The HMoob American Studies Committee (HMASC) is a student activist committee at UW-Madison, which is partnering with CCWT in ongoing research to study the socio-cultural and institutional factors that impact the college and career experiences of HMoob American college students. The HMASC has issued a powerful statement in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement, and we at CCWT wanted to acknowledge and support their statement by re-posting it to our blog site.
June 1st, 2020
The HMoob American Studies Committee (HMASC) stands in solidarity with the Black community and Black Lives Matter. The state-sanctioned murder of George Floyd committed by police officers of the Minneapolis Police Department is unjustifiable. Mr. Floyd’s death is just one of the many Black lives taken away by the hands of a system that does not value Black lives. The racist violence that continuously harms and kills the Black community is a manifestation of hundreds of years of complicity in, perpetuation of, and tolerance for white supremacy, racism, and capitalism, which prioritizes white lives and disregards Black lives and the oppressive conditions that Black people are forced to live in. That being said, we cannot expect Black people to do all the labor of dismantling systems of oppression that harm us all.
HMASC is a student-activist group that advocates for HMoob American Studies and HMoob American students at UW-Madison. We recognize the harm that systemic racism plays in our everyday lives. We empathize with the pain and frustration that is being experienced in the Black community. Importantly, we acknowledge that as Asian Americans, we cannot understand the depth of agony and anger that the Black community is feeling.
It is necessary in our social justice work to call in the HMoob community to stand for Black lives. HMoob people perpetuate and uphold anti-blackness all the time, whether we are conscious of it or not. The HMoob community must recognize that the murder of George Floyd is not a unique case. Unjust murders committed by police continue to happen to Black people frequently in this country. Additionally, we must acknowledge that we have benefited off of Black activism, and understand that our liberation is tied to theirs—that we cannot be free until all of us are free. We, the members of HMASC, urge the HMoob community to become aware of our biases and to dismantle our anti-Blackness. We urge the HMoob community to take a stand with the Black community to help bring justice and liberation.
As we continue to advocate for the inclusion of HMoob American Studies in the curriculum, we will hold ourselves and our community accountable to fighting against the oppression of Black lives. As a start, HMASC members have donated $250 to Free The 350 Bail Fund in support and solidarity with the Black community and Black Lives Matter.
Here are some groups to get involved with in Madison working on ending police violence:
- Freedom, Inc., Freedom Youth Squad’s No Cops in School Campaign which demands the removal of cops from MMSD, https://www.facebook.com/FreedomYouthSquad/
- Free The 350 Bail Fund; Venmo: @Liam-Manjon; Paypal: FreeThe350BailFund@gmail.com; Cashapp: $FreeThe350BailFund;
https://www.facebook.com/FreeThe350BailFund/
In solidarity,
HMoob American Studies Committee (HMASC)
2019-2020 Representatives