A coalition of more than 50 Asian American nonprofit organizations announced Thursday a multicultural march to be held on the National Mall, in Washington, D.C., over the summer.
The event on June 25 will call for greater civic participation within the community, and racial and economic justice.
Some of the nonprofit organizations behind the march are Asian American Advancing Justice – AAJC, Gold House, Asian and Pacific Islander American Vote (APIAVote) and Sikh American Legal Defense (SALDEF). Groups representing Black, Latinx, Indigenous and other historically marginalized communities will also be in attendance, according to a press release.
“The goal is to galvanize Asian Americans and allies across multiple issues, and educate folks about the issues that our communities face — not only as Asian Americans but as people of color, as LGBTQ folks, as folks with disabilities,” Tiffany Chang, a spokesperson for Unity March, told NBC Asian America.
The event is part of the coalition’s mission to promote civic participation, racial and economic justice, cultural equity and representation in the media.
The platform includes goals such as pushing legislation to create a pathway to citizenship for undocumented residents, diversifying and protecting staff in Hollywood studios, encouraging more investment in small businesses hardest-hit by the pandemic and supporting state and local efforts for multicultural studies in K-12 and university systems.
“This is not just symbolic,” Chang said. “We are actually trying to get folks to get plugged into the issues that they care about the most and by participating, show our political power.”
Chang said the idea of the march came after the Atlanta spa shootings and the Indianapolis FedEx shooting, but the movement is not limited to an anti-Asian hate movement.
“We recognize that while this moment might be focused on us, this movement is not just about us. It is our responsibility as a community that has recently been targeted with violence, to also lift up folks in our community or neighbors who have also historically been targeted with violence,” she said.
