49 Days of Mourning for George Floyd: An Asian American Re-awakening in St. Paul

Abstract

ABSTRACT Referring to the Vietnam antiwar movement has become a way to dodge the complexity and confusion of the post-1975 Asian American experience. To build Afro-Asian solidarity in the era of Black Lives Matter, there must be an honest and direct engagement with the various Southeast Asian American communities for whom the generational impacts of displacement, exile, trauma, and loss are far from fully recognized or processed. This essay reflects on the Asian American activism in the aftermath of George Floyd’s murder, tying together Minnesota’s racialized history with contemporary Buddhist-led social justice work in the Twin Cities of Minneapolis and St. Paul.