Photo by David Geitgey Sierralupe

By Diana Kim

George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbury, Elijah McClain, Eric Garner, Philando Castile

I have found myself sick to my stomach, seeing the list of the victims of unnecessary violence — through racial profiling, police brutality, systemic racism, injustice towards people of color — continue to grow. Add to that the spurring by racist vocabulary and phrases that ultimately permit violence, and we have America as it is today: a land that perpetuates violence against people of color.

While America is currently wrestling with its identity and its stance on racism and how it values non-white lives, we are still enduring COVID-19. As Trump blames China for the spread of the virus, he has adopted the racial slang “kung flu” to name the virus, opening up verbal and physical attacks on Asians and Asian Americans, who are scapegoated as the cause for the virus. The multiple accounts of Trump’s blatant racism towards Asians and Asian Americans (remember when he told the Asian American journalist to “ask China” about COVID-19 instead of asking him?) has caused outrage and frustration at the unapologetic bigotry the leader of the free world displays. The ongoing racism our eyes are now constantly being opened to against blacks and the racism towards Asian and Asian Americans brought about by the pandemic reveal the perpetual violence against colored bodies.

Considering the slurs that we hear being thrown around to perpetuate racism, I’ve been thinking about the source of racist words and phrases: is it racism that shapes language (racial slurs) or is it language that shapes racism? Is calling a black woman the n-word what makes you racist or do you call her the n-word because you are racist? It’s not just the use of certain words that are so abhorrent, but what the words convey and permit: racist vocabulary permits violence. Vocabulary that defines others as less than human, evil, and a source of destruction allows for those who are defined to be treated as such. It is ultimately people of color who are negatively defined, mistreated, and even murdered. We condone language that condones violence.

Botham Jean, Terrence Crutcher, Keith Scott, Michael Brown, Vincent Chin

Violence against people of color is the result of valuing them less than white people, the failure to recognize the imago Dei within them. If we truly recognized all people as those who bear the image of God, would we be able to inflict violence upon them? If we truly obeyed the command to love our neighbor as ourselves, would we allow the endless murder and physical assaults on colored bodies? If we truly saw one another as children of God, would we be able to value their life less than the life of another? The fact that racial injustice continues to this day is a testament that we as a nation fail to do so.

Sandra Bland, Oscar Grant, Jonathan Ferrell, Trayvon Martin, Tamir Rice, Alton Sterling

We have heard the common tropes being thrown around to describe some of these victims: he’s a thug, he committed a crime, he had a shady past, they should have known better, they should have done as they were told, etc. But what about the fact that, besides mistakes he had made in his youth, he is still a human being that deserves the right to live? What about the fact that some of these tropes turned out to be false allegations to justify the assault or murder? What about the fact that some of these people did nothing wrong and the only trigger was the color of their skin? What about the fact that the choice of words used to describe colored bodies will always carry negative tones?
How long will colored bodies be subjected to unnecessary and unjust violence?

Diana Kim is a pastor of a local Korean church in Torrance, CA. Her primary goals in serving are to teach and equip the next generation to be passionate for Jesus and to live out His passion and care for the world. Diana is currently a PhD student at Fuller Theological Seminary and is majoring in Christian Ethics. Her current research area of interest is Asian American feminist ethics.