Helping families talk about anti-Blackness đź’Ś Hema Karunakaram & Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani, Letters for Black Lives
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Episode at a glance:
GUEST: Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani and Hema Karunakaram
COMMUNITY: Letters for Black Lives
HOSTS: Bailey Richardson & Kevin Huynh
“Mom, Dad, Uncle, Auntie, Grandfather, Grandmother: We need to talk.You may not have grown up around people who are Black, but I have. Black people are a fundamental part of my life: they are my friends, my classmates and teammates, my roommates, my family. Today, I’m scared for them.” - Letters for Black Lives
Show Notes
In 2016, Philando Castile, a 32-year-old black man in Minnesota, was shot by a police officer during a routine traffic stop. Philando’s girlfriend streamed the aftermath on Facebook Live and incorrectly identified the police officer as “Chinese.” Christina Xu, a 28-year-old Chinese-American, tweeted a call for other Asian Americans in support of Black Lives Matter. She encouraged them to talk with their families about why they stand in solidarity with other people of color. Sparked by this tweet, thousands would convene online to collaboratively write letters about anti-Blackness to their elders in 23 languages. They called the effort Letters for Black Lives.
When the death of George Floyd reignited an urgent conversation around Blackness in 2020, Adrienne Mahsa Varkiani and Hema Karunakaram raised their hands to push the project forward. Adrienne, a first generation Iranian-Ameican, started to rewrite the original 2016 Letter for Black Lives as a guide for conversation with her family. She revisited the Letters for Black Lives Slack group and asked if anyone would want to join her in this effort. Hema was one of the members of the group that volunteered again.
We talked with Adrienne and Hema about what it was like to collaborate with hundreds of people from around the world to come up with one clear message and bring this message to life with their elders.
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