We are responsible for George Floyd’s Death. Our community’s violent anti-blackness makes us complicit in the deaths of black folks. George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and so many others who were murdered and rendered invisible by our community. We, as an API community, have embedded anti-blackness so intensely into our communities. We have so much to unlearn, relearn, and do. As an organization, we denounce the actions of Officer Thao, anti-blackness, and police brutality, while recognizing the tension in the ways we have benefited from these structures. Our denouncement is not enough. We must do more than we say. We must support justice by any means. We must educate ourselves and our community. We must call out anti-blackness. We must abolish the model minority myth. So that another member of our community will not stand by while a black man is murdered. This oppressive behavior has deep roots in Asian American history, from Peter Liang to Bhagat Singh Thind and we cannot ignore these histories. We need to elevate the understanding that as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, our liberation is intertwined with Black Liberation. We must commit to racial solidarity and the history of the Asian American identity in the Black Power Movement. | |
As Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, our liberation is intertwined with Black Liberation. | |