everything’s fine with Jenny Yang is your weekly reminder to find joy in an unjust world. jenny’s thoughts and stories about love, grief, weird shit, and doing what we can to feel okay. this thing may morph into something else. who knows? i hope to touch your heart and tickle your sphincters. and if you like it, please share this with a friend and subscribe and comment. <3 jenny (insta, twitter)
I’m writing this on Wednesday, March 16th and I’m trying not to be bummed out. One year ago eight people were murdered in Atlanta (six of whom were Asian women) and one year later we are still seeing disgusting acts of anti-Asian hate against us (especially against women and the elderly). It’s hard to see a recent headline like “Man Hit Woman in the Head 125 Times Because She Was Asian, Officials Say” and not let that pierce my raw Scorpio heart.
How did you react a year ago? After the Atlanta Spa shootings, I was low key depressed for like an entire month. Barely got anything done. I was so f*cking angry. Angry about the sick obsessive racism that makes Asian women targets. I was ready to punch people in the face when they would say that this “wasn’t a hate crime and to call it a hate crime would be a disgrace to true hate crimes” and “it was just a religious kid who hated himself for desiring sex workers.” (Yup. Those were actual quotes by older white dudes that I used to work for.)
I was not going to be gaslit by our abusers f*ck that. I knew what I was seeing. We all felt it in our bones. So I leaned on our Asian American communities and allies to heal. We raised money, donated, marched, advocated and tried to practice some hope. My Asian friends bought tasers and took self-defense classes. I heard through family members that Asian gun hobbyists were secretly patrolling Orange County in an attempt to defend against the assaults. But is any of that enough?
I don’t know the way to end anti-Asian violence but what I do know is WE NEED MORE MOTHERF*CKIN’ ABBY ENERGY.
SIDENOTE: Obviously the rest of this will be spoiler-y. You’ve been warned If you haven’t seen “Turning Red” here’s the Wiki summary: “Set in Toronto, Ontario in 2002, Turning Red follows Meilin "Mei" Lee, a 13-year-old Chinese-Canadian student who transforms into a giant Red Panda when she gets into a state of strong emotion.”
I mean I identify with Mei Mei A LOT but my absolute HEART is Abby. ABBY IS THE TRUTH. THE CULTURE REQUIRES AN ABBY SPINOFF! Would love to see a spinoff of MOST of the characters tbh: Abby, Priya, ALL of the AUNTIES. Saw this fanfic queer reimagining of the Turning Red gang from Tumblr and was like obviously many of us had the same idea. Here’s my fanfic inspo moment for a very queer Priya spinoff…
Abby is pure chaotic good energy. She’s dorky and intense and she says exactly how she feels. She’s the ultimate hype team and she will curse you out in Korean if you come incorrect. You always need an Abby on your side when shit goes down or if you require a level of Machiavellian leadership for whatever the homies need. In the movie, Abby is the enforcer to keep out Mei’s bully from patronizing their side hustle. She’s the one who counts the money for the whole scheme. Also she and I are both what some would call “food-motivated.”
And for no reason other than…I dunno…fun? Here are two ABSOLUTELY IDENTICAL ABBY MOOD BOARDS:
My love for Abby is not just because I used to look just like her (“used to” she says?). But I love Abby because her scheming ass mind and intensity is how I felt at that age but I totally had to hold back! Back then none of my friends were free and open about their weirdness or horniness! (Thanks to immigrant and religious repression) My friends all wanted to “be popular” and conform so badly. I tried that for a while…and then I couldn’t anymore, much to my social punishment.
The anti-Asian violence and the murder of George Floyd Jr. during the pandemic has prompted a collective consciousness-raising event for a lot of Asian Americans. Apolitical corporate Yelp and boba Asians out here yelling “STOP ASIAN HATE!” WHAT!? They were finally realizing they needed to have the language to understand what was happening to our community - beyond just being concerned about not getting promoted and breaking through the “bamboo ceiling.” Every damn Asian comedian I knew who never talked about their race before were all of a sudden talking to me about Cathy Park Hong’s “Minor Feelings.” Y’all our minor feelings became MAJOR in a very short amount of time. More Asian Americans than ever wanted to do something so we had to learn quickly how to organize our new activists while not feeding into us-versus-them mentalities or the Anti-Black racism that does more harm than good. So did we learn to do that? Ima say it. We got a lot more work to do.
Let’s channel that ABBY ENERGY into strengthening our communities (especially low-income service workers, sex workers, and the elderly in our communities) and building solidarity with Black, Brown and Indigenous allies. That is the only way we can all get through this.
Just listen to the words of Abby herself (link: supercut video of Abby’s lines from the movie).
“Let’s burn this place to the ground!”
“Fight the power!”
“Destroy her with your big butt!”
“You the bomb!”
(Full body smushing against Red Panda belly fur) “Oh yeeeaaah. That’s the stuff.”
We have no choice but to stan Abby and be Abby. It’s how we will be stronger. How we will survive. The villain is not each other, especially the others who face racism, sexism and all the other isms but whose suffering plays out in different ways. It’s always white supremacy, always (yeah big word) but it’s the isms and systems that we all participate in, not just white people. Let’s take inspiration from Abby and destroy white supremacy WITH OUR BIG BUTT!
This is just a start. These are three New York City-based organizations we can support. They are working directly to organize the most vulnerable in our Asian communities.
W.O.W. Project: femme, queer, and trans led community initiative using art & activism to grow and protect NYC Chinatown’s creative culture in a time of rapid change. linktr.ee/wowprojectnyc
Red Canary Song: Organizing with migrant & Asian sex workers in NYC. Rights, not raids or rescue. Anti-trafficking, Pro-decrim. Transnational. linktr.ee/redcanarysong
Asian Am Feminist Collective: nyc-based asian american feminists in solidarity organizing, politicizing & talking back #aafeminism linktr.ee/aafc.nyc
K byeeeeeee see you next week! I hope you enjoyed this! If you do please comment and share and stuff! <3 - jenny
f*ck the anti-asian haters. we need more "abby" energy.