CUNY APALSA's Statement of Solidarity on the Movement for Black Lives

The CUNY Asian Pacific American Law Student Association (APALSA) stands in solidarity with CUNY BLSA, #BlackLivesMatter, and the uprisings sparked in Minneapolis that started a prairie fire across the United States. APALSA condemns the racist police killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery, and Tony McDade. We demand justice and accountability, not just through the limited legal system that we all know is intrinsically oppressive, but through the abolition of the white supremacist and capitalist State. APALSA offers ourselves and our community’s resources to support members of the Black community in their movement.

APALSA acknowledges that institutional anti-Blackness extends beyond simply police brutality.

The American and European empires were built through slave labor—the exploitation specifically of Black people, alongside the exploitation of other colonized nations in Asia and Latin America. While we acknowledge imperialism as our common class enemy, we know that imperialism built its power through the violent and explicit exploitation of Black people for centuries. So when we link our struggles together, especially in class solidarity, we must not dilute our class analysis by forgetting that our common enemy exists—and continues to exist—principally through the oppression of Black people. To fight for Black lives means to fight and abolish the fascist State that prioritizes profit over people and terrorizes working-class communities to protect property and the interests of the ruling class.

Asian-American identity was birthed out of the extensive solidarity work between Asian and Black communities during the Civil Rights Era. Our struggle against racism and imperialism has always been inextricably connected. As Asian-Americans, we recognize that our work is dual. We must work at home and in the streets to combat racism and anti-Blackness. We undertake a continuing duty to uplift Black voices, give our space and material support to Black organizers and educators, and combat anti-Blackness within the Asian-American community. APALSA commits to organize and mobilize our own communities around these issues and hold ourselves accountable to act upon our solidarity, as the liberation of all communities of color is contingent on the liberation of all Black people.

APALSA looks forward to building with all of our radical campus groups but also community organizations throughout New York. While CUNY Law is an incubator for future movement lawyers, it sits in the epicenter of global capitalism. To truly extend our solidarity, we aspire to forge community relations with the organizations already doing this crucial work on the ground.

In the words of Assata Shakur: “Nobody in the world, nobody in history, has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who were oppressing them.” To emulate this principle, we plan to put our words of solidarity in action both on campus and in our local communities and to fight for a truly pro-people society that protects the rights and dignity of Black and oppressed communities.

In solidarity,

APALSA Executive Board, 2020-2021
Isabel-Antonette (Isa) Cajulis
Sarah Chung
Amanda Jimenez
Kristin Maglabe

MAKIBAKA! HUWAG MATAKOT!
ASIANS FOR BLACK LIBERATION!
ABOLISH THE RACIST AND CAPITALIST STATE!
#BLACKLIVESMATTER #ASIANS4BLACKLIVES

GET INVOLVED At Home:

Donate: Offer material support by donating to bail funds, Black community organizations, and Black organizers and educators.
- Links:

■ National Resource Guide
■ BLM Masterlist

Educate: Read Black revolutionary thought and learn about histories of Black and Asian-American liberation. Create dialogue within your community by initiating difficult conversations to confront anti-Blackness.
- Links:

■ Library of Black feminist writers and revolutionaries
■ Asian-American Racial Justice Toolkit
■ Anti-Racist Resource Guide
■ Black History Month Library
■ Black revolutionary texts
■ Letters for Black Lives translated in different languages , incl. Arabic,

Bahasa Indonesian, Bahasa Malaysian, Bengali, Chinese (Simplified), Chinese (Traditional), Hindi, Hmong (Green dialect), Hmong (White dialect), Farsi, Japanese, Khmer, Korean, Tagalog, Tamil, Telugu, Thai, Urdu, and Vietnamese