13 Names: Atatiana Jefferson, Kuanchung Kao + 11

Content warning: mention of injury or death by violence.

Kuanchung Kao and Atatiana Jefferson lived on opposite sides of the country and died 22 years apart. They were both professionals in STEM fields. Atatiana had a biology degree from Xavier University and worked in pharmaceutical equipment sales; Kuanchung was a microbiologist working in quality control. Both lost their lives after neighbors summoned police to their residences.

Fask masks from artists / businesses of color

This gift-giving season, considering supporting businesses of color and keeping your communities safe at the same time. 

B. Yellowtail - for every mask purchased, one is donated to Native communities in need

Cordillera Masks - one-of-a-kind face masks made in the mountain regions of Abra, in the peaks of the Cordilleras. The Itnegs (or Tingguian) are known for their pre-colonial tradition of hand looming fabric.

Daily Malong - Empowering weavers in the Philippines

DIOP - Detroit-based apparel company founded by a Nigerian American 

Eliaichi Kimaro  - American artist of Tanzanian and Korean heritage. Use Product filter near top left of product list to filter down to face masks.

Face the Future /Fear the Kids - a collaboration between BornxRaised, Seeding Sovereignty, and Suay.  For each mask that you buy,  one is donated to Indigenous youth and the leftover dollars go Seeding Sovereignty’s ongoing mutual aid work.

I AM - by Bruce Franks Jr., community activist in Missouri

Ifugao Nation - The social enterprise arm of the Save the Ifugao Terraces Movement. Purchases support the livelihood of craftspeople and farmers in the Ifugao region.

Masks R Us -  Philadelphia-based, Black-owned, Muslim-owned small business

Narra Studio - Filipinx American company bringing  the artistry of the Philippines to the Filipinx diaspora. Proceeds are re-invested into their partner artisan communities.

Nina Made It - Black fiber artist based in the UK

Tufafii - face masks from Nigeria-based luxury brand

Where You Are, Co - mask maker based in Georgia, GA. Standing against the rise in anti-Asian hate by handmaking masks in traditional fabrics.

Zandra - face masks from NY-based bath-and-body line started by 19-year-old entrepreneur Zandra. 

Many thanks to all the friends who helped put this list together. You know who you are. :-)

Disclaimer: Wolfbery Studio LLC does not monitor or review the content of the third party sites listed above and therefore advises you that your access by link to third-party sites is at your own risk. We provide these links solely for convenience, and do not endorse the contents or purposes of any site that we link to. We are not responsible for the accuracy of information on such sites. We are also not responsible for any communications or incidents arising from a reader accessing a 3rd party site through this blog.

Do you know if your voter registration has been purged? (Animation)

Do you know if you have been purged from the voter rolls? from Wolfberry Studio on Vimeo.

13 Names: Sureshbhai Patel, Wangsheng Leng + 11

Content warning: mention of injury or death by violence.

In 2015, Sureshbhai Patel was detained by police while on a walk around his neighborhood. A neighbor called the police on him, describing him as a "black man". Video footage showed that the 57-year-old grandfather from India was NOT resisting police. An officer seriously injured Patel's neck in a needless takedown. Patel was partially paralyzed and had to learn to walk again. In 2017, police broke the neck of Wangsheng Leng, a 66-year-old with Alzheimer's, while restraining him in his own home. Leng was taken to the hospital and died a month later. Both Leng and Patel did not speak English; their unfortunate encounters had been attributed in part to their inability to communicate with police officers. But many other unarmed individuals with no language barrier with police officers have died in similar encounters:

Thirteen Names: Charleena Lyles , Tommy Le + 11

Content warning: mention of violence and death.

Yvette Smith and Charleena Lyles both called the police to their homes. Yvette needed help with resolving a domestic dispute between two other people. Charleena was reporting a burglary. Both were killed by the public servants who were paid by their tax dollars to protect them.

Wolfberry Studio's Mask Collection

Check out these mask designs and more!

Proceeds from mask sales will be donated to POC-led organizations serving their communities' needs during the COVID-19 pandemic.

I already know of 9 different families within 3 degrees of separation who had lost people to Covid-19: a volunteer in my community died, a friend's relative died, a neighbor's friend's elders passed away...

But I see people getting progressively more careless wrt social distancing and mask wearing. :-(

13 Names: Srinivas Kuchibhotla, Vincent Chin + 11

Inspired by Anirvan Chatterjee's article The $205 million industry that helped murder ‪Srinivas Kuchibhotla.

Content note: mention of death by violence

The rings contain names of Asians in America who were murdered in cases of mistaken ethnic identity - South Asians shot by someone who assumed that they were Arabs, Indians killed by someone who thought that they were Iranians, a Vietnamese American murdered by someone who assumed that they were Japanese... You can find the names of more Asian American hate crime victims at 35 Years After Vincent Chin's Murder, How Has America Changed?.

The Persistence of Friends

In appreciation of the organizations that worked towards the release of gay Nigerian asylum seeker Udoka Nweke, including, but not limited to:

Black LGBTQ+ Migrant Project of Transgender Law Center
Black Alliance for Just Immigration
Freedom for Immigrants
Haitian Bridge Alliance

Full list is here.

Nweke fled homophobic violence in Nigeria. He asked for asylum at the San Ysidro port of entry in California in December 2016 and was detained by ICE immediately. He was put in immigration detention for nearly 2 years. Because of his orientation, Nweke was subjected to violence and verbal threats in Adelanto Detention Center. He made 2 suicide attempts during his long detention.

