David Inoue
It was a long time coming, nearly five hours to be exact. We knew things wouldn’t be easy conducting convention virtually, but five hours to pass Resolution 1 was probably a little more than anyone really expected. Fortunately, the rest of the afternoon went smoothly, though perhaps that was due to exhaustion from the prior debate.
While I am sure there were many sighs of relief at the conclusion of a long day of National Council meetings, which accomplished passage of two important resolutions and a biennial budget, in addition to two previous days of workshops and National Council meetings, the work is really only just beginning.
On the first day of National Council sessions, David Lin, vp of planning and development, with the staff support of Phillip Ozaki, kicked off JACL’s most ambitious fundraising campaign since the establishment of the Legacy Fund in 1990.
We hope to raise $3 million over the next three years. This will be a tremendous effort for the organization, but it will also enable us to do the work called for in our budget and in response to the two passed resolutions.
It should be noted that Central California District Council Governor Dale Ikeda is also leading a task force to examine our Legacy Fund and ensure it supports the work of the organization and our chapters as effectively as possible within the restrictions of the original donors’ intentions. These initiatives will be crucially important to making sure JACL has the resources to do our work as a civil rights organization.
What will truly define what JACL is as an organization are the two resolutions passed on July 18. These resolutions affirm our need to serve as a leader in the civil rights community as we advocate not only for our own Asian American community, but also for others who have been denied their rights for far too long.
It is instructive even this year as we recognize 40 years since the public hearings for the Commission on Wartime Relocation and Internment of Civilians (CWRIC), which led to Japanese American redress. The equivalent commission to examine Black reparations for slavery and its ongoing legacy remains unpassed by Congress.
Similarly, even as we have pushed for further hate crimes legislation, nothing controversial, only the call for the government to do a better job of tracking data, we saw no progress toward passage for several years.
Yet, in the wake of the Atlanta and Indianapolis shootings of mostly Asian American victims, we were able to push through the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act with near unanimity from Congress.
It is disappointing that where Japanese Americans achieved redress so many years ago we cannot even get a commission passed today, or that while hate crimes actually impact Muslim and Jewish communities at a much higher rate than Asians, the only way to pass broad anti-hate crimes legislation is because Asians are being targeted.
The passage of the hate crimes act was instructive as to how it came to be our turn to bring something across the line. By attaching the Jabara Heyer NO HATE Act to the COVID-19 bill, we were able to use our moment in the spotlight to bring a victory for the wider community.
As Resolution 1 affirms, it is time for us a Japanese Americans, as the JACL, to apply our time and effort to achieving justice for the Black community. Reparations are long overdue as is achieving a truly just justice system.
While it may have been challenging for us to pass the resolution at convention — not made any easier by the virtual setting — the real work begins now. Local chapters must join in the national efforts to pass significant legislation in HR 40, the George Floyd Justice in Policing Act and the BREATHE Act.
Let’s take a moment to celebrate the statement we made in passing Resolution 1, but not too much time before we all begin the hard work of taking that statement to action. I look forward to you all joining together to work to make our statements come alive and bring about the justice and equity that we deserve and need as a nation.
David Inoue is executive director of the JACL. He is based in the organization’s Washington, D.C., office.
