Love and Care for the Asian Community
I’m thinking of so many who are impacted and grieving tonight, holding pain and fear over the shooting in Atlanta. And as we witness the grief of still more people to racist and misogynist violence, the only cure for this unending cycle of grief is action, actions of love not fear, actions against racism, and action for belonging for all.
“The only cure for grief is action.” — George Henry Lewes
With six of eight victims being women of Asian descent, and with the escalated racism against Asians in the last year, this violence hits those of Asian descent particularly hard, deepening already heavy grief, fear, and stress. This also appears to be an anti-female crime, the incidence of which is also on the rise. And I'm mindful of the intersectionality experienced by women of color who carry multiple impacts and stressors. As a community, everything we can do to counter this violence and hate is more important than ever.
Support for the Asian Community
For those of you in the Human Workplace community who are of Asian descent, I speak for us all at A Human Workplace when I say that we see you. We love you, your families, and your communities, and we hold you with great care and empathy. If we can support you in any way, with space to process as a community or in your workplace, or even a one on one, please let me know.
Love is strong and bold.
Sometimes when people first learn about our commitment to making workplaces more loving and human, they assume that the love we advocate is just fluff and dismiss it as sentimental and soft. But nothing could be further from the truth.
Each of you who have taken up the cause of love at work knows that when you stand for love and against fear, you are standing with strength, not weakness, for the dignity of all. When you embody this love it is with a boldness to speak up, to restore and uplift those who've been historically marginalized. We do this in all kinds of ways, by amplifying voices, by making room and questioning policies, and by insisting on more equitable ways of doing business without biases for example. You've been boldly working to uplift those who've been historically marginalized. You know that love is fair, kind, and expansive, not mean, divisive or reductive.
This love as equity and anti-racism may be the most important love work we can do. We can influence individuals and society through workplaces to truly care for every person and to impact systemic change.
What would love do?
For those of us who are leaders, I'm thinking about what we can do right now on our teams to foster love and not fear for those impacted by this situation. It's good to take a moment and get clear on this. Creating fear looks like silence on the subject, expecting business as usual from impacted team members, and ignoring what happened. Creating love looks like this:
Reaching out to our team members to support those of Asian descent who are especially feeling fear, pain, and exhaustion right now.
Letting team members know we are thinking of them.
Offering a listening ear.
Asking them what support they might need.
Giving grace, room, and time to process.
Rallying as a work-family offering care and compassion, encouraging our managers. supervisors and team members to be sensitive and caring to their colleagues of Asian descent too.
That's a start on what love would do. What would you add?
And for the long term, love means renewing our commitment to actively work against racism and for equity and belonging.
May we double down on the ways we fostering conversations that are humanizing, empathetic, and connecting.
May those of us who are White listen and believe People of Color when they tell us about their experiences.
May we speak up against racism and take actions to dismantle systems of oppression that are insidious in organizations in policy, process, and culture.
May we replace these with practices that create equity, belonging, and respect for all.
Truly, lives depend on it.
