On May 25, 2020, George Floyd was murdered by Minneapolis police officer Derek Chauvin. Three other accomplices, all trusting their badges, did nothing as Chauvin knelt on Floyd’s neck - nonchalantly dismissing Floyd’s desperate cry for air - and took his life.
8 minutes & 46 seconds.
That’s how long Chauvin stayed kneeling on Floyd’s neck.
The video of this murder went viral, and people were rightfully enraged everywhere. The demand for justice was swift and loud. The officers were fired, but if history taught us anything, it was that this was yet another tiny bandage they hoped would cover or even heal the gaping wound of the African American community.
But the wound had been festering for too long.
Protests and marches were organized, and while most of these were absolutely peaceful, soon enough, local news stations showed images and footage of businesses being looted and cars and debris set on fire in the Fairfax District of Los Angeles. People ran in through smashed windows and carried out armloads of inventory that store owners no doubt only recently dusted off after finally being allowed to reopen after closures caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
And my first thought was, “Please… please don’t let this be another Sa-I-Gu.”
“Sa-I-Gu”… 4-2-9… April 29.
“Sa-I-Gu” is the term Koreans and Korean Americans use to refer to the L.A. Riots of 1992.
It made me remember the countless news reports and interviews aired during Sa-I-Gu on Korean TV and radio stations. Korean families losing everything and absolutely helpless as the businesses they built up over YEARS went down in flames in hours. That was over 3 decades ago, but the pain, fear and anger is still very real for many members of the Korean community. I remember my mom being scared to leave the house. I remember the stories of hardship and even suicides that followed by people simply unable to recover their losses.
Jin was livid. We knew that these looters were a very small number of individuals who clearly did not understand nor reflect the Black Lives Matter movement. But it was still hard and painful to watch.
But I get it.
The United States is being exposed on a worldwide level as a nation not just founded on the genocide of an indigenous people… not just built on the backs of slaves… but sustained on the oppression and disenfranchisement of its people for the benefit of the privileged few.
And the people have had enough.
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