Hasan Minhaj Explains Why Asians Should Support #BlackLivesMatter

Hasan Minhaj, the host of Netflix‘s Patriot Act, shared a digital exclusive in response to the murders of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, Ahmaud Arbery and the African Americans who came before them.

The 12-minute clip hears Minhaj, who is a second-generation Indian-American Muslim, touch on why the silence from people of color regarding this issue is deadly. He begins by expanding on the widespread protests, and that its expansion has also brought on looting. This shifted the focus of the conversation from police brutality to the chaos of the streets, and many immigrants and children of immigrants may be disapproving of the action being taken.

Minhaj continues to remind his fellow Asians and Asian-Americans that Black excellence and culture is heavily absorbed by the Asian community, but they are still actually not accepted. “Look, I can’t speak to what it’s like to be Black, but I know how we talk about Black people. And it is f*cked up because it’s a microcosm of America,” he said. “Asians, we love seeing Black excellence — Barack, Michelle, JAY [-Z], Beyoncé, the Travis Scott [Air Jordan] 4s. We spent the last five weeks praying at the altar of Michael Jordan. How could we be afraid? We love Black America. Yeah, on screen in our living rooms. But if a Black man walks in your living room or wants to date, God forbid, marry your daughter, you call the cops.”

Minhaj also offers suggestions as to how Asians can help the Black community on both an individual and a general level. Flashing the photos of the four former Minneapolis PD officers — Derek Chauvin, Tou Thao, J. Alexander Kueng and Thomas Lane — charged with the murder of Floyd, he leaves a final message: “You need to charge and prosecute all four officers as hard as you possibly can. They have got to go to prison. We can’t let this moment slip away.”

Elsewhere, Ben & Jerry’s called for social justice in a strongly-worded statement.