Instagram story viewer> @teabuoy> Tagged

teabuoy

@teabuoy

10.1K

followers

2435

following

Writer. Artist. The Best We Could Do. A Different Pond. Former refugee. Viet Nam, Cali, NYC, New Orleans

POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED

Impromptu NOLA Viet krewe get together for Tết Trung Thu 🥮🌝🏮- and @tuan.andrew.nguyen + @thaogetstaydown + @ma.rion.hill film project. Love this community!

143

1

Recently there has been an uptick in violent assaults in Oakland, particularly on Chinese seniors. This a moment to remind ourselves what we have been saying for decades or just learned last summer- police don’t keep us safe. Reposts from @teabuoy and image descriptions in alt text, DM us if you’d like the text for reposting. #Oakland When Oakland Chinatown asks for walking patrols, cameras, and parking for essential workers to address spike in crime but mayor Libby Schaaf uses it as an opportunity to blast city council efforts to #defundThePolice last summer, that’s wedge politics.

800

4

💯 #RP via @michellekimkim @equipto_415 @teabuoy @terisasiagatonu @dr.farima_

“Unity & solidarity are our strongest currency against interpersonal racism. We keep us safe” 🔥 @globalizejustice

I invite us all to dive into the conversation with our loved ones to condemn anti-Asian violence. We have much much healing & restoration work to do... but in this moment, it starts with deep dialogue & progresses thru collective actions at all levels. Solutions will never come from the state. They will, and have always, come from the people.

🙏🏽 Vicha Ratanapakdee
🎨: @jdschang

249

6

It has been a painful week for my community— we have seen repeated videos of racialized violence that have resurfaced trauma— the historical invisibility of being Asian American in this country to the whiplash of hyper visibility from a racialized pandemic... I honestly have not had capacity to share my personal thoughts here because it’s just been too much to process, while trying to *shield my young children from the growing fear and grief within me. All I know is that my body has been in physical shock, weeping throughout the day, pain experienced in my body, and spiraling anxiety.

When I was six years old, my parents lost their business during the LA Uprisings, which set off a series of devastating events for my family. I found this out only a few years ago— my parents had also “shielded” me from pain and trauma through silencing their own. When they joined in the Black Lives Matter protests last summer, they voiced to my sister and me that they had clarity about what happened in 1992– the tensions between the Black and Korean community at that time were created by systems of white power and supremacy pitting two oppressed communities against one another. Even if they didn’t know this 29 years ago, they could see it clearly now, and they marched and shouted out, “No justice, no peace!” alongside our Black siblings believing our freedom as communities of color were tied together.

With the surge of violence enacted on Asian elders this week, I called my parents to ask them to please take care, and to not go outside. They spoke back to me in Korean, “Why are you saying these things? We are okay, we are okay,” trying to reassure *me of my fear when in fact— it was *their safety I was trying to gain reassurance for. My parents, in their sixties— are still trying to *shield me from experiencing pain on their behalf. But this is just how they are and have always been... And I see the faces of Asian elders who were racially targeted this week mirrored in my parents and grandparents… Those who spent their lives shielding, protecting, building a legacy of hope for their children & grandchildren… brutally attacked, senselessly murdered. (Cont. in comments👇🏼)

783

90

Because my stories are filled with Black History Month posts, I’m making a post so this won’t get lost in the sauce. I know how incredibly frustrating it was over the summer when people seemed to only care about police brutality & racism toward the Black community after it became an internet trend, so I feel the need to speak up.

This year, due our former President’s inflammatory racist comments about Chinese people being responsible for COVID, this country has seen a massive increase in hate crimes against Asians. We’ve seen Asian people, particularly the elderly, attacked. Last week a young Asian man having a mental health crises was shot by the police. The media has generally been silent. Here are some images, I’ve seen posted that I felt like sharing. I challenge you to do your research and use your voice to make someone else aware of what’s going on.

Also, before y’all even start with the whataboutisms, we can fight Anti-Blackness in the Asian community, Anti-Asian sentiment in the Black community, and racism directed at Asian people all at the same time. It’s not the oppression olympics. If you come in my comments with that, here is your warning that you’re getting blocked on sight.

Historically our communities’ struggles come from the same root of White Supremacy. Racism directed from each community toward the other is also a direct result of White Supremacy (we’ll be talking about that next week in my stories. 😊).

Also, here are some Asian people who I learn from on Instagram. Give them a follow if you feel so inclined. @teachandtransform @hownottotravellikeabasicbitch @heyberna @the.mixed.slp
@phuonglienpalafox @michellekimkim

116

4

Oakland is our home. We got us. Come join us not to speak for us.

