I was shaken by the brutal murder of George Floyd, but it was not only because yet another black person had died at the hands of police — it was the silence of the other officers who stood by and watched it happen. One of those officers was Asian American.
White Americans are far from the only ones to exhibit anti-black racism. Sadly, the passive acceptance of racial injustice among many communities perpetuates the problem. I am a South Asian woman married to an African American man. Police-initiated anti-black violence pains me. I will never understand my husband’s pain, but I will always stand with him. There exists a long history of African Americans and South Asians standing together , which we can look to as the basis for improving ties. From as far back as the early 20th century, advocates from both ethnicities acknowledged race in the United States and caste in India as parallel ways of deeming some people inferior.
In the mid-1940s, B.R. Ambedkar, the chief architect of the Indian Constitution, asserted that there was much similarity between the positions of the Dalits, or “Untouchables,” in India and black people in America. He endeavored to prevent the new Indian government from forgetting its Dalit citizens, as the American North had forgotten African Americans by allowing Jim Crow after the Civil War.
Martin Luther King Jr. traveled to India in 1959. He acknowledged that India’s government had made strides to fight caste oppression where the United States had not made progress in fighting racism. Of his trip, he wrote “[Gandhi] took ‘Untouchables’ by the hand and led them into the temples from which they had been excluded …to equal that, President Eisenhower would take a [black] child by the hand and lead her into Central High School in Little Rock.” Inspired by Ambedkar’s pursuit to abolish caste and the Black Panther party’s revolutionary tactics against racial discrimination, the Dalit Panthers formed in 1972. Informed by each other’s struggles, the Black Panther Party and the Dalit Panthers shared a vision to seek liberation from racism and caste oppression.
It would be remiss not to also acknowledge historical anti-immigration laws that targeted both Africans and Asians. It was not until the civil rights movement that reforms, such as the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, provided greater opportunities for African and Asian immigrants.
The deaths of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Eric Garner and many others should cause us to remember this old alliance.
I had been silent most of my life. When I met my husband, he opened my eyes to his experiences as a black person. Eight years later, I still feel I have a lot to learn. I am determined to stand in solidarity with him and all black people.
There are many steps we can take. We can read about and listen to the experiences of black people without interruption or judgment. We can understand our shared history with African Americans. If we want to claim a history of mutual oppression, we must cultivate empathy for those who are being oppressed. We can acknowledge our privilege. Many immigrant communities have the opportunities we do because of the tireless efforts of African Americans in shaping American history.
We can talk about race with our family, friends and colleagues, no matter how difficult. And we should go out of our way to be anti-racist. Speak up, write or engage in peaceful protest. As Martin Luther King Jr. said, “[those] who passively accept evil [are] as much involved in it as [those] who help to perpetrate it.” We must break the silence. We must revive an old alliance.
Author Bio Janani Raveendran is a Primary Care resident physician in New Haven, CT. She is interested in innovative value-based primary care and preventative medicine. Beyond striving to provide high-quality, patient-centered care for diverse populations, she hopes to advocate for systemic change for her patients as well as educate aspiring medical providers. In her free time, she loves to dance, paint, travel and spend time with her family and friends.
Originally published in the Hartford Courant.
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