Lunar Year 2022 marks the Year of the Tiger. Characteristics of the tiger include being courageous, competitive, and always ready for a challenge. We can thank our Asian-American colleagues for inspiring all Americans to start the year off with a roar: To lift our voices. To tell our truth. To set the record straight and promote understanding. The Brooklyn Bar Association (BBA) wants to support the truth-tellers and promoters of justice and equity and let you know that your efforts are welcome, valued, and appreciated. On behalf of the BBA’s Diversity Committee, we invite you to nominate a colleague, community member, or organization for the Lynn Terrelonge Bridge to Diversity Awards, named after the BBA’s first African-American president.
Diversity and equity deserve to be celebrated.
We all should be heartened to see our Asian colleagues speaking out with such courage to denounce persistent anti-Asian violence and hatred, and to affirm their esteemed place in American society. American greatness is being championed in the current Winter Olympics, through the gold-medal winning performances of figure-skater Nathan Chen and “Half-Pipe Queen” Chloe Kim. Such greatness is no less represented by our Brooklyn’s own community of Asian-American attorneys, jurists, and community leaders.
We recently recognized Holocaust Remembrance Day. Indeed, the recent inaccurate comments from a well-known celebrity prompted many Jewish Americans to have to set the record straight about the Holocaust. To be clear, Hitler was the personification of racism, and his murder of 6 million-plus Jews and thousands of other human beings, whom he characterized as “lesser races” and/or “less than human,” was a meticulously orchestrated and executed racist atrocity that should never be forgotten nor casually dismissed. The facts are in the historical record.
And, for the record, we are in the midst of celebrating Black History Month. The theme for this year is "Black Health and Wellness." This a message that should resonate with all Americans. However, it is well documented that the COVID-19 pandemic has taken an outsized physical, mental, and emotional toll on African-Americans. (See the recent article from the Centers for Disease Control here.) Compounding these challenges are the continuing political struggles to safeguard the right to vote, as states pass insidious laws aimed at stripping this basic right from African-Americans; the uneven policing of African-American communities, leaving citizens vulnerable to, on the one hand, gang-fueled gun violence, and, on the other hand, law enforcement tactics that harm, maim, and kill innocents; the pushing back against efforts to erase the stories of African-Americans from history books, by mislabeling such accounts as “critical race theory,” when these lessons, testimonies, and events are is simply and importantly American History, period.
In March, we celebrate Women’s History Month. However, women also remain in the struggle to have their voices heard – and respected. A woman’s right to make choices about her reproductive health has resurged as a national moral litmus test. The Equal Rights Amendment continues to be derided in some circles as an assault on “American values.” The mere mention of putting an African-American woman on the U.S. Supreme Court has prompted handwringing over “qualifications” and “fitness” to serve on the Supreme Court. Similar specious arguments were trotted out after President Ronald Reagan floated the idea of putting the first woman on the U.S. Supreme Court during his 1980 campaign.
Brooklyn is home to an amazingly diverse collection of communities. Having to lift our voices repeatedly and continually to affirm our shared humanity can be exhausting and demoralizing. So, the BBA invites you to help us celebrate individuals and organizations working to bridge the diverse communities in Brooklyn and promote understanding, equity, and peace.
Sincerely,
The BBA Diversity Committee
Submit Nominations Here
