"And I say to you, my young friends, doors are opening to you--doors of opportunities that were not open to your mothers and fathers--and the great challenge facing you is to be ready to face these doors as they open."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
Last weekend, I stood in the center of Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and felt hot tears prick my eyes as I watched a recording of MLK's last speech, "I've been to the Mountaintop."
It was April 3rd, 1968, the day before Martin Luther King Jr was assassinated. That day, he spoke of faith, of mortality, and of our shared humanity. He spoke of how "something is happening in our world" and that he would be happy if God allowed him to live just a few years in the second half of the twentieth century”.
Martin Luther King Jr. was right. Now, in the 21st century, the world is changing faster than we could've ever imagined. Doors are opening, unforeseen opportunities are being revealed in front of our eyes. Powerful movements like the Black Lives Matter movement and the #MeToo movement have changed the way people think and have brought attention to important issues like sexual harassment and institutional racism.
Now, as an Asian American girl living in the 21st century, I can be friends with whomever I want regardless of their race. I have the opportunity to travel across the world and meet other youth of vastly diverse cultures and backgrounds.
But for me to have access to these opportunities, the leaders and change makers who came before me had to fight for their rights and freedom.
Historically, the United States saw Asian Americans as a threat to the whites-only immigration policy they promoted. Asian Americans were nicknamed the "Yellow Peril" because they were "unclean" and didn't fit in. In the 19th century, xenophobic propaganda spurred the Chinese Exclusion Act, a US law that banned Chinese immigration for 10 years. More recently, with the COVID-19 pandemic, racist terms like "The China Virus" and "Kung Flu" have also become prevalent.
Asian American activists like the late Yuri Kochiyama have been fighting tirelessly against such discrimination for centuries.
In 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 that mandated the removal of Japanese Americans from California and other areas that were deemed "strategic." Yuri Kochiyama and her family were sent to assembly centers and relocation centers, which, in reality, were horse stalls at a Californian racecourse and heavily guarded barracks in the middle of Arkansas.
In 1960, Yuri moved to a housing project in Harlem where she and her Black neighbors became involved in non-violent protests organized by the Congress of Racial Equality (CORE). She was an active member of the Revolutionary Action Movement, a black nationalist organization. She became a pioneer in the growing Asian American Movement, becoming a featured speaker at the Asian Americans for Action (AAA)'s Hiroshima-Nagasaki Day events.
Yuri discussed many political ideas with Malcom X, who transformed her views on activism. He inspired her to develop an internationalist point of view, "linking the freedom struggles of Black people in America with the experiences of people of African and Asian descent all over the world" (National Park Service on Yuri Kochiyama).
Rather than just civil rights, Yuri Kochiyama, Martin Luther King Jr., and Malcolm X embraced human rights.
"We believe that our problem is one, not of violation of civil rights, but a violation of human rights. Not only are we denied the right to be a citizen in the United States, we're denied the right to be a human being."
- Malcolm X
Human oppression is linked regardless of identity. My humanity is linked to your humanity, and that's why activists like Yuri Kochiyama and Martin Luther King Jr. fight for the acceptance of everyone, not just limited to Asian Americans or African Americans.
Our shared humanity, our continual battle for equality has brought us to this point where we all can be proudly celebrated for who we are.
For Martin Luther King Jr., that was not the case.
"Martin Luther King Jr. grew up in a time and place in which black people were considered worthless. But he believed in himself, and others believed in him"(From Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park).
And that's why being at Martin Luther King Jr. National Historical Park and listening to Dr. King's "I've been to the Mountaintop" brought me to tears. It reminded me of how much I have to be grateful for, how much of my freedom I have taken for granted.
"Don't allow anybody to make you feel that you're nobody. Always feel that you count. Always feel that you have worth, and always feel that your life has ultimate significance."
- Martin Luther King Jr.
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