Celebrating Women’s Resilience Today & Everyday
Wednesday, March 31st, 2021
This International Women’s Month it has been challenging to feel celebratory. Or, rather, it feels necessary to highlight and celebrate something very specific - women’s resiliency.
Now entering our second year of pandemic life, and dealing with the collective grief, isolation and trauma of it all, it’s important to note that those most affected have also been some of the most vulnerable in our communities - women, immigrants, and people of color.
As the dominant narrative pushes us to maintain “normal life,” when nothing is normal, the additional burden and labor to achieve this has fallen primarily onto women. Almost overnight, the intensity, responsibilities and demands of being the default caretakers and providers for our families increased significantly. Our work became essential or remote or unstable, childcare and education became digital, and our health and safety became tenuous and uncertain. It has been overwhelming and relentless.
Simultaneously, we are in the midst of a renewed social and racial justice uprising, in response to years of trauma at the hands of the former administration and their blatant efforts in upholding white supremacy and patriarchy. While their oppressive attacks on women, communities of color, immigrants, and other marginalized groups brought many of us together, since the start of the pandemic there has also been a sharp increase in hate crimes and violence directed against the Asian and Pacific Islander communities. And among those numbers, AAPI women were twice as likely to be targeted.
While upsetting, it is not surprising, as gender and racial violence are usually intertwined. The fetishization of Asian women has long been used to justify racism and sexual violence. It upholds the tenants of patriarchy, imperialism and white supremacy, and has allowed many to feel entitled to Asian women’s bodies and lives. And for Korean women, there is a collective and sometimes unconscious trauma, having been enslaved and forced into servicing oppressive outside military men as “comfort” women. A handful of women who survived this form of collective degradation still live today.
The issues are not new, and neither are the mainstream solutions that have repeatedly failed to consider the lived experiences of the most vulnerable members of society. To create real change it is time to reimagine everything.
And thankfully, it is already happening. Primarily led by women of color, who understand the importance and necessity of unity and community, their resiliency has offered new solutions that prioritize all intersections of humanity, make space for the most vulnerable, and focus on systems of equality and care over the outdated systems rooted in white supremacy and patriarchal ideals.
This focus on community and care mirrors KRC’s own mission to empower low-income, immigrant, Asian American and Pacific Islander, and communities of color in Southern California, and proves that genuine change is possible when women, immigrants, and people of color are prioritized and supported and able to improve not just their lives, but their communities, as well. The work is hard and seemingly unending, but when we come together in support of one another, we can make things happen. And we at KRC are committed to doing this work not just in March for International Women’s Month, but to do this work every day to truly honor all of us - women, immigrants, and people of color.
Thank you for being part of our journey!