What Southeast Asian Refugees Owe to Black Lives — PIVOT – The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization

I was put on this by a friend of mne, an Angoleira named Xau Ying Ly.
As usual, you can find the link to the full article on the bottom of this post.
“Two decades before the first Southeast Asian refugees resettled in the United States, Black civil rights activists advanced the policies that helped reshape immigration policies that have saved our families. Their efforts culminated in the Civil Rights Acts of 1964 and the Voting Rights Act of 1965, which codified equality, anti-discrimination, and anti-racism as our country’s official policy.
…
Black civil rights leaders also had a direct hand in advocating for Southeast Asian refugees. Bayard Rustin, a Black and gay civil rights leader who co-organized the March on Washington, was a member of the International Rescue Committee’s Citizens Commission on Indochinese Refugees. Rustin visited refugee camps in Thailand in 1978, listening to the struggles of Cambodian, Hmong, Lao, and Vietnamese refugees. In part due to Rustin’s advocacy, President Carter supported a policy that rescued Southeast Asian refugees who had been turned away elsewhere.
Rustin also took on the difficult task of changing the mind of public opinion. Through national organizing, he convinced over 80 Black civil rights, organized labor, business, and academic leaders to publicly support the resettlement of Southeast Asian refugees. They took out an advertisement in the March 19, 1978 issue of The New York Times, soliciting donations for the International Rescue Committee, and connecting the plight of refugees to those of poor and Black Americans. Among the signatories are giants such as Coretta Scott King; Rev. Jesse Jackson; Daisy Bates; Hazel N. Dukes; and A. Phillip Randolph.
Within the Black community, Rustin responded to objections that refugees would only take away desperately needed jobs and housing by explaining the humanitarian crisis, going as far as calling the Southeast Asian refugee relegated to precarity the new ‘invisible man.’ This invisible man, formulated by the legendary Ralph Ellison, is one who is not seen for who they are as an individual, but only as a subset of stereotypes.
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Our fight for resettlement is over, but the fight for the civil rights of Black people continues. In May of 1978, regarding the plight of Southeast Asian refugees, Rustin wrote: ‘Black people must recognize these people for what they are: brothers and sisters, not enemies and competitors.’ They were there for us, and we should be there for them: it is our turn to stand up for Black lives, not out of a debt that needs repaying, but out of decency.”

 

Source: What Southeast Asian Refugees Owe to Black Lives — PIVOT – The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization

Martin Luther King Jr Day: What We Get Wrong About His Story | Time

 

“In the 1960s, the vast majority of white people, South and North, disapproved of the movement’s tactics. In a May 1961 Gallup survey, only 22% of Americans approved of what the Freedom Riders were doing, and 57% of Americans said that the “sit-ins at lunch counters, freedom buses, and other demonstrations by Negroes were hurting the Negro’s chances of being integrated in the South.” Just before the March on Washington, Gallup found only 23% of Americans had favorable opinions of the proposed civil rights demonstration.”

 

Source: Martin Luther King Jr Day: What We Get Wrong About His Story | Time

Murder of Black Youth in Rio de Janeiro Shows Racist Nature of Policing in Brazil | Black Agenda Report

The recent murder of a teen in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil has thrown light on the racist nature of policing in the country. The 14-year-old Black student, João Pedro Mattos Pinto, was killed during an operation of the Federal Police (PF) and of the Coordinator of Special Resources (Core) in the metropolitan region of Rio de Janeiro on the afternoon of May 18, Monday. He was hit in the stomach when he was playing in the yard of his house. The adolescent was taken away in a helicopter of the civil police after being shot. His family was provided no information about his whereabouts till the morning of May 19.

 

Source: Murder of Black Youth in Rio de Janeiro Shows Racist Nature of Policing in Brazil | Black Agenda Report

Brazil Government Aide Says COVID-19’s Toll on Elderly Will Reduce Pension Deficit As Country’s Outbreak Escalates

Prompt action taken by Brazil’s health officials at the start of the coronavirus was reportedly overturned at the intervention of President Jair Bolsanaro’s chief-of-staff’s office, which is facing growing criticism over the response to the disease.

 

Source: Brazil Government Aide Says COVID-19’s Toll on Elderly Will Reduce Pension Deficit As Country’s Outbreak Escalates

Mississippi prosecutor says she hopes coronavirus ‘spreads in riots’

A second-term Mississippi county prosecutor posted — and then deleted — a Facebook comment in which she apparently expressed optimism that “the deadly strain” of coronavirus would spread among rioters protesting the death of George Floyd in police custody, according to a new report.

 

Source: Mississippi prosecutor says she hopes coronavirus ‘spreads in riots’

U.S. police failing to respect right to peaceful protest: Amnesty International

Protests sparked by the killing of George Floyd in Minnesota last week continued to intensify across the U.S. Sunday, as protesters broke local curfews to voice frustration over policing in America.

Source: U.S. police failing to respect right to peaceful protest: Amnesty International