2-18-01
STATEWIDE STATEMENT OF SOLIDARITY AGAINST ANTI-ASIAN ATTACKS:
"Across California, we declare our solidarity with the struggle of Asian American and other anti-racist students at UC Davis against the recent series of racist mob attacks against Asian Americans.
"We oppose racist violence. We condemn in the strongest possible terms all anti-Asian racism. We condemn in the strongest possible terms violent attacks against Asian Americans and other minorities.
"On February 8, hundreds of Asian American and other anti-racist students protested at UC Davis against these attacks. These incidents make clear that, in our common pursuit of justice and equality, we share a common enemy and wage a common struggle. There has been a rise in violent attacks against Asian Americans and other minorities in the last several years. The recent series of racist attacks in California has prompted racists to believe this is a new day for them -- that they can once again assert their bigotry openly and claim these campuses and this society as theirs. We are showing them that we are uniting together and are prepared to win!
"Across California, we declare our unity and solidarity against all racist attacks. All of us -- black, Latino, Asian American, Arab, white -- announce our readiness to come to the defense of Asian Americans and other minorities against racist violence. We struggle together for a new society based on integration and equality for all. Together and united, we cannot be defeated."
Add your group (student club, civil rights organization, union, church, etc.) to the above statement! Please send the following info to california@bamn.com:
Name of Organization
City or School
Contact Person Info (Name, E-Mail and/or phone)
- The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration & Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
- Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP, ASUC electoral party)
- Bay Area Urban League
- Carol Burr, Director of Multicultural and Gender Studies at CSU, Chico
- Richard Hauptman, California Democratic Party
- The Asian Pacific American Law Student Assocation of Georgetown University Law Center
- Sappho's Sisters, UC Berkeley
- Randy Parraz, AFL-CIO Dept. of Field Mobilization, So Cal
- The Imoyase Group, Loyola Marymount College
- Euclid Hall, Co-op in Berkeley
- Piya Chatterjee, Assistant Professor of Women's Studies, UC Riverside, Women in Coalition, Dept. of Women
- Campaign to End Homophobia
- BLack Student Union, Humboldt State University
- Sister Bernie Galvin, Director, Reliigious Witness to Homeless People
- Jennifer Emiko Boyden, Applied Research Center
- John Riehl, President, AFSCME Local 207, Detroit
- The Liberation Drummers, UC Santa Cruz
- Chicano Pre-Law Society, UT El Paso
- Unity Coalition of the Southern Alleghenies, Johnstown, PA
- Cal Actuary League (CAL), UC Berkeley
- Steven J. Ybarra, Chair of CDP, Chicano-Latino Caucus
- CDP, Chicano-Latino Caucus
- Stephanie Jed, UC San Diego
- Asian Pacific American Law Students Association (APALSA), University of San Francisco School of Law
- Adrienne Hurley, PhD, UC Irvine
Last updated: 2/22/01
BAMN LETTER OF SOLIDARITY AGAINST ANTI-ASIAN ATTACKS:
BAMN salutes the courageous new struggle of Asian American and other anti-racist students at UC Davis against the recent series of racist mob attacks against Asian Americans.
On February 8, an integrated crowd of hundreds of students refused to be intimidated and protested the recent anti-Asian violence at UC Davis (details of the incidents are below). The new emerging mass civil rights movement is uniting together and declaring: We will not tolerate racist mob violence, against Asian Americans or any other minorities.
As an organization committed to the defense of affirmative action by any means necessary, BAMN stands proudly in solidarity with the UC Davis students. We recognize the intimate tie between the current attempt by the resegregationists to attack the gains of the Civil Rights Movement and the recent rise in violent racist attacks against Asian American and other minorities. We recognize the need for all of us to band together in a united, determined struggle against racism.
Open racist attacks against Asian Americans have risen dramatically since the attack on affirmative action began with the UC Regents' ban in 1995. Not too long ago, under the iron grip of segregation both North and South, such open attacks against Asian Americans and other minorities occurred frequently. Asian Americans and other minorities never ventured to travel alone at night in predominantly-white areas if it could be avoided. Such attacks once defended segregation and helped define the social life of the nation, before the mass struggle of blacks and other anti-racist people against racism and segregation confronted such attacks and opened up and transformed the whole society. The current attack on affirmative action and integration has prompted white racists to believe this is a new day for them -- that they can once again assert their bigotry openly and claim these campuses and this society as theirs. Two roads lie before us, and ONLY TWO -- back towards the type of society that existed under segregation, or forward towards a society based on integration and equality for all.
NONE of us can live in a society in which open racist attacks against Asian Americans occur! In the past several years, the opponents of affirmative action have never said with a frank honesty that Asian Americans are equal. Instead, they have stereotyped Asian Americans as a "model minority" only as a cynical attempt to use Asian Americans as a vehicle for racist insults against blacks, Latinos, and other minorities. (Please read the article at the bottom of this email covering Professor Frank Wu's testimony supporting affirmative action at the current University of Michigan trial.) They have attempted to pit us against our natural allies in struggle. In doing so, they have also set up Asian Americans for more racist attacks. But we will not be divided and conquered. From this day forward, we struggle only TOGETHER!
On Thursday, March 8, we have the historic opportunity of turning this tide of racism around. On that day, thousands of students and over 450 professors across the UC System will take action to demand that the UC Regents reverse the ban on affirmative action in the UC System now. The new civil rights movement has already forced the UC Regents to consider possibly taking up the question at their March 14-15 meeting. On March 8, we will declare across California: WE WILL NOT GO BACK. Scoring this victory in defense of the gains of the Civil Rights Movement would be a devastating blow to the racists across California and nationwide. This spring will be the dawn of a new period of civil rights struggle.
The new emerging mass civil rights movement declares our unity and solidarity against all racist attacks. All of us -- black, Latino, Asian American, Arab, white -- announce our readiness to come to the defense of Asian Americans and other minorities against racist violence. From now on, we declare we will struggle together for a new society based on integration and equality for all. Together and united, no amount of insults or terror will ever be able to turn us back.
On March 8 and beyond, we march forward, side by side, for our common future.In solidarity,
The Coalition to Defend Affirmative Action and Integration &
Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)
Supported by: Defend Affirmative Action Party (DAAP, ASUC electoral party)
Email: california@bamn.com
Phone: (510) 895-3068* Please have your group sign the statewide solidarity statement above
Excerpt from email sent out from UC Davis detailing the racist incidents:
Over the past few months, a series of violent racist mob attacks have occurred against API (Asian Pacific Islander) students on the University of California at Davis campus. These hate crimes have included:
*October A CSUS Asian sorority were creating their Greek letters with rocks at the Yolo Causeway levee. A group of white males from a Davis fraternity arrived and are upset that the sorority got there first. Racial slurs are made and the sorority left in fear for their safety.
*October A car of Korean males affiliated with a fraternity were attempting to drive through a parking lot of an apartment complex but were blocked by a predominantly white fraternity (Kappa Sigma). Words were exchanged and when the Korean Americans went into their apartment, approximately 15 white males barged into their apartment and beat them, calling them "CHINKS" while their apartment was ransacked.
*December 80 members from 2 API frats (Lambda Phi Epsilon and Sigma Kappa Rho) were at the Yolo County Causeway levee waiting their turn to create their greek letters with the rocks. A predominantly white UCD fraternity (Kappa Sigma), upset that the two Asian frats are there first and instigate a fight. A Kappa Sigma member pushed a Lambda member while another says "GET THE FUCK OUT OF THE HILL CHINK!" This escalates to a brawl and police come to break it up.
313-438-3748
And Fight for Equality By Any Means Necessary (BAMN)