Today, we stand with communities and families across the country to condemn the death of George Floyd, who was killed in Minneapolis on Monday after a violent police encounter.
His horrific death was every bit preventable, and every bit enabled by a deeply rooted system of racial inequity, oppression, and discrimination here in the United States.
As Asian Pacific American Heritage Month comes to a close, in the 45th year of Southeast Asian American resettlement, during a wave of escalated anti-Asian racism, SEARAC joins the call across the country to demand justice for George and other victims of police violence in solidarity with the Black community. We encourage you to learn meaningful ways to show solidarity using some of the resources below.
- A blog post by Michelle Kim of Awaken Blog highlights steps individuals can take to show solidarity;
- Read the Asian American Racial Justice Toolkit, a project hosted by Asian American Pacific Islanders for Civic Empowerment;
- Read the ACLU’s manual – Fighting Police Abuse: A Community Action, which offers a guide for communities of color to reform their local law enforcement relationships and standards;
- Register for a Bystander Intervention Training, offered by Hollaback! in partnership with Asian Americans Advancing Justice. Although focused on anti-Asian hate crimes, they also offer broad strategies for intervention.
As refugees and descendents of refugees, as survivors of war and genocide, our communities also know the devastating impacts of police force. It is incumbant on us as Southeast Asian Americans to show up for the Black community. We must acknowledge that our own paths to equity are a direct product of their historic civil rights wins and struggles, that they continue to build, as well as to endure, to this day. We must name the systems that have benefitted from having communities of color pitted against one another, and we must boldly resist them.
In this 45th year anniversary, we stand with George Floyd’s family and community to call for justice.