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Statement of Solidarity
UniGlo stands in support of the #BlackLivesMatter movement and members of the black community. We are a group of students who have grown up across international schools in Bangkok, Thailand, and attend higher education institutions across the United States, Canada, and the United Kingdom. We are all constantly trying to educate ourselves and others about the prevalence of racism in the communities we have become a part of in college, and want to use this platform to further inform our friends, families, and members in our UniGlo community.
Here are some resources we have gathered that we think may be helpful for students with similar backgrounds to initiate and engage in conversations surrounding the #BlackLivesMatter movement and beyond. We also want to acknowledge that the ways we all choose to continue to understand the situation and its related issues will look different.
We have experienced the feeling of not being able to navigate your place in this discussion and the movement in its entirety.
We can empathize with students being unsure of how to best educate themselves and take appropriate steps to further this conversation.
We understand the difficulties that may arise in trying to articulate issues that may not neatly fit into the political culture and climate of your home communities.
We want to acknowledge that these resources are not comprehensive; our learning and reflecting should continue beyond the scope of these pieces and posts, and we hope that these can serve as relevant and empowering starting points.
There is a Facebook page for Supporters of Black Lives Matter in Bangkok. There is also a #BlackLivesMatter Carrd page, explaining the details George Floyd's death, the current situation, why not #AllLivesMatter?, petitions, and donating, in Thai. For exploring ways to initiate conversations about anti-Blackness, consider visiting the Letter for Black Lives project in Thai (as images here), or in English/other languages.
It can be hard to convey why the Black Lives Matter movement matters to your family or friends who may not be as familiar with the systemic subjugation that black people have faced in the US and around the world. One approach that you may find effective is to try and meet your family where they’re at: introduce an example of activism to highlight and overcome oppression closer to home. We can use examples as a means for others to empathize with the discrimination that black people disproportionately face. To be clear, it isn't productive to exactly equate different movements as each has its own context and meaning, but highlighting a shared sense of injustice and struggle can contribute to a greater understanding and solidarity. Consider reading:
An opinion piece on colourism in Thailand explains the relationship between issues going on in the United States and Thai culture
Professor Rajesh Sampath on the similarities between the Dalit movement in South Asia and Black Lives Matter