Take Action Now. That’s my Lao American perspective on this past weekend’s White Supremacist “Unite the Right” march in Charlottesville, Virginia. And yes, this is a Lao American issue. Our Lao American communities are made up of immigrants, refugees, LGBTQ people, and people who are very visibly not White – aka demographics that Klansmen and Neo-Nazis seek to disenfranchise and violently harm.  Let’s take action so that we protect each other from violent White Supremacy, and continue the work so that we can fight our own marginalization.

As many of you have probably seen, a group of Alt Righters (a euphemism for White Supremacists) from across the country descended upon the University of Virginia’s campus to hold flaming torches, give Nazi salutes, and intimidate marginalized people – all with a permit. As someone who has helped organize marches in solidarity with Black Lives Matter and similar movements, I can tell you that getting a city permit for a rally can be very difficult, and non-violent Black protesters are often treated far more brutally than violent White counter protesters  by viciously unsympathetic police forces. Yet here we are, watching White Supremacists who are willing to mow innocent people down with a car marching with the permission of the law. Three people are dead and countless were harmed during the attack.

Photo: Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images

This is why we must take action now, while active White Supremacists only have the organization of fringe radicals, and while passive White Supremacists are still weighing their options. Understand that other movements of active hatred also started as small fringe groups. They were allowed to simmer slightly off the radar and lasted long enough to find a catastrophe that brought them to power (cough, Hitler and the Nazis, cough). Also understand that Hitler’s movement of hatred was never elected, and had to grapple for power against Germany’s elected government. Many (including me) say that the US is being administered by a President aligned with White Supremacy, so imagine the damage that White Supremacists are capable of in our current climate. It’s time for us to take action.

Whether your activism looks like marching, petitioning social institutions, disrupting social institutions, gathering money and resources, learning/teaching various forms of armed and unarmed self-defense, or using various platforms to raise people’s consciousness – please act now. And please do so publicly. This way, we can help inspire other people to take action as well. As a Lao American activist, I can tell you that I would have felt much more grounded in my work if I was able to easily find out about the great Lao American activism that happens.

Photo: Joshua Roberts/Reuters

If you’re interested in engaging in any social justice work, I also have some rhetorical blurbs to help you keep focused. From my experiences in activism/organizing, I know that it’s easy to have your personal momentum fall apart when you encounter criticism from friends or uncomfortable situations. Remember, just as badly as you want to engage in the struggle for freedom and equality, people will want to criticize and dissuade you. Hopefully these ideas can help keep you grounded.

1. Social justice cannot rely on the law.

You may hear naysayers tell you that the best course of action is to allow established societal institutions handle White Supremacists – i.e. “let the law do its job.” There are many issues with that idea, including that it completely ignores how White Supremacy manifests in our elected/appointed government officials, our police forces , and even our Constitution . Also, when government officials don’t want to act, are you supposed to sit and wait until the next election cycle to see justice? Are you supposed to call the police on the government? Furthermore, are you supposed to call the police on the police when they don’t act justly?

No, because we can engage in activism to keep our institutions accountable. Even our “objective” Supreme Court has to be held accountable by activists. When SCOTUS decided to grant marriage rights to same-sex couples in Obergefell v. Hodges in 2015, it wasn’t because same-sex marriage had magically become more moral or beneficial to society, it was because of social pressure led largely by LGBTQ activists. Not to mention the fact that SCOTUS upheld slavery for 75 years – another reason why we can’t always trust civil institutions to do our social justice work for us.

Whether your activism looks like marching, petitioning social institutions, disrupting social institutions, gathering money and resources, learning/teaching various forms of armed and unarmed self-defense, or using various platforms to raise people’s consciousness – please act now. And please do so publicly. This way, we can help inspire other people to take action as well. As a Lao American activist, I can tell you that I would have felt much more grounded in my work if I was able to easily find out about the great Lao American activism that happens.

If you’re interested in engaging in any social justice work, I also have some rhetorical blurbs to help you keep focused. From my experiences in activism/organizing, I know that it’s easy to have your personal momentum fall apart when you encounter criticism from friends or uncomfortable situations. Remember, just as badly as you want to engage in the struggle for freedom and equality, people will want to criticize and dissuade you. Hopefully these ideas can help keep you grounded.

2. People don’t need their anger calmed; they need their concerns validated.

You may hear naysayers accuse you and other anti-racist activists of being angry. These naysayers are in many ways correct, but they should not dismiss people’s anger as invalid. Quite frankly, if the idea of people dying from White Supremacy doesn’t make you angry, then I won’t waste my time. When people invalidate your anger, remember that people’s lives are literally on the line.

You may also hear the people that you organize with say things like “f*** the police.” If this makes you want to chime in with something starting with the words “not all cops,” consider pausing for a moment. Understand that people speak harshly out of anger when they are hurt and watching traumatic events on the news, and sometimes harsh statements help people process painful emotions. Also ask yourself if saying, “not all cops are bad” is going to magically change the way that police kill hundreds of people each year (and face next to no consequences for killing unarmed Black people). I doubt it.

You might also hear organizers talk about armed self-defense or being more aggressive. I can understand this sounds like something you want to write off as angry, scary, or over the top. You may not agree with these ideas, and you should feel free to debate and critique these ideas – but please do not write these ideas off as if great minds like Malcolm X, Angela Davis, Kwame Ture, Yuri Kochiyama, and even Nelson Mandela have not espoused them too. Challenge yourself to research ideas you are unfamiliar with before dismissing them.

3. The burden of maintaining morality should not be on minorities, but on White Supremacists who breed immorality.

You may hear people say that by resisting and protesting White Supremacists, you will somehow “be just as bad as them.” Them being the White Supremacists, comically enough. Well, the fact that you oppose their racism and bigotry already makes you “better” than them. The fact that you are willing to disrupt society for your beliefs makes you “better” than them. Although Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. didn’t throw any punches, he did disrupt meetings, he did disrupt businesses, and he did disrupt traffic. As far as I’m concerned, blocking a highway to force society to wake up to society’s bigoted violence is “better” than the inaction of tuning out the world’s problems and effecting no social change. This is because the disruption seeks to stop violence and oppression, and the inaction lets them fester.

Also keep in mind that for many people working against White Supremacy, being “better” than White Supremacists – or anybody – is not a concern. Many activists and organizers (like myself) do not aim to prove our worth or our amiability to any arbitrary authority. Instead, we seek to amass enough social, community, and political momentum to prevent White Supremacists from unleashing their evil.

Honestly, if a person would prefer politeness and/or law-abidance to the quelling of White Supremacist violence, then it is that person who is “no better than them.”

4. Nurture

This isn’t exactly rhetoric, but please nurture the people in your life. There is a lot of pain in the world, from newsworthy events to the little problems in everyone’s lives that pile up.

-Timothy Singratsomboune, tsing1991@gmail.com