I've been mostly silent regarding George Floyd's recent death and the topic on racism in general due to the heavy controversy, opting to keep my thoughts mostly internalized and protest, sign petitions, and take action in silence; however, the hypocrisy and constant social media posts honoring his death and spreading awareness have taken me to my wits end.
It's all over my Instagram feed. The same three posts over and over; however, we never remain diligent in our actions. The voices of millions of people rise up whenever a news headline arises – our country is in a constant cycle of violence against African Americans and Brown Americans, but we as a population do not speak up until after someone has lost their life or been assaulted unjustly, until the headlines spread across the country, until we see it so widely popularized on social media and decide to give our sympathies and nothing more.
Sharing a post is not enough anymore.
Yes, while small things may be a big change, sharing a post is doing virtually nothing. What will the country, the victims gain from YOU sharing A SINGLE POST that has been seen over a million times? What most people seem to not understand is that sharing doesn't simply equate to contributing to change. To make an active effort, we have to learn about the current justice system and the corrupt politics that come into play, we have to learn from former cases and the vast difference of treatment of POC versus white people, we have to learn about the active efforts and organizations that are petitioning and fighting against this unfair treatment and do whatever that we can.
Another point I would like to bring up is regarding the Asian American officer that acted as a bystander as he watched this ordeal occur.
Us Asian Americans are EQUALLY guilty.
Our culture, especially in the motherland, praises whiteness of skin complexion. Anti-blackness is instilled in our minds from the environment and principles we grew up into, especially with our likely immigrant parents. Adding to this, Asians' principles mainly emphasize staying low and minding our own business. We are taught as children to only do and say what we are told and to not draw any attention to ourselves as it will cause trouble. I am guilty of this, my friends are guilty of this, and my family is guilty of this. While we may share many of the same opinions against racism, we remain to stay silent because that is how we were taught. We are guilty as a population for disregarding the ongoing plight many African Americans and other POC (such as Hispanic and Brown/Muslim) go through. I've seen so many Asian American brothers and sisters speak up against the increased violence on Asian Americans during the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic; however, they continue to play ignorant and ignore the senseless murder on Black people. Ignorance and silence are only feeding more into America's anti-blackness and white supremacy.
We must not refuse to "claim" the police officer who lacked the drive to take action, but instead, take responsibility for the lack of action of the Asian American police officer. We must stand up for our fellow minorities suffering from race-based attacks.
Let's stop pitting minorities against minorities.
There is no reason for us to be fighting against one another while we have a common enemy of the xenophobic, racist white supremacists that have near-complete control over the country. We must take the proper action rather than sit around on our phones all day sending the same posts that nearly everyone has seen. We need to sign the petitions, vote in this year's elections, donate to organizations and funds created for those who lost their lives, we need to educate ourselves in the systematic oppression occurring within our country and be allies to one another.
We must remember the names of those who have unrightfully lost their lives.
George Floyd. Eric Garner. Sandra Bland. Michael Brown. Amaud Arbery. Breonna Taylor.
They are only a small portion of the long list of lives that have been lost, and it is not the responsibility of Black people to teach this to us. We must learn.
