Why South Asians need to stand in solidarity with African Americans

By SATimes
In May as soon as news of police brutality against George Floyd, a 46-year-old black man in Minneapolis, Minnesota during an arrest allegedly for using a counterfeit bill started flashing on television screens and the video went viral on social media, Indian community across the country felt a sense of déjà vu. In February 2015 a visiting Indian senior citizen Sureshbhai Patel was assaulted by a police officer in Madison, Alabama, that left him partially paralyzed. The officer, Eric Parker, was fired from the Madison Police Department and charged with third-degree assault but was reinstated into the force in 2016. In March 2015, Parker was charged by the FBI with felony civil rights abuse, but was later acquitted of all charges.
Despite the uproar it created across the nation, all the way till the Indian government, the repercussions had to be born only by the victim who had to undergo spinal surgery and is still unable to walk without help. A federal appeals court in May 2020 ruled that there is enough evidence for Sureshbai Patel to proceed with his lawsuit against Parker and the city of Madison.
While the court is yet to decide if racism was the underlying prejudice behind perpetuating such a behavior, the Black Lives Matter movement following Floyd’s death has brought to fore lot of uncomfortable questions about treatment of people of color in America, the hierarchy and discrimination even within the colored races, living in denial and under the belief of myths propagated as ‘model minorities.’
South Asians and especially Indian Americans have established themselves as a hardworking, law abiding, well educated, well earning community occupying high positions in some of the leading MNCs, making up for 50 percent owners in hotel-motel industry and saving lives in white coats as physicians.
That they are ‘brown’ people hasn’t really stopped them from achieving success in their chosen spheres of profession. Or so we may think.
The undercurrents of discrimination based on skin color have apparently always been there yet how the Indian community navigates those remains a topic of uncomfortable discussion now being brought to family rooms especially by the third generation Indian Americans who are aware about the black history, the civil rights movement and the sacrifices of millions who were forced to make America their home as slaves and not as highly skilled immigrants.
In the aftermath of Black Lives Matter movement, a lot of desi voices have come forward to make the first and next generations aware of the struggles of black people and to reinforce the fact that the injustice perpetrated towards them can very well be targeted towards people of other color as well. And that by speaking up for the blacks also means speaking out against racism, against every other color which is not Caucasian.
Black Lives Matter saw the South Asian diaspora pour out across the nation against the systemic racism as they took to streets with peaceful demonstrations.
Seattle City Councilwoman Kshama Sawant was at the forefront of “Black Lives Matter” protests in Seattle, Washington, to permanently oust city police officials from the downtown area that has now been designated the “Capitol Hill Autonomous Zone,” according to media reports.

The Indian American official encouraged activists in the CHAZ “to hold out on giving back the precinct to cops or allowing officers inside the barricaded region,” according to Fox News.

Pune-born Sawant urged protesters to hold strong to the six-block region they’ve designated a “no cop” zone, the report said. Sawant said she will introduce legislation to convert the precinct into “a community center for restorative justice.”

In an open letter to Indian American Community, Shireen Advani Lee, a resident of Walnut Creek, California has succinctly described the background of African American community, their sacrifices and the importance of showing solidarity with the blacks. “Without the civil rights movement my parents would never have been granted visas to study, work or live in the United States and neither would you. Your entry to this country would be barred on the basis of race because that was the law. If you somehow managed to get here you would be subjected to denial of education, housing, employment, voting rights, medical care and public safety services. Your children and your grandchildren would be raised in segregated communities, and barred from social interaction of any kind with Caucasian Americans. This is not an opinion, these are facts based on the laws of this country before 1964,” she said. “It would not have mattered if you were educated, if you worked hard, or if you were law abiding or god fearing. You would be barred from entering public buildings through the main door. You would not be able to use a public restroom, eat at a restaurant, stay at a hotel or sit on any seat you choose on a bus.”

“We are all these things because we benefited directly from the struggle, the sacrifices and the toll the civil rights struggle has taken on African American citizens of our adopted homeland.”

Prominent South Asian organizations working at grassroots have come out in solidarity with the African Americans who spearheaded the Civil Rights Movement, which eventually enabled immigration of thousands of Indians to pursue their American dream.

“As South Asian Americans, we must recognize that the histories of oppression towards our own community and protest for our rights is inseparable from the Black American experience,” said Shikha Bhatnagar, Indian American executive director of the South Asian Network.

The Asian American Legal Defense and Education Fund expressed its solidarity “with communities across the country protesting against police violence and the murder of George Floyd by Minneapolis police officers.”

“For too many decades, communities of color have been the targets of racist violence. Structural racism has laid the foundation for police brutality, corruption, and bias, and it now lays bare the ideology of white supremacy that undervalues and divides our communities,” said AALDEF.

Prominent Indian Americans have been vocal about the brutalities. “There is no place for hate and racism in our society. Empathy and shared understanding are a start, but we must do more,” Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft said in a tweet June 1. “I stand with the black and African American community and we are committed to building on this work in our company and in our communities,” he said.

“Today on US Google & YouTube homepages we share our support for racial equality in solidarity with the Black community and in memory of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and others who don’t have a voice,” Sundar Pichai, CEO, Google, wrote on Twitter May 31. “For those feeling grief, anger, sadness & fear, you are not alone,” Pichai said, sharing a screenshot of the Google search home page which said: “We stand in support of racial equality, and all those who search for it.”

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Images courtesy of Jay L. Clendenin and thesatimes |

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