#YELLOWPERILSUPPORTSBLACKPOWER: MEMORY WORK FOR INTERRACIAL SOLIDARITY

Abstract

As various racial justice movements emerged under the “Black Lives Matter” slogan after George Floyd’s murder in May 2020, Monyee Chau posted some artwork on Instagram with the slogan, #YellowPerilSupportsBlackPower. The artwork—symbolizing Asians with a yellow tiger and African Americans with a black panther—ignited Asians’ activism in support of African Americans and became circulated via multiple social media platforms. In this study, I view the #YellowPerilSupportsBlackPower movement (YPSBP) as digital activism, and I analyze how Asian Americans project their “Asianness” to advocate for the Black community. In particular, I focus on memory work among Asian participants when they demonstrate their solidarity with the Black community. By analyzing mediated memory work on Instagram, I identify the three types of memory work in which Asian participants engage. I conclude that this memory work plays a key role in legitimatizing a process through which Asian Americans can produce affective ties with the Black community that build a multiracial identity extending beyond color lines. This exploration of interracial solidarity enriches both the social movement and digital activism scholarship by illustrating how memory work mediates and amplifies affective solidarity.