agency. As resilient and powerful partners and allies, we must persist in asking questions, gathering factual and documented knowledge, and prefiguring in culture, structure, and practice, our aspirations and hope for social transformation and justice.

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ReflectionBy Gordon Nakagawa

Coalition of Asian American Leaders941 Lafond Avenue, Suite 205, Saint Paul, MN 55104

(651) 756 - 7210 | info@caalmn.org

This morning, I participated in a webinar titled "Countering Xenophobia and Violence Against Asian Americans During COVID-19." This otherwise enlightening and insightful session was disrupted for a few minutes (it seemed interminable) by one or more "zoombombing" racist and xenophobic trolls, who carpet bombed the chat space with the most vile, vulgar, and violent comments imaginable. Racist and xenophobic epithets, obscene interjections, and incoherent verbal assaults briefly targeted BIPOC individuals and communities. Thankfully, the session administrators moved quickly to close the chat space, and there was no further intrusion for the remainder of the session. Unfortunately, this also meant that participants were unable to interact with each other and to post questions and comments for the speakers.

On a personal note, this was the first time I've experienced a zoombombing incident, and I have to admit that I was physically and emotionally shaken by this virtual and all-too-real encounter with hate and rhetorical violence. Although I have witnessed and have experienced this kind of racism and xenophobia throughout my life, there was and is something deeply visceral and disquieting about confronting this in real time in this virtual but immediately lived context, and endured collectively with a cohort of presumably like-minded people, where social distancing became at once attenuated and violated. In that moment, we were living embodiments of the session's themes and questions of what it means to be displaced but fully located - we know precisely where we stand and how we're perceived - in this world and in this time of COVID-19.

This moment was simultaneously clarifying, denigrating, inspiring, disorienting, and activating. It's not often that you become the subject of an object lesson playing out in real time. What a rare and resonant opportunity for us to individually and collectively know in heart, mind, and spirit what we are up against and how we must move forward.

We may know intellectually that those who insinuate themselves into our lives simply to declare and pretend to themselves that they are meaningful, are relatively small in number. But we are mistaken, and we risk everything if we casually dismiss them as the fringe and as negligible. As Erika Lee noted, this kind of event is not anomalous or isolated but has been and continues to be historically normative, especially in times of social upheaval and crisis.

We have to remember that this so-called fringe of zoombombing racist trolls is also the outer edge, the surface, of a body politic that is deeper and broader: a body politic that voted for, enabled, and ushered in the Current Occupant who has handled the "Chinese virus" with demonstrable incompetence and with utter disregard for its disproportionate impact on marginalized communities.

Today's session also raises questions about how to move forward in the face of viral racism and xenophobia. In at least one way, the zoom hackers succeeded: they socially isolated and silenced participants by closing off discourse with each other and direct interaction with the speakers. With the chat space closed down, we were structurally relegated to silence. Unfamiliar as I am with Zoom, I don't know if there are other strategies, technical or otherwise, to stem this kind of hacking

and trolling. I certainly don't fault the decision to close off chat. It seemed the most expedient way to go at the time. But are there additional tactics for dealing with this problem without unduly monitoring or restricting access? Are other meeting platforms more amenable and secure?

In any case, technical solutions beg the question of how we might effectively and ethically and proactively address the way forward, around, and through the crisis confronting us.

In part, the session asked and answered its own questions about the challenges and possibilities for anticipating and countering systemic forms and practices of oppression. Erika Lee emphasized the significance of understanding our history of xenophobia and racism as a convergence among patterns and forces of oppression established in the past, manifesting in the present, and opening possibilities for the future. Rebecca Lucero offered hands-on resources aimed at preventing, intervening in, and documenting COVID-19-related discrimination. Bo Thao-Urabe advanced the necessity and inherent value of direct community access and participation in planning and decision making involving proactive, not only reactive, approaches and strategies for countering xenophobia and violence in our communities.

A message and lesson that resonated for me from start to intrusion to finish was this: In the face of both expected and unanticipated challenges, we must find creative pathways to accompany one another, by way of our collective human agency. As resilient and powerful partners and allies, we must persist in asking questions, gathering factual and documented knowledge, and prefiguring in culture, structure, and practice, our aspirations and hope for social transformation and justice.

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