‘As Black people, we are acutely aware that silence perpetuates violence’

Disparities Experienced by Black Women and Girls Task Force issues statement on recent Atlanta area killings

by the Disparities Experienced by Black Women and Girls Task Force | Special to Presbyterian News Service

This month’s killings in and around Atlanta have led Presbyterians to stand alongside their Asian American Pacific Islander siblings. (Photo by Ronny Sison via Unsplash)

LOUISVILLE — We, the Disparities Experienced by Black Women and Girls Task Force stand with our Asian American Pacific Islander (AAPI) siblings as they continue to experience the spiritual and emotional violence of racism and misogyny from the recent Atlanta murders where: Soon Chung Park 박순정, Hyun Jung Grant [김]현정, Sun Cha Kim 김선자, Yong Ae Yue 유영애, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiaojie Tan 谭小洁, and Daoyou Feng 冯道友 lost their lives.

As Black people, we are acutely aware that silence perpetuates violence and we offer this statement to condemn the white supremist toxic theology and ideology that dehumanizes people of color in general, and in this instance, specifically AAPI women.  The fetishization, hypersexualization, and invisibility of AAPI women is a characteristic of white supremacy that finds its footing by denying the Imago Dei.  Simply put, this is a sin against God and an affront to all humanity.

The Task Force for the Disparities of Black Women and Girls is charged with lifting up the particular ways that this occurs against Black women and girls and we continue with that fight, knowing that the path of liberation for Black women and girls informs the liberation of all oppressed peoples.  In the words of Audre Lorde, “I am not free while any woman is unfree, even when her shackles are very different from my own.”

In solidarity,

Rev. Kerri Allen

Rev. Ashley DeTar Birt

Deacon Samantha Davis

Rev. Lakesha Bradshaw-Easter

Elder Carmen Alexander