More than 200 Asian American Christians in Leimert Park to show solidarity with #BlackLivesMatter. Pastors confess complicity in the model minority myth & systemic racism
“So AAPI Church, where do we stand? With blue-eyed Jesus on stolen land? There is a train a’coming. Let’s climb aboard.” - Diane Ujiiye, AAPI Christians for Social Justice
Leimert Park location of #BLM vigil has special significance for Japanese Americans. LP & Crenshaw district were where many resettled in LA after leaving incarceration camps of WWII.
Rev. Victor Cyrus-Franklin who leads congregation in Inglewood says he's been part of a group of leaders from Black and Asian Am churches who've been meeting regularly in recent months. Says they all have the same Jesus.
Civil rights activist Yuri Kochiyama repeatedly mentioned and, here, quoted:
"Decolonize your mind and cross borders.”
Rev. Kristen Sonkyo Oh of Azusa Pacific U. on model minority stereotype:
“It pits us against our Black siblings until xenophobia foreignizes us one more time as we’ve seen in this pandemic.”
Many Asian Am churches are evangelical, conservative, suburban.
AAPI Christians here today would call themselves committed to social justice but even some like Christina Liao of Temple City say it took George Floyd to change everything.
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