June 29, 2020
Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation Board Statement of Solidarity with the Black Lives Matter Movement, the Families of Those Lost to Police Violence, and Protesters Demonstrating for Systemic Change.
The undersigned members of the Board of the Chinese Reconciliation Project Foundation (CRPF) wishes to voice its solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and with our Black and Brown fellow citizens who, currently and in the past, have suffered from the effects of intentional and systemic racism.
Like the Chinese who were driven out of early Tacoma in 1885 by a mob of White Supremacists, Black Americans in Tacoma, arriving as early as the 1860’s, suffered violent personal attacks and indignities, and were denied basic human rights such as the ability to own property, or to own it because of “red-lined” districts. Black and Brown Tacoma citizens have experienced the structural discrimination and daily assaults, macro and micro, that have led to heroic protests over the decades, and again this spring. The death of Manuel Ellis while in the hands of Tacoma Police in March is only the latest in a long history of violence and abuse suffered by the Black community in Tacoma.
The Members of the Board commit themselves to advocacy of specific, deep, structural changes in City policies and police procedures as well as other emerging commitments to promoting and uplifting our Black fellow citizens. We also commit to being part of city-wide conversations about “Whiteness” and the deep, pernicious effects it has on our Black and Brown friends and neighbors.
The CRPF is a nonprofit organization that advances civic harmony by way of the Tacoma Chinese Garden and Reconciliation Park on Ruston Way in Old Town along Commencement Bay. The park is an act of reconciliation and inclusivity toward appreciation of the people of diverse legacies and interests who are part of the city as a dynamic community. In order for this park and this organization to demonstrate our commitment to this ideal, the ethnically diverse Members of the CRPF Board must today, in 2020, commit also to the process of addressing the historical legacies of slavery, Jim Crow and white supremacy in the United States, the State of Washington and the City of Tacoma.
Theresa Pan Hosley (President)
George Lim (Vice President)
Bill Evans (Treasurer)
Larry Hosley (Corresponding Secretary)
Lotus Perry (Recording Secretary)
Anne Tsuneishi
Calvin Pearson
Clarita Grant
Erling Kuester
Greg Youtz
Jill Magnuson
Lucy Zhou
Minh-Anh Hodge
Myrna Loy-Zolyomi
Patrick Pow