Nweke was released in September 2018 pending his asylum appeal.  Public Law Center will continue to represent him in his asylum case.

Asylum seekers released on parole often have to wait months for their work permit and have no income to rely on. As Udoka enters next stage of his asylum process in the US, the #FreeUdoka team asks you to consider making a gift to his survival fund.

Illustration is available on Creative Action Network.

Romance in Rain City

ShaCorrie Wimbley, a Kansas transplant, and Saja Tunkara, an asylum seeker from Sierra Leone, met in Seattle in 2007. ShaCorrie recalls her initial response to Saja, the first foreign man who tried to chat her up. "I was not very nice." But Saja did impress her as kind and patient. "He called every day for a year until I answered the phone."

Fast forward 10 years to 2017. ShacCorrie and Saja are now married, with 2 children. ShaCorrie says of her husband. "He cooks, cleans, does laundry, makes the kids lunches, and gives them baths. I never have to ask for help. He just did it. We have built a life together. We have been through so many things that would have destroyed any family..."

ShaCorrie applied for US permanent residency for her spouse, but the petition was denied. They decided to wait for the outcome of his years-long pending asylum case, which was also later denied. On top of that, Saja was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and a neck tumor.

Saja was scheduled for a tumor-removal operation in January 2018. But because he had remained in the U.S. to support his family after his asylum case was denied, ICE took him into custody shortly before his scheduled operation. ICE did not allow him to keep his hospital appointment. In the weeks that followed, a local organization, NWDC Resistance, received calls from [inside the detention center] saying, 'There’s a guy with tumors on his neck that we can see, he shouldn’t be here, he should in a hospital.'"

It was not until April 2018, after spending months in pain, that Saja was allowed to have his operation, by which time nerve damage had led to permanent decreased mobility in his arm.

Saja was deported in October 2018, after spending more than 9 months in detention, during which time he acquired vision and breathing problems, in addition to more tumors. ICE did not allow him his wife and children to say goodbye to him. The Tunkaras miss each other terribly.

Family

In solidarity with the parents who are trying to reunite with their children after being tricked or coerced into leaving their children behind when they were deported from the US.

In memory of Marco Antonio Muñoz, a Honduran father who was separated from his wife and 3-year-old son after crossing the United States-Mexico border to seek asylum.

Mr Muñoz became distraught after his son was ripped from his arms. Later, Muñoz was found dead in a Texas jail, reportedly by suicide.

In support of the organizations that are working hard to reunite families, including:

• Al Otro Lado
• ACLU
• KIND
• Womens' Refugee Commission
• Justice in Motion
• Institute for Women in Migration

Bridge of Love

A shout out to all the organizations and individuals that have been working to reunite families.

National Bail Out, which has been working on the #FreeBlackMamas campaign to bail black mothers out of pretrial detention and reunite them with their families. Their work addressesthe issue of lower-income people accused of non-violent offenses (guilt not yet proven) languishing in jail for lengthy periods waiting for their trial, while wealthier people accused of more serious crimes can get out of jail while awaiting trial, because of their ability to post bail.

ColorOfChange, part of the National Bail Out coalition. ColorOfChange has also been a leader in the #NoTechForICE protests against family separation at the border.

Black Alliance for Just Immigration, also part of the National Bail Out coalition, whose intersectional work engaging African American and black immigrant communities to organize and advocate for justice flies in the face of the divide-and-conquer narrative of outsiders who spread the false idea that immigrant issues and black issues are separate from each other and compete for attention. These old tactics to prevent communities of color in the Americas from allying with each other date back to the 16th century, when European colonists adopted policies to separate Natives and Africans and use them to fight each other. (See Chapter 3 of "Black Indians" by William Loren Katz.)

More organizations are listed in the comments.

Available on RedBubble.

Featured on Creative Action Network

Let's show some love to Puerto Rico

My friend Gloria, a Puerto Rican artist/scholar, was doing research in P.R. when Hurricane Maria cut all power to the island in September. She was able to return to mainland U.S. safely after a number of very challenging weeks.

Puerto Rico is on a long road to recovery after being hit by Hurricanes Irma and Maria. Please consider donating or volunteering to help Puerto Rico. Volunteer lawyers, tech experts and medical staff are needed.

Despite numerous stories of people inside Puerto Rico selflessly helping their neighbors, some people have put out a false narrative that Puerto Ricans are not doing anything to help themselves and are only sitting around waiting for the U.S. government to help them. (We've probably heard the same false narrative applied to other groups of people, but that's a topic for another time.)

If compassion cannot move us to extend a hand to Puerto Rico, perhaps self-interest can motivate us. Puerto Rico is one of the world's biggest centers for pharmaceutical manufacturing. It supplies the rest of the U.S. with medicines.  Now the medicine supply in the U.S. may be impacted by the disasters that struck Puerto Rico..

Btw, do check out Gloria's artwork on Etsy. There are some fun holiday cards that you can color. And other cool stuff too.

"Buried" by Injunuity

Buried, a great animated short about the shameless destruction of sacred native sites by corporate interests in the Bay Area.

Baby cemetery destroyed to make room for movie theater and parking garage.

The Christmas Story as a Refugee Story

Hernan Bogado's award-winning ad campaign "Let Them In":