• Show Notes

Dear Reader,

I and others have been noting, with a breaking heart, the rise in violence against Asian Americans. Senseless, brutal, upsetting, bigoted violence against innocent strangers seemingly everywhere, including in the most supposedly progressive cities in our country. Asian Americans have been slashed, sucker-punched, and shot. Last week, six women of Asian descent were murdered in Atlanta. More horror and heartbreak.

As an Asian American myself, I am angry and sad. But every American should feel that way. This week, I want to use this space to bring you the words of some eloquent Asian American voices, which deserve your attention more than ever. I hope you find many of these reflections as moving and eye-opening as I did:

(R.O. Kwon, “A Letter to My Fellow Asian Women Whose Hearts Are Still Breaking,” Vanity Fair, 3/19/2021) Lately, every time I’ve heard about, read about, or encountered a fresh incident of hatred, the quiet refrain belling in my head like a chant, or a dirge, is: our hearts are breaking. I’ve found this frustrating, for who does it help, what action is involved in having a breaking heart? I’m listening more, though, today, to this refrain. Minutes after I first read about the attacks, I started thinking about what I should do, how I could be useful. Maybe I need to take another minute, maybe several minutes, to sit with this breaking heart.