Events & Calendars CHI Salon: Exploring Afro-Asian Solidarities in the Aftermath of George Floyd

In conversation, Karin Aguilar-San Juan and Lili Kim will explore the contexts for Afro-Asian solidarities with reference to the brutal police murder of George Floyd in Minneapolis at the end of May 2020. One of the four officers charged with the killing is Hmong, leading Hmong and Asian American communities to a painful self-inquiry on the nature and scope of our anti-Black racism. Essential to that inquiry is knowledge of the U.S. wars in Asia, reaching as far back as the Philippine-American War. From the Philippines all the way to Laos and Cambodia-- where the US/CIA coerced Hmong villagers into accessory roles in a "Secret War" --BIPOC communities have been presented with a limited menu of options for good citizenship. How will we deal with that menu today?

Karin Aguilar-San Juan is professor and chair of American studies and associate director of the Serie Center for Scholarship and Teaching at Macalester College. She is also a leader within the Race, Love, and Liberation Laboratory (for growing spiritual things) based at Clouds in Water Zen Center, St. Paul, Minn.

Lili Kim is a CHI Fellow, Visiting Lecturer in the Department of History at Amherst College, and an Associate Professor of History and Global Migrations at Hampshire College.

This event is open to the public over Zoom. Co-sponsored by the Department of History at Amherst College. Pre-registration is required.