Thousands of Chinese Americans rallied across the country on Saturday, Feb. 20 to support Peter Liang, the former rookie NYPD officer who was convicted of second-degree manslaughter for killing Akai Gurley accidentally. Many non-Asian Americans and some second generation Asian Americans don’t understand why we support Liang and misinterpret us as if we don’t care about black people’s lives or want “white privilege”. Because white officers weren’t indicted or convicted in recent court cases, they think that we believe Liang should walk free for killing someone too. This piece (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steph-yin/peter-liang-protests_b_9289990.html) written by Ms. Steph Yin may sum up those sentiments. It could be very difficult for non-Asian Americans to understand why we rally around Liang - a person with many flaws and killed an innocent person. To make things easy, let’s first take a look at some events happened in mainstream America: Tens of thousands Americans across the country rallied, marched and rose up (or rioted, depending on who you asked) in protest against the killing of Michael Brown, who robbed a convenience store, manhandled the clerk, and attacked the police officer who ultimately killed him - an imperfect person just like Liang. The detailed facts don’t matter, people only saw an unarmed black man killed by a white cop -- this is the oppression of black people, this is racism! He was painted as a “gentle giant” by a major national newspaper. Members of the Congressional Black Caucus did the “Hands Up, Don’t Shoot” gesture on the House Floor even though the meme had been widely reported to be untrue. What the law says doesn’t matter. The grand jury in St. Louis couldn’t indict Officer Wilson, nor could the attorney general, who happens to be black and under a black president, bring any charges against him. It is still racism and outrageous for a white cop to kill an unarmed young black man and to walk free. What’s more, many celebrities and dignitaries attended Michael Brown’s funeral, including THREE White House officials sent by the president of the United States--the most powerful and the most admired person in the world. A person from a foreign culture without understanding American history, culture and politics may ask WHY? Why did all these important figures in America rally for Michael Brown like this? What about the Asian American convenience store owner, who was first robbed and assaulted by Michael Brown, then later had his business burnt down by the protesters? Do Asian Americans lives matter to them? What messages were they sending out to young black kids in this country? Were they telling kids it is okay to rob a convenience store and manhandle the clerk? Or were they telling kids it is fine to punch a cop in the face and fight for his gun, and if you are killed in the process, the president will send delegates to your funeral to honor you? Of course no one in his right mind will think these are the messages. But these actions can be questioned and interpreted in these ways nonetheless. It is the same for us in Liang’s case. The detailed facts don’t matter. We only see the big picture -- Peter Liang accidentally discharged his gun, and the ricocheting bullet killed Mr. Akai Gurley. This is a tragic accident, neither a crime nor a police brutality case. What the law says doesn’t matter. Although Liang was tried and convicted by twelve of his peers, we still view him as the scapegoat for the broken system which needs to relieve the tension between the police and black community due to racism and police brutality. We feel Liang was sacrificed because he is an easy target -- he belongs to a silent “model minority” group without any political power or voice. We doubt that Liang would be indicted or convicted if he were a white or a black or if the victim were a non-black person. Yes, black police officers do kill innocent people and can get away with it. Yes, innocent non-black people are often killed by police too. There are plenty of cases which can be easily found if one cares to search. Like African Americans, We didn’t rally for a flawed person because we condone what he did, nor because we care less about Mr. Gurley’s life or want “white privilege. What we want is equal treatment and equal justice. We rallied because we have long history of being discriminated against and victimized. The system has failed us again and again. We are outraged that the NYPD and the NYC government used Liang as a scapegoat