FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: young@ncapaonline.org
May 28, 2020
The National Council of Asian Pacific Americans Statement in Solidarity with the Black Community
Washington, D.C.— In response to the deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans (NCAPA) issued the following statement:
We join in demanding justice for the countless black men, women and children who continue to die at the hands of a system that has determined their skin color be justification for lethal use of force.
We also call on all Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians and Pacific Islanders to recognize that our silence is a prerequisite for this system to function. We all have a choice to turn our backs and look the other way, but in doing so, we only diminish ourselves.
The COVID-19 pandemic has revealed just how deeply racism has infected America to its core. Despite facing staggering loss of life and massive economic suffering, our country’s willingness to hate, fear and kill communities of color remains alive and well. For all the platitudes of coming together during these difficult times, we cannot ask that the Black community stand by us, if we are unwilling to fight for them.
Black lives still, and will always, matter.
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Based in Washington, D.C., the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans is a coalition of 37 national Asian Pacific American organizations that serves to represent the interests of Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities and to provide a national voice for our communities’ concerns. Our communities are the fastest growing racial/ethnic group in the United States, currently making up approximately six percent of the population.
All colors must unite to support our black brothers and sisters, nieces and nephews, grandchildren, aunties and uncles who are being victimized for no reason, no logic, no feeling. We are on this earth together. We have wasted so much time and years on this earth to digress. WE cannot repeat any of this type of history if we are a better people, a people that chooses to learn and build together. Dont let hate in because nothing comes about it but digs another grave to silence when voices need to be heard and solutions need to happen.
We all stand together and let them know fight for change in law enforcement, demand they weed out the dirty cops that abuse their power and the badges and uniforms they wear.