30 years ago, my life changed because of a sequence of events that led to the LA Uprisings. Among these events were the violent beating of Rodney King by 4 police officers, the murder of Latasha Harlins, a 15-year-old Black girl murdered by Korean shop owner 두순자, and then on April 29, 1992, the acquittal of the 4 officers who violently abused and beat Rodney King.

These events, along with historic and systemic white supremacy and capitalism led up to the LA Uprisings.

At the time, I was a kid growing up in Korea witnessing all of this through very biased media. Witnessing the extreme anti-Blackness within my own Korean communities galvanized what I knew to be my life’s work to fight capitalism, white supremacy, and anti-Blackness within my own Asian communities.

30 years have passed since that day. And every single day I’ve dedicated to Black and Asian solidarity, dismantling anti-Blackness within Asian communities, and dismantling the systems of oppression including capitalism and white supremacy.

Every single day I think about Latasha Harlins and Rodney King, and the countless others for whom we do this work. Liberation work is love work. It’s life work. Always remember why and for whom you do the work that you do.