This weekend marks over three decades since the 1992 Los Angeles Uprising. The brutal beating of Rodney King by law enforcement and the killing of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins by Korean store owner Soon Ja Du were catalysts for the uprisings, but the root of the unrest was the deeply ingrained racism and prejudice that existed within our nation’s justice system.
In the aftermath of the uprisings, there were efforts to bring Black and Korean communities together to address the underlying issues that led to violence, including our efforts as then A3PCON. We recognized that the civil unrest was not a “race war” – it was an outcome of the failure of policies and systemic practices that neglected and marginalized immigrants and communities of color.
While progress has been made over the years, there is still much more work to be done. The same patterns of violence and oppression by law enforcement are continually perpetuated against marginalized communities today. We must come together in solidarity with our sisters and brothers and foster dialogue and understanding between our communities, confront the underlying issues of systemic racism, and advocate for policies that address the inequities that impact communities of color.
We continue in the footsteps of our predecessors as AAPI Equity Alliance to advocate for policies that dismantle the structures of oppression and demand justice for victims of those structures to truly achieve a more equitable world for all.
