A Deafening Silence, When Solidarity Is Needed

Where do Korean Americans stand when it comes to violations of civil and human rights at the hands of law enforcement? In the past six months, we have been confronted with painful images of individuals, mostly newcomers, being abused, beaten and shot to death by police officers.

In most police actions, the initial public reaction is to accept and to defer to the authority of officers who use force. But when is enough really enough? At what point will we feel compelled to act in order to demand justice and a stop to all the violence? Will it be when an elderly monolingual Korean man is wrongfully arrested, imprisoned, then released into the night to be beaten nearly to death? Will it be when a young man who is clearly emotionally distraught is hog-tied and beaten in public? Or perhaps we must wait until a videotape captures a young man being pursued like an animal after committing a traffic violation, only to end up dead after taking several bullets to the head. So far, the Korean American community in Southern California has not been moved in the least by these acts. Our silence is deafening.

Unlike the African American community, which has come to appreciate the meaning of solidarity, we still struggle against traditions that both inhibit and divide us. When Mr. Rodney G. King was brutally beaten by officers of the Los Angeles Police Department, the community did not allow the media or political “spin-masters” to define the issues by labeling Mr. King an ex-convict, drug user or social misfit. Nor did the African American community permit the judicial system to go unchecked. The community made it clear that the central point was that Mr. King is a human being, deserving of fundamental civil and human rights protections. It was not surprising that people of conscience of all races came to appreciate the truth of that position. That Mr. King was so imperfect made the point even more compelling.

Unlike the Latino community that immediately mobilized to denounce the beatings of immigrants at the hands of the Riverside County Sheriffs, our community has expressed only tepid disapproval of the acts of violence against Korean immigrant men who have been abused, beaten and killed by law enforcement over the past six months. The Latino community lost no time in seeking public hearings at the federal level to examine the problem of police brutality against immigrants documented or not. Again, the message was clear: these were human beings, deserving of basic civil rights protections under the law and (thankfully) our constitution confers such protections to all persons, not only “citizens’.

One must accept the fact that African Americans and Latinos have been here longer. Both communities have spent generations seeking fundamental fairness from our public institutions. Many before us have shed blood, sweat and tears in search of that elusive and enduring notion of justice and equality. We cannot ignore or deny the historical record; it is one that is replete with examples of discrimination and violence visited upon those who are newcomers, vulnerable and silent.

Korean Americans are at yet another crossroad: we are newcomers, we have been vulnerable, but will we remain silent?