Just a reminder, Jacob Blake was shot 7 times in the back by the @KenoshaPolice in front of his children. Systemic racism and the oppression of BIPOC communities is beyond reprehensible. It's time to truly create #JusticeInPolicing and make them recognize that #BlackLivesMatter

Growing up Asian in #Kenosha a thread:

Now, a short disclaimer that my experience as an Asian American is not the same as that of the Black and Latino communities which are justly angered by the #JacobBlakeshooting. However, it helps to paint the full scope of racial divide

in the community. I grew up on the Southside of Kenosha, where you had nice homes just a couple blocks away from low income properties and multi-family housing barely suitable for living. I recognize the privilege that I hold having not been a victim of police brutality.

On a daily basis, the Kenosha community would taunt both my family and me. With things as simple as speaking at us like we don't know English and making comments about our "oriental" and "exotic" existence. I grew up with nicknames like "chink" and "slant eye" among other

racial slurs. I was othered, on a near daily basis, by the Kenosha community. Even to this day, the odd comment about how "you chinese people"(my family is Japanese American) are. The Kenosha community is steeped with a mindset of white normalcy and #WhiteSupremacy.

So much so, that even the "model minority" (a myth I'd happily educate about) was treated as different and, in some way, inferior. The treatment of my friends of other ethnic backgrounds, from both school and work, were much the same.

I've had latino coworkers told to go back to their country, with people openly talking about building the wall to keep people like them out. I have seen people openly mock the deaths of BIPOC at the hands of police, even moreso now that a shooting happened in the town itself.

I have overheard conversations at local bars and workplaces about how certain neighborhoods are ruining the community. I am not shocked that members of the Kenosha Police Department have committed such a heinous crime.

I am not shocked because the city of Kenosha has always prioritized the comfort and power structure of a white majority. However, much of what is happening in the #KenoshaRiots is damaging none of the structures of white supremacy that the city upholds.

Burning local businesses and stores that are the only source of food, no matter how marginally trash it may be, is damaging communities of color.

Destroying places where the community gathers, institutions that service the homeless population, and organizations that provide assistance to those suffering from addiction is damaging the very institutions we need to dismantle the normalcy of white supremacy.

But, more importantly, threatening places of residence and the homes of this community only further widens the divide between the majority and BIPOC in Kenosha.

Doing these things in larger cities, where white supremacy is not a mainstream ideology, does not do lasting damage to the local communities of color. However, it will have lasting damage on communities of color in a small, white majority, city.

This mayhem is only functioning to deepen the Us vs. Them mentality that the white supremacists and their sympathizers already hold.

This is not to say that there shouldn't be protests, we need to take to the streets and make our voices heard. We must demand accountability and justice through our mass efforts. Because every American deserves the opportunity to live a life with dignity and security.