Blacks and AAPIs forming new alliances in the struggle for equality

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AAPI protestors in Seattle Saturday night before violence broke out.

The incremental changes in race relations that have occurred since Rodney King was beaten in Los Angeles are barely noticeable. 

Not much has changed since Eric Garner gasped, "I can't breathe!" the same words uttered six years later in Minnesota when George Floyd was pinned to the ground with a knee to his neck.

If we had smart phones around during the Jim Crow era when lynchings of black men were commonplace, cities would have been burnt to the ground.

Black and AAPI groups are quietly forging an alliance even though the convergence is barely reported in mainstream media that prefers to focus on the more sensational differences between the communities. 

When video of Floyd's last breath was splattered all over social media, AAPI organizations were quick to condemn the police tactics that resulted in the black Minnesotan's death.

Filipino American author Carlos Bulosan recognized the link between the black Americans' struggle for equality and the unbreachable wall of discrimination Asian Americans encounter while seeking economic and social opportunities, when he wrote in his classic novel "America Is In the Heart:"

Marchers wear Hawaiian leis crossing the Edmund Pettis Bridge in Selma.

"America is ... the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling from a tree. America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities is closed to him. We are that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrant and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adams to the last Filipino, native born or alien, educated or illiterate — We are America!"

Since Floyd's death, the wheels of justice moved too slowly before Eric Chauvin, the officer who put the full weight of his body with a knee to Floyd's neck, was arrested. Even after his arrest, he was only charged with 3rd degree murder, or manslaughter.

In a YouGov poll of 5,600 Americans taken before Eric Chauvin's arrest found 60% of Asian Americans used excessive force resulting in Floyd's death. In the same survey, 80% of black Americans say too much force was used; Latino Americans (58%), mixed-race Americans (57% and 54% of Native Americans agreed.

In contrast, only 46% of white Americans say that police officers tend to use too much force. 

The fact that almost two-thirds of AAPI agreed with black respondents is noteworthy. The historically socially conservative Asian Americans have been used as a wedge to shame other minorities. The stereotype of the "model minority" myth which characterizes Asian Americans as a polite, law-abiding group who have achieved a higher level of economic success than the general population through some combination of innate talent and pull-yourselves-up-by-your-bootstraps immigrant initiative.

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Congressional caucuses support each other in Washington, DC.

Asian Americans have been held up by the dominant culture as an example what a racial minority can accomplish inspite of the racism that is deeply embedded in US institutions. In other words, to other people of color, the model minority myth is used to minimize the reality of racism in American culture.

The Minnesota flashpoint was quickly condemned by Asian Americans as AAPI organizations began issuing statements placing their sympathies with the Floyd family and the black community. The Minneapolis-based Coalition of Asian American Leaders said, "Today and every day we support #BlackLivesMatter and stand with George Floyd's family and community to demand justice."

Other AAPI groups across the nation joined in support of those demanding justice in the Floyd homicide.

The unequivocal reaction supporting justice for Floyd from AAPI advocacy organizations and politicians is in contrast to perceived reluctance to whole-heartedly join the #BlackLivesMatter movement as painted by mainstream media.

In reality, away from the parachuting journalists making quick analyses, bridges were being built by activists who knew that they could be more effective if they were joined in a common cause.

As far back as Bloody Sunday, as black civil rights activists were marching across the Edmund Pettis Bridge In Selma, Ala., some of them in the front line were wore Hawaiian leis sent to them by the Rev. Abraham Akaka, the brother of future U.S. Sen. Daniel Akaka. For the reverend, it was a symbolic gesture that affirmed Asian American support for the civil rights movement.

Even before Selma, Detroit's Grace Lee Boggs and Los Angeles' Yuri Kochciyama were working with black activists for social justice and for human rights.

Asian American student organizations were in the middle of the organizing of the Third World Liberation Front in  the late 1960s and 1970s at San Francisco State University uniting with black and Latino organizations for an unprecedented student strike that ultimately leading to the creation of ethnic studies departments across the nation.

Asians4BlackLives began in Oakland, CA in late 2014 after the non-indictment of the police officer who killed Eric Garner. The advocacy group recognizes that AAPI activism was greatly influenced by Black struggles for liberation, A4BL returns to the roots of the Asian American social formation and its debt to Black liberation movements. 

In 2016, over 100 AAPI civil rights advocates made it clear to #BlackLivesMatter where they stood in a joint statement: "While words cannot bring back Alton Sterling, Philando Castile, Sandra Bland, Freddie Gray, Rekia Boyd, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Renisha McBride, Akai Gurley and many more whose stories go unrecognized, we join together with Black organizers in a movement ignited to fight for Black liberation, human dignity and transformative justice. We, as Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, stand firmly with #BlackLivesMatter and the movement for Black lives."

This past year, the joining of the Congressional Black Caucus, the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus and Congressional Hispanic Caucus in issuing joint statements in support of anti-Asian hate resolutions and the treatment of immigrants.

Part of the problem is that in this Twitterverse and Tic Toc-crazy world, no leader of the stature of Martin Luther King has emerged in either community. With almost everybody having a smart phone and easy access to Youtube and tanyone has the ability create an online persona it is difficult for a voice to rise above the social media din. 

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Filipino Americans in Las Vegas express their sentiments Saturday night.

The quick response of AAPI organizations to the death of George Floyd could be a sign that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are rejecting the mainstream media belief that AAPI don't sympathize with Black issues and see the common struggles of the two groups.

"As refugees and descendants of refugees, as survivors of war and genocide, our communities also know the devastating impacts of police force.," said a statement from South East Asian Resource Action Center. 

"It is incumbent 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."

EDITOR'S NOTE: For additional commentary, news and views from an AANHPI perspective, follow @DioknoEd on Twitter.

Asian Americans rail against police for the death of George Floyd

Minneapolis Police Officer Tou Thao stands guard as Officer Derek Chauvin keeps his  knee on George Floyd's neck. 

UPDATED 1:30 p.m., May 28, 2020.

George Floyd's horrible death Monday gasping for air as a policeman's knee pressed down on his neck was captured on video drawing condemnations from Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.

"This hits home for us as we close out Asian Pacific American Heritage Month, a time when so many of us reflect on our Asian American identity and how it had emerged from the Black liberation movement," said Alvina Yeh, Executive Director of the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance.

"We’ve said this before and we’ll say it again because the work continues; we all have a role in responding to atrocious acts of violence," she said. "As Asian American and Pacific Islander working people, we commit to leveraging our power to dismantle oppressive systems, addressing anti-blackness in the AAPI community, and loving and fighting for our black siblings.”

Floyd, a 46-year old Black man, died after being violently arrested and pinned to the ground in Minneapolis, Minnesota as onlookers pleaded to the police to let him breathe. Floyd, a bouncer at a nightclub, was heard saying, "I can't breathe."

Police responded to a call that a man was trying to pass a forged check. Four officers arrived. Although the police report claimed that Floyd was resisting arrest, a security camera taping the scene didn't show any resistance by Floyd before he was thrown to the ground and his neck pinned to the ground.  Officer Derek Chauvin continued to kneel into his neck, even after Floyd stopped struggling and fell unconscious.

As this was going on Officer Tou Thao stood between his fellow officer and a gathering crowd.

The Minneapolis AAPI community was quick to express their support for Black Lives Matter and to condemn Floyd's death.

"Today and every day we support #BlackLivesMatter and stand with George Floyd's family and community to demand justice," said the Coalition of Asian American Leaders in a statement.

African American adults are nearly six times as likely to be imprisoned or jailed than white adults, according to the Sentencing Project watchdog group.

Minnesota law enforcement authorities have come under heavy criticism in recent years. Protests erupted in the state in 2016, after 32-year-old Philando Castile, who was black, was shot and killed by a St Anthony police officer during a traffic stop. Footage of the incident also went viral online.

The CAAL statement went on to say: "We also know our work to dismantle harmful systems and build just alternatives must include addressing anti-Blackness within our own communities. We must show up in solidarity for Black lives not only when lives are lost. but in everyday recognition that our liberation is tied together."

The remarkable admission of the Asian American leaders touches on a little-talked about topic in the AAPI community -- a bias against African Americans among many AAPI. 

South Asian Americans Leading Together made a similar statement confronting the anti-Black sentiment within the AAPI communities. “As South Asians and Asian Americans, we must acknowledge, confront, and dismantle anti-Blackness in our own communities,” said SAALT’s Executive Director, Lakshmi Sridaran.

SAALT went a step further and created a toolkit with steps people can take to express their outrage at the poliice behavior during the arrest and death of FLoyd.

Rep. Judy Chu, D-CA, chair of the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus, California Sen. Kamala Harris spoke out against the incident, just the latest example of injustice towards members of the African American community.

“We send our deepest condolences to the family and friends of George Floyd. Deaths like Mr. Floyd’s, which remind us of the police killings of Eric Garner and other Black individuals, point to the systemic racism behind individual and structural hate crimes,” said Rita Pin Ahrens, national executive director of the OCA – Asian Pacific American Advocates.

“The fact that Hmong American Officer Tou Thao stood to defend his colleague, and antagonized the bystanders who called for compassion, is not lost upon us. Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders must stand up for Black communities by calling out institutional racism and the anti-Blackness within our own communities,” the OCA statement continued.

“We are equally enraged and ashamed to learn that an Asian American police officer, Tou Thao, just stood watch as his co-worker treated George Floyd inhumanely.," stated APALA's Yeh.

"As refugees and descendants of refugees, as survivors of war and genocide, our communities also know the devastating impacts of police force.," said a statement from South East Asian Resource Action Center.

"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."

The four officers detaining Floyd were subsequently placed on administrative leave but before the day ended, they were fired after an outcry from politicians and community members.

“They need be charged with murder because what they did was murder” said Rodney Floyd, George Floyd’s brother in an interview.  The FBI is reportedly investigating the incident.

“At my request, the FBI and the Department of Justice are already well into an investigation as to the very sad and tragic death in Minnesota of George Floyd,” Donald Trump tweeted late Wednesday.

“I have asked for this investigation to be expedited and greatly appreciate all of the work done by local law enforcement," Trump added. "My heart goes out to George’s family and friends. Justice will be served!”

Both Chauvin and Thao have several complaints against them for use of unreasonable force in their history, according to police records.

A peaceful protest against Floyd's death later Tuesday was broken up by police using tear gas.

Protests on Wednesday grew more violent as looting was reported and several buildings were set on fire. One person, who was shot by a pawnshop owner, died at a hospital. 

“I’ve wrestled with, more than anything else over the last 36 hours, one fundamental question: Why is the man who killed George Floyd not in jail?” said Minneapolis Mayor Jacob Frey. Wednesday, Frey called for his District Attorney to file charges against the former police officer Chauvin.

He later added: “I saw no threat. I saw nothing that would signal that this kind of force was necessary.”