On Holding Various Truths to (Not) Be Self-Evident: Leading During the Dual Pandemics of 2020 as a Racialized Body

Abstract

In this critical autoethnography, the author counter/narrates how she has navigated the dual pandemics of COVID-19 and structural racism predicated on over four centuries of racial oppression that reached a zenith on May 25, 2020, when George Floyd was murdered by a White police officer. As an Asian American woman dean of education at a White-dominated regional university, she weaves in between the past and present to discuss the multilayered intersections between the lives and livelihoods of Asian Americans and Black Americans by theorizing contemporary meanings of the historic slogan from the 1960s: “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power.” She reflects on a few critical moments during the dual pandemics where she has navigated predominantly White spaces that have attempted to center tired-old platitudes around justice for George Floyd despite the daily persistence of blatantly and subtly racist practices against individuals who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color.