My mom is an Oakland Chinatown OG. When I was a little kid, she’d send me all over Chinatown to get things and all I would have to say is, I am Chi Kim’s (Big Sister Kim) daughter. That’s what Oakland Chinatown was like in the 80s and 90s. Vibrant and full of life - generations of us were out there taking care of each other and in community. The city looks extremely different from what it was like when I was a kid. Families and businesses in Chinatown have been priced out. Our communities are struggling in ways many of us have never seen. Many of us want to restore the liveliness of the #Oakland that so many of our generation grew up loving. This weekend we heard people tell stories about what it was like to run up and down Oakland streets - all over Chinatown. Joyfully and rambunctiously. And we heard stories about being racially profiled by police - for decades. We heard about ways people are working together - unpaid - to clean up illegal dumping, graffiti, and just plain old neglect. I grew up and have lived all over the Bay (and more) but Oakland will always be my home. I’m so over all of these random people coming up trying to take up this issue as theirs without knowing the politics and history. Come through and ask people - don’t tell us what we need. Don’t tell us you’re coming in with your own ideas. Come in racial #solidarity not on some vigilante nonsense. You can go home with that mess. We are being priced out of our neighborhoods - come through to make sure we can still be here for each other - not so you can get famous or push for more policing - when we and our neighbors have LONG been victimized by them. And don’t come in here racially profiling with your whack ass racist most wanted posters.

[image description- photos of Oakland residents. image 1 is of a beautiful Vietnamese woman with long black hair in a floral black dress hugging her daughter, image 2 - three Asian organizers. Two in a Black Asian black and yellow shirt, another in all black; image 3 - group of people at a Tet (Lunar new year in Oakland) festival at park; image 4 - 7 people standing together from Oakland]

374

0

#rg @terisasiagatonu + @ msthibui

510

8

Beauty tip: if you have a problem with the way I share information/feel like I am “knocking Asian Americans” in the way I go about addressing these small-large issues, please unfollow. Otherwise at this point I’m blocking. Sharing sentiments that include and read: “Asian Americans can not look for safety from the same agencies that terrorize Black Americans” should not be a debate if you actually believe in futures that involve restorative justice/defunding the police etc. Since CLASS is always going to be relevant/ the diversity of the AAPI community means that history/relationships or “comfort/convenience” with deploying law enforcement as an immediate solution goes beyond celebrity cash reward. “I think it's hard for us to fundamentally reconcile that entity is going to protect our community, when, oftentimes, violence against people of color is coming from law enforcement," said Kham Moua, head of the policy portfolio at the Southeast Asia Resource Action Center, a nonprofit civil rights organization. Critics said that not everyone in the Asian American community has the same relationship with law enforcement and that some communities don't feel they can rely on police to protect them. Moua said police presence in Southeast Asian American refugee communities, in particular, has left a scar. Refugees who arrived after the Vietnam War often resettled in urban centers with little funding and infrastructure, many of which were under heavily surveillance, as well.According to a report examining Asian American and Pacific Islanders, or AAPI people, behind bars, the AAPI prisoner population ballooned by about 250% during the prison boom of the 1990s. The criminalization of the immigrant community was especially evident in areas with high Asian American populations; Laotians and Vietnamese, for example, were among the four most arrested groups in 1990 in the San Francisco Bay Area.”The "model minority" label attached to Asian Americans historically has been weaponized to further white supremacist interests.”
-
Btw- if there is ever an incomplete tweet thread, content + creators are usually tagged and it is upto the individual to follow up if they seek more info.

38

0

I have no demands. Just a plea from one Asian American educator to whoever is reading this. My community needs your help. I’m not emotionally resourced enough to recount every act of violence against my people that’s taken place over the past few days. Swipe and follow the tagged accounts to see more details.
.
It never feels good to come of as “wHaT aBouT uS?” and there’s always the fear of others minimizing your pain or demanding you prove your humanity is worth advocating for. But staying quite feels worse.
.
Part of the growth I’ve experienced in recent years is recognizing how I can cultivate space to hold multiple feelings and truths at the same time.
I am weeping for the violence experienced by those in the Asian American community.
I am angry about the silence from so many self-proclaimed ABAR intersectional racial justice advocates.
I am frustrated with the anti-Blackness stemming from these attacks, and the call for increased police presence.
I feel connected and in community with other Asians who are speaking out.
I feel seen by the handful of you who have used your voices to advocate on our behalf (esp @theblackbayarea).
.
So many of my fellow Asians on here have eloquently expressed the range of my thoughts and feelings today, so please check their posts. Educate yourselves and others about Asian American experiences. Learn what anti-Asian racism looks like and call it out. Include Asians in your activism and antiracism.
.
Again, no one is saying that Asians have it worse than any other community. We’re just asking you to give a shit.
.
“I had no idea” doesn’t cut it anymore. Follow: @nextshark @hownottotravellikeabasicbitch @michellekimkim @little_kotos_closet @ricefeed @nbcasianamerica @aapiwomenlead @weareaanow @littleupbeatclass @asiansformentalhealth @asians4antiracism @acttochange @asianenoughpod @amandangocnguyen @aajil_org @smithsonianapa

112k

260

📕 baby’s first book review! 📕

This was my first time reading a graphic novel, so I wasn’t sure what to expect, but I zipped through it in just two days! That being said, don’t let that fool you into thinking this was a “light” read. This novel explores the relationship between parent and child, and provides an intimate look at one family’s experience living with the effects of Vietnam’s long history of colonization and conflict. The hand-drawn images added an extra weight of emotion and realism to an already emotional and compelling story. As I read this book, I couldn't help but think about all the untold history that lives within my own immigrant family and how learning their stories would help me understand my own upbringing and relationships better.

This book gets a 5/5 in my book (lol) because not only was it beautiful, moving, and introspective, but it was also informative as it shed light on a part of the world’s history I admittedly did not know much about. (Teaser for a future book review, but did y’all know that the Vietnam War was the longest war in American history?!) This book reminded me of why I love reading: it expands your perspective on the world by understanding other people’s stories. A graphic that contains a plot synopsis of the book “The Best We Could Do” by Thi Bui and a quote from the book and a 5/5 star rating

23

5

THROWBACK: This is one of the first books I ever posted on this account, so I thought i should bring it back! I received A DIFFERENT POND as a surprise package in the mail, sent by my dear friend @poemacole just days after my cousin from MN (where I was born and grew up) suggested I read it. I ❤️ when people share books they love with me!⁣
⁣
Based on the life of author Bao Phi, and illustrated by @teabuoy, this seemingly simple story shows an early morning fishing tradition at a Minnesota lake where father and son fish for food, not recreation. Throughout, Bali’s father tells him about similar trips back in Vietnam. Illustrated like a graphic novel, this book explores the relationship between father and son, different cultures and distant generations. It is a Newbery Honor Book and the recipient of multiple awards and six starred reviews.

I love the way the beautiful art an⁣d prose work together so perfectly to share a simple story and simple event into an unforgettable memory and depiction of a loving father son relationship. You learn so much about Bao Phi’s family through this seemingly simple glimpse into their lives.

Author: Bao Phi Illustrator: @teabuoy Publisher: @capstonepub
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
.⁣
#WeNeedDiverseBooks #OwnVoices #RepresentationMatters #bookish #bookstagram #bookstagrammer #kidsbookstagram #booksforkids #raisingreaders #raiseareader #kidlit #kidlitpicks #diversebooks #readingismagic #fortheloveofreading #alwaysreading #childrensliterature #iteachtoo #igteachers #readaloud #raiseareader #booksforkids #buildyourlibrary #teachersofinstagram #kidsbooks #kidsbook #instateachers #becauseofreading #joannahobradshawrecs

447

19

“The Best We Could Do” is Thi Bui’s debut graphic novel. I wanted to read something on South-East Asia and this happened to be one of the recommendations that popped up on the Kindle Store.

I’m in awe of the way Thi Bui has chronicled the events from her parents childhood giving us glimpses into their stories and explaining the struggles they went through to move the family from Vietnam after the Fall of Saigon to America in late 1970s. The illustrations/graphics are beautiful and I realized how much they helped in creating images in my head as I read the memoir.

The book starts with Thi Bui in the labor room about to deliver her son and that beginning seems so apt as towards the end of the book she talks about the grace she feels for her parents once she herself became one.

I’ve always enjoyed reading about how countries came to be and I must admit I was very ignorant about the history of Vietnam. I was not aware that Vietnam was a former French colony called French Indochina. I kept tabs of Google and Wikipedia open as I searched for articles explaining Viet Minh and Fall of Saigon.

When it comes to how to go about reading this: The most ideal scenario of course would be to read the physical book but the iPad experience was brilliant too. I wouldn’t recommend reading this on a Kindle as it gets a bit cumbersome trying to click on each panel to zoom in. I have a feeling there will be many more graphic novels read in 2021.

If you have any recommendations for books or articles I could read to learn more about Vietnam’s history or any suggestions on a graphic novel you’ve enjoyed please do share.

Absolutely loved this book. Recommend it.

👌🏻📚💫

10

1