yo, whats up folks of the community and fellow Green Papaya readers,
I hope everyone is doing real well and healthy. There's been a crazy epidemic with the flu just going around and getting everyone, including myself. I'm emailing yall to bring attention to something that happened a few months ago, something that continues to affect not just the Southeast Asian community, but all people of color.
Last November, a few SASC folks were kickin it with the SEAYL students late into the evening, as they were working on and editing their personal statements and submitting their applications to UCs and CSUs. Sometime along that evening that lasted until like 3 or 4am in the morning, we took a break and were just talking about the neighborhoods we grew up in, and one of the SEAYL students says, "Oh yeah, that reminds me, a couple of days ago a Cambodian dude was shot and killed delivering pizza, it happened right down the block from my house."
I remember trying to find news about the murder through like google searches, but like after a week, nothing really came up about it. And I just left it at that, until recently. I was having a conversation with my sister and something reminded that I should really continue to look into it. I was able to find a couple of articles about it, thank you John Viet for posting one up already.
It's a really tragic and sad event. What happened to the man who was gunned down and killed could have been any of us, or could have been our mother, father, uncle, sister, friend, or whomever. To think that he leaves behind a wife, 2 young kids, and an aging mother in Cambodia who no longer has a son, this shit fucking kills me inside. To think about how hard he hussled, just like so many of our parents have, to help he and his wife provide for they family..
And this shit hasn't stopped. When I was in high school, my friend's Cambodian mother was shot and killed delivering newspapers in the early morning in Oakland. And I think about how many late nights my parents spent working in a donut store in shadyass areas of livermore, or how my cousin's grandfather was held up at gunpoint, and hit in the forehead with a gun while working by himself at a donut store.
It's really difficult to think that things like this happen so often, yet these are stories that we all have and can share. And whereas it's hella fucking sad to hear about and see our people getting killed while doing whatever they gotta do to put food on the table for they families, this reminds of why we stay as organizers for not just Southeast Asian folks, but for all communities. If you read the articles, which I hope folks do, I hope you realize how fortune we are to just be living and be (or have been) active organizers in SASC, BCSA, SEAYL, STP, reach!, LASR, bridges, or wherever else you find your passion. Moreover, i hope that we continue to use this privilege that we have as student or post-grad organizers to help our communities further find self-empowerment...and just help each other heal.
no justice. no peace.
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