"As people of color, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders are deeply concerned with the message that this verdict sends -- that the lives of people of color are less valued. Our own community’s history in the United States includes violence and targeting, such as the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982, the post September 11th backlash murders of Balbir Singh Sodhi and Waqar Hassan, the killing of 19-year-old Fong Lee by a Minneapolis police officer, and most recently, the tragic shootings at the Oak Creek gurudwara in Wisconsin on Aug. 5, 2012. We stand alongside our African American partner organizations and with community, youth and faith leaders to call for justice for Trayvon and for all the brown and black people who are routinely subjected to profiling, harassment and physical attacks in schools, workplaces and neighborhoods. This is the time for cross-racial, multicultural and intergenerational solidarity and understanding as we work towards justice, towards the elimination of institutional racism, towards a time when all lives are valued."
Posted on: Wed, 17 Jul 2013 16:12:04 +0000