By Saleah Blancaflor

(This story is made possible with the support of The Asian American Foundation)

The act of cross burning has historically been widely recognized as one of the most blatant symbols of hate when it comes to intimidating and threatening Black communities. 

Earlier this month on June 9, a large cross was seen burning in Chicago’s Grant Park near Columbus and Balbo Drive. AsAmNews reported that police arrested 21-year-old Naperville native Martin Lu on hate crime charges.

The act took place just ten days before Juneteenth, a holiday that commemorates the abolition of slavery in the United States. It also honors the legacy of resistance and fighting for freedom within Black communities. 

Local AAPI and immigrant-led organizations in the area, including the HANA Center and National Korean American Service and Education Consortium (NAKASEC), a national network of five affiliates serving six states, quickly denounced the act. 

In a joint statement, the HANA Center and NAKASEC wrote that the “horrific incident” is a reminder of the work that still needs to be done to combat racism — and to reaffirm their commitment of “doing the necessary work of addressing and dismantling anti-Blackness within Korean and Asian American and immigrant communities.”

Jung Woo Kim, NAKASEC’s co-director, said while the network was founded in 1994, they created the Woori Ujima project in 2017 to raise awareness and center Black and Asian experiences especially to raise awareness when acts like the cross-burning incident arise in their communities.

“Ujima” translates to “Our collective work and responsibility,” while “Woori” means “our” in Korean and “Ujima” is Swahili for “collective work and responsibility.” It’s a term that was combined to show support for the Black and Asian solidarity movements. 

As part of the project, NAKASEC partnered with UndocuBlack Network (UBN) to host the first national Black-AAPI Immigrant Action Day in Washington DC that same year. It brought together hundreds of Black and AAPI immigrants and political education workshops so attendees could share their stories on how White supremacy and anti-Blackness has impacted them. It was initially organized on the heels of the Trump administration rescinding the DACA program and cancelling TPS for the majority of affected countries. 

“Anti-Asian crime and anti-Blackness are very important [issues] so we need to support both sides,” Kim told AsAmNews. “Liberation tied into one another is the message that we’re trying to spread.”

Kim said Christian nationalism has played a part in fueling some of the White supremacy that has risen over the past years and because many of their members rely on Christianity, they hope to educate their communities on the topic.

“We believe true solidarity means calling out injustice when it’s uncomfortable,” Kim said. “That’s why it’s important to create a safe space together with Asian Americans, immigrants and Black Americans because we should refuse to let that toxic ideology divide us.”

Meanwhile, the HANA Center, which is a NAKASEC affiliate, was founded in 2017 through the merger of two historic organizations — Korean American Community Services (KACS) and Korean American Resource and Cultural Center (KRCC) — and continues to be deeply rooted in meeting the critical needs of Korean, Asian, and multiethnic immigrants in Chicago to build power toward systemic change.

Danae Kovac, Executive Director of HANA Center, said the organization has launched several local programs in Chicago over the past several years to support Black and Asian communities. That included listening tours around the time of George Floyd’s death after second-generation Korean Americans came to them to figure out ways to educate and talk to their immigrant parents about anti-Blackness amid the racial uprising in the country.

“There’s this need for generational communication and education and working together to address this hate and racism that is unfortunately part of our community and we need to recognize that,” Kovac said. “For the listening tour, we held different listening sessions with different constituencies of pastors, mothers, Korean adoptees, older and younger folks, to hear from them about what they were experiencing as this racial uprising was going on and what was their understanding of race in America was — and how that’s very different based on if you’ve immigrated here versus if you were born and grew up here.”

The HANA Center also created a racial justice committee and Geobuki Hakkyo (a.k.a The School of Turtles) with a mix of first-generation Korean immigrants and second-generation Korean Americans to foster education around racism and anti-Blackness in their community. The two groups also created The People’s Academy, a community program that serves as an intergenerational space for people to be educated on Black history.

“We really believe that our liberation and the flourishing of our communities as Asian Americans and immigrants is really tied up in Black people also having liberation and freedom as this racial uprising was going on and what was their understanding of race in America was — and what their communities need and have to work in solidarity,” Kovac said. “We are stronger working together in solidarity to achieve what we all need to thrive.”