Multimedia

PROCESS: 20 YEARS SINCE

In 2021, to mark 20 years since the attacks on 9/11 and all the vio­lence that fol­lowed it, SAALT pro­duced PROCESS: 20 YEARS SINCE, a mini-docuseries and inter­ac­tive dig­i­tal exhi­bi­tion which ampli­fies our young sib­lings’ calls to process — the past twen­ty years, and the next twen­ty years — in just, trans­for­ma­tive, and uni­fy­ing ways. 

In the past twen­ty years, espe­cial­ly, our com­mu­ni­ties have been repeat­ed­ly processed — by immi­gra­tion sys­tems, gov­ern­ment sur­veil­lance, and white suprema­cy — explic­it­ly to min­i­mize our human­i­ty. But in the face of such vio­lence, we have pre­vailed; SAALT’s own on-going efforts are in response to this forced pro­cess­ing, whether when call­ing for com­mu­ni­ty-led pol­i­cy advo­ca­cy or in-lan­guage resource redistribution.

Today, we stand in good com­pa­ny, wit­ness­ing our community’s young folks in a rad­i­cal recla­ma­tion of process: to make their own sense of iden­ti­ty, dias­po­ra, and lib­er­a­tion in and beyond the con­texts of U.S. impe­ri­al­ism, reli­gious dis­crim­i­na­tion, and prin­ci­pled change-mak­ing. In their sto­ries, we see the next col­lec­tive process­es that await us, which, rather than being state-led or oth­er­ing, are by us and for us.

As change­mak­ers both repeat­ed­ly reborn and cement­ed in his­to­ry, our sto­ry­tellers talk us through their chang­ing rela­tion­ships with U.S. impe­ri­al­ism, dias­poric sol­i­dar­i­ty, and transna­tion­al belong­ing as it relates to 9/11 and all that fol­lowed. process: 20 years since sheds light on our young sib­lings’ devel­op­ing the­o­ries of change, as they sit with the past twen­ty years and look to the next — how will those who come after us use their rela­tion­ships with a post‑9/11 world to advo­cate for justice?

RAISING OUR VOICES: SOUTH ASIAN AMERICANS ADDRESS HATE

In Jan­u­ary 2001, SAALT began work on a 26-minute doc­u­men­tary enti­tled “Rais­ing Our Voic­es: South Asian Amer­i­cans Address Hate.” Pro­duced by Omusha Com­mu­ni­ca­tions and guid­ed by SAALT Board mem­bers and vol­un­teers, the doc­u­men­tary set out to raise aware­ness about the increas­ing hate crimes and bias inci­dents affect­ing South Asian com­mu­ni­ties, espe­cial­ly in the late 1990s. In fact, in 1997 and 1998, South Asians were report­ing the high­est inci­dences of bias-moti­­vat­ed crimes in the broad­er Asian Amer­i­can community.

The doc­u­men­tary fea­tures South Asian sur­vivors of hate crimes and their fam­i­lies in Queens, New Jer­sey, Pitts­burgh and Los Ange­les, as well as orga­niz­ers, lawyers and com­mu­ni­ty advo­cates who mobi­lized the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty and demand­ed jus­tice. When the film was com­plet­ed two weeks before Sep­tem­ber 11th, 2001, lit­tle did we know how the land­scape of the South Asian com­mu­ni­ty in the Unit­ed States would change. With the alarm­ing increase of hate crimes, bias inci­dents, and pro­fil­ing that South Asians, espe­cial­ly those who are Sikh and Mus­lim, endured in the days and months after 9/11, SAALT re-envi­­sioned the doc­u­men­tary and shot addi­tion­al footage.

The doc­u­men­tary has been out since 2002, but you may not have seen it in its entire­ty yet. It has been used in class­rooms and town halls around the coun­try and we encour­age you to engage with it, com­ment on it, and if pos­si­ble, to share it with friends, fam­i­ly, cowork­ers and com­mu­ni­ty members.

Feel free to use this doc­u­men­tary in your com­mu­ni­ty, uni­ver­si­ty, or your per­son­al net­work of col­leagues and friends; email info@saalt.org for more information.

AN AMERICA FOR ALL OF US CAMPAIGN

An Amer­i­ca for All of Us was an ini­tia­tive of South Asian Amer­i­cans Lead­ing Togeth­er (SAALT) in part­ner­ship with mem­bers of the Nation­al Coali­tion of South Asian Orga­ni­za­tions and ally orga­ni­za­tions. The cam­paign marks the 10-year anniver­sary of Sep­tem­ber 11 through doc­u­men­ta­tion, pol­i­cy ini­tia­tives, and com­mu­ni­ty mobilization.