The first words Rodney G. King uttered when he broke his silence after the ordeal, he was subjected to at the hands of a group of police officers who beat him with nightsticks and kicked him around was, “People, I just want to say, you know, can we all get along? Can we get along?”
That question, posed by the weary and beaten-up King in 1992, still vibrates true with echoes of trauma 30 years later. In an oppressive and racist system that seeks to divide marginalized communities for its racist and white supremacist agenda, King’s plea of solidarity in fact seems to be the plausible way to heal, build community and stand in solidarity against the injustices designed to oppress. Divide and thwart every effort of marginalized communities to join forces in a common struggle for justice and liberation and eventually change the course of history.
April 29, 2022, marks the 30-year anniversary of the L.A. Uprisings. Starting from its incorrect global christening and institutionalized misnomer as a “riot” – the uprisings were a response to a series of injustices, catalyzed by the systemic lack of accountability for the beating of Rodney G. King, the murder of Latasha Harlins and the failure to redress the many miscarriages of racial justice. The uprisings were manifestations of pent-up reactions to the oppression and racism faced by the Black community for so long. It further highlighted the tensions and shared struggles between Black and Asian communities. To label this justified expression of outrage, a ‘riot,’ is to redirect the attention and accountability from the engineers of the divide and true perpetrators of violence: the oppressive systems and structures that are devised to harm Black and marginalized communities.
But 30 years later, what do we take from the words of the late Rodney G. King? Will solidarity change the course of history for the Black and Asian communities to eventually hold accountable the anti-Black and anti-Asian structures that stand to benefit from this designed disunity between the two communities?
Thirty years after the L.A Uprisings, two immigrants’ rights advocate organizations for Black and Asian immigrants respectively, are coming together to expose and address the root cause of the uprisings as they reflect upon the uprisings and look ahead toward a future that is safe, connected, and fulfilling for their communities by providing spaces for healing and solidarity.
Both the UndocuBlack Network and NAKASEC – member-based organizations – have been collectively and separately fighting against the marginalization, demonization, invisibilization and vilification of their immigrant communities within and outside the immigration spaces. Their collaborative work includes policy advocacy, community wellness that centers on healing and solidarity and contending against institutionalized narratives that often erase their communities’ unique experiences at the intersection of race and immigration.
The system’s machinations to divide and rule is actively at work to impede every effort of marginalized communities from joining forces to demand and advocate for common justice and liberation. And as such, both communities have been thrown into their own set of struggles of everyday life aggravated by a lack of funding for schools, housing, healthcare, community and social services. And struggles in poverty particularly in the absence of state and government relief systems that was granted to all except undocumented immigrants who were serving at the forefront of essential services while the whole nation was in lockdown and in isolation and contending with flattening the curve during the pandemic. Despite all odds, in the face of discrimination, the continuous hate crimes as a direct result of xenophobia and racism endemic to the U.S. system structures. This includes state-sanctioned violence in the form of incarceration, detention, deportation and circumstances exponentially exacerbated by global pandemic, members of both communities have been making efforts to build authentic and lasting relationships, sharing experiences and understanding by embracing their diversity as strengthening and focusing on their intertwined struggles and wins.
What does it look like when the Black and Asian communities show up for each other? What does healing and solidarity mean for Black and Asian communities? And how can community and understanding be built in the face of division?
A joint webinar hosted by UndocuBlack Network and NAKASEC on April 29, 2022, at 5 pm PT/7 pm CT/8 pm ET. will address this question and more as panelists recount the series of injustices that catalyzed the uprising, the uprising that killed 64 people and its aftermath.
