Last night in my class, one of my African American students shared that her daughter had been told to “go back to Africa.” My student is a military veteran. She said, “I fought for 20 years to defend this country and now we are being told that we don’t belong by the very people we have defended.”
On this Veterans Day, I want to give a particularly deep thank you and appreciation to all the people of color/LGBTQ who have served to defend this country, despite being segregated, targeted, harassed, and under-appreciated. Their commitment and service to defending the rights of a country, even during times when they themselves were not the beneficiaries of those rights and privileges, is the ultimate example of patriotism.
An incomplete list of resources to learn more about the experiences of people of color and LGBTQ military communities:
- Black Veterans of America
- National Association of Black Veterans
- African American Veterans with PTSD
- Japanese American Veterans Association
- Asian American and Pacific Islander Veterans Fact Sheet
- For Duty, Country, Posterity: Chinese American Veterans Share Their Stories
- Filipino World War II Veterans
- The Society of Hispanic Veterans
- Honoring the untold story of US Latino Veterans
- The American Military Partner Association
- SPARTA
JaeRan Kim 