#seafn

April 17, 2015

TODAY, marks 40 years since our country was taken over by the Khmer Rouge revolution. It was revolution that was rooted in political theory, but not liberatory action. Revolution built on communist ideology, but practiced through dictatorship and mass murder. Revolution that promised life, but led to the genocide of our people. Revolution that cherished our homeland, but led us to displacement.

TODAY, as SEAFN reflects on the deep resistance and resilience of our community, we also commit to recognizing the historic root causes of our experience. We know that French colonialism, and US imperialism and militarism bear responsibility for creating the conditions that led our country into the Killing Fields. We experience this oppression through continuous cycles of violence from one side of the world to the other, from war to displacement to poverty to incarceration to deportation. We are the collateral damage and human cost of colonialism, imperialism, and militarism. And we know that we will continue to carry the weight of all of this systemic violence for generations to come, and that we must heal through determined resistance and resilience.

TODAY, we are called to reclaim the meaning of revolution for our communities. We must continue to break the cycle of isolated trauma, and ground ourselves in collective healing, and actions rooted in our historic experience and our current conditions. And we have already begun. Our revolution has been our survival and our determination to re-build and re-center our lives, our families, and our people. Our revolution has been our resilient creation of new pathways for us to experience family, love, healing, and community. As we continue to struggle with the impact of intergenerational systemic oppression, we are building a new foundation that honors our humanity and dignity.

TODAY, our revolution honors our ancestors, our history, and our struggle. Our revolution is about action rooted in love. It is about building vision through support for each other and our experiences. It is about taking back our dignity by reclaiming and redefining our art, our culture, our music, and our expression. It is about challenging the ways that we have internalized systemic imbalance and oppression, and taking accountability for the ways this has caused us to enact violence on each other. It is about doing the work of continuously acknowledging our systemic privileges, and deepening our solidarity with other oppressed communities in a country founded on white supremacy, anti-blackness and indigenous genocide. It is about identifying our movement purpose through analysis of root causes and systemic responsibility. It is about fighting back against the separation of families from generation to generation.

TODAY, 40 years later, we are called to be revolutionary, and move together in the fight of our generation...the fight for our families, the fight for our communities. Today, that means ending deportation.

Dear Ferguson,

We are Southeast Asian sisters, brothers, and family, representing grassroots organizing communities across the country. Our hearts are filled with anger and pain as we bear witness to the murder of another Black child at the hands of the police. We also bear unwavering witness to “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot,” Mike Brown’s universally understood act of surrender in the midst of his killing.

We understand Mike Brown’s murder to be, not only a gross violation of human rights, but a systemic and racist evil in our country that devalues Black life.

As a 40 year old community in the US that has lived through colonialism, militarism, displacement, institutionalized poverty, incarceration, and deportation, we have our own experience of racial oppression by the state. But while our oppressions are connected, we recognize deeply that our oppression is not the same as yours. We recognize that our children are seen differently than yours. We recognize that while our struggles are linked, we must be clear about how Black bodies are systemically and historically dehumanized in this country in ways we will never face.

We also recognize that our Southeast Asian community hasn’t shown up the way we should have for the Black community in times of crisis and movement. We own that failure as a grassroots network of movement building Southeast Asian communities.

Our promise to you Ferguson, and the Black community in the US, is that from this day forward, we will work to collectively organize our people in support of your struggle. We will bear witness to the injustice experienced by Black communities and Black children, past and present. We will stand and fight with you. We will learn how to be in true solidarity with you.

Our hearts are with you, and our voices are sharing your story and your struggle.

Love,

Southeast Asian Freedom Network aka SEAFN