May 25, 2020 was the day that spread a global movement, the Black Lives Matter Movement. Black Lives Matter, an international human rights movement that campaigns against systemic racism towards black people, actually started in 2013 – RIP Trayvon Martin. It’s infuriating that it has to take a video of another black man being murdered by a police officer to go viral for us to have this discussion. RIP George Floyd – as your daughter said, you have changed the world.
It has been an extra heavy week of emotions for many of us, especially the black community. I know I will never understand, but I stand. And in the past week, the world protested, spoke up against racial injustices deeply engrained in our systems, and reflected on how we each play a part in this.
I can’t speak for others but I know as an Asian American, I have recognized that I need to be louder as an ally for POC. Being raised in Oakland, I see the inequities the system has placed in our neighborhoods, our education system, our police forces. How can you have a city (Piedmont) within a city (Oakland) and have COMPLETELY drastic law enforcements, schools, neighborhoods? How can you drive from the 90’s where there are only liquor stores to 15 minutes later, be in Lake Merritt with a WholeFoods and Trader Joes a minute away from each other? Gentrification is happening, people are benefiting at the expense of others. And this has to stop – not just in Oakland, but in our country.
That’s for another conversion.
My point is that I am well aware that there are injustices, inequity, and systemic racism in policies around housing, incarceration, education, representation, corporations, financial institutions, and more. And I need to learn more, speak up more, and take more action.
Growing up, many Asian Americans were told to work hard, blend in, and follow the rules. But .. blending in with who? Why? And what rules – what if the rules were made so that you’d never win? We need to re-write the rules. We are so strong as individual communities, imagine the power we have when we, as POCs, all realize we’re fighting the same fight.
Let’s keep the momentum, we can’t stop now because all lives can’t matter until Black Lives Matter.
