May 29, 2020 – NAAAP is one of 37 member organizations of NCAPA.
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.