What happened in Ferguson is not just a black problem, it’s an American problem(photo by SocialJusticeSeeker812).
The death of Michael Brown matters to Asian Americans as it should for any American.
In a post republished in Insights from the Korean Quarterly, Soya Jung gave her specific reasons why Asian Americans should be concerned about Ferguson.
There’s been a lot of rage expressed even before the Grand Jury decision not to indict the police officer who killed Brown. A word in Korean similar to rage is han which is loosely defined as the sorrow and anger that builds up over oppression.
Jung describes her own reason to have Korean rage just like African Americans have black rage. She recalls Sandeep Singh, the Sikh man this year who was run over in Queens and dragged 30 feet to his death while the perpetrator screamed “Go back to your own country, Bin Laden!”
She sees the model minority narrative that renders Asian Americans invisible–somewhere between whiteness and blackness.
You can read her thoughts on why Ferguson matters to Asian Americans in Insights.