To the North American Carnatic Community:
Like so many of you, we are filled with grief and rage by the recent murders of our black brothers and sisters. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade are only the most recent and high-profile names on an unending list of black people who have been brutally killed at the hands of US police. As South Asian Americans, we need to do our part in uprooting the racist institutions and culture that allow these senseless killings to continue. If we aren’t actively engaged in this work, we’re part of the problem.
When it comes to fighting for justice and showing moral courage, we don’t have a good track record. We learned growing up that success and failure have everything to do with hard work and nothing to do with history. We freely discuss progressive values with like-minded friends but too often say and do nothing when race-, caste-, gender-, sexuality-, and religion-based discrimination is on open display in our arts community. The songs we sing justly valorize inner peace; far less do they stress justice and moral courage. If we want to do better, we need to change our collective attitude, not only building on our better traditions but also learning new ways of thinking and acting. To this end, we call upon each other:
(1) to exercise moral courage. We acknowledge that silence is complicity. We must have the courage to speak up when we witness injustice, especially when doing so is risky or uncomfortable. This will be hard for a community that rewards deference to received wisdom, but it is essential.
(2) to do our homework. We acknowledge that ignorance is also complicity. Educating ourselves about the world we live in and how we’re connected to it isn’t optional; it’s a basic requirement. We must take the initiative to learn the history of our community and the communities for which we strive to be allies, with the same curiosity and attention to detail we bring to our craft as artists.
(3) to be humble. We acknowledge that the racism faced by Asian Americans isn’t the same as anti-black racism; what is more, we are complicit in anti-black racism. In order to undo this complicity, we must face it head-on and renounce defensiveness. Moreover, we acknowledge the activists, scholars, and artists who have anticipated our compunctions, both those within and outside our community. They’ve been at it longer than we have, and we take their lead as we learn to practice allyship.
As an initial step, we have formed a monthly learning group that will prepare us to take effective action. Each session will focus on the work of one activist, scholar, or artist that advances our understanding of the histories which have shaped our unjust present. It could be a book, a documentary, or a set of articles, recordings, or photographs. In a trial session in late July, we will prioritize devising a format that fosters a spirit of communal learning and a sustained commitment to this initiative. Our discussion will center on Vijay Prashad’s The Karma of Brown Folk, which examines South Asian Americans’ complicity in anti-black racism. We look forward to opening up our monthly discussions to the broader community this fall.
Sincerely,
Shiv Subramaniam
Roopa Mahadevan
Kamalakiran Vinjamuri
Neha Krishamachary
Arun Ramamurthy
Sruti Sarathy
You can contact us at cmjusticeproject@gmail.com