The Terrible Burden of a Skin Color
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June 7, 2020
Loc Vu, San Jose
Vũ Văn Lộc, pen name Giao Chỉ, served as Colonel in the Army of the Republic of Vietnam prior to 1975. Coming to the United States as a refugee at the end of the war, he was among the first to lead a social service non-profit organization, the IRCC (Immigrant Resettlement and Cultural Center). He later founded the Viet Museum in San Jose's History Park. He is the author of several books, including Cõi Tự Do, published shortly after his arrival in the US. His articles appear frequently in Vietnamese publications in the US.
Thắng Đỗ is a board member of PIVOT (The Progressive Vietnamese American Organization). He adapted the Vietnamese original into English, with permission from the author.
In 1926, almost a century ago, the world designated a week in February as the Negro History Week. About 50 years later, the US thought one week was not long enough and decided to call the entire month of February as the African American History Month. The name pays tribute to the origin of this race, but to be fair, Black Americans continued to experience considerable hardship. Regardless whether the white policeman was right or wrong, or whether the black man was good or bad, the image of a white man pressing his knee on the neck of a black man lying on the ground until he was suffocated resembles a re-enactment of scenes from the era of slavery 300 years ago at the nation’s founding.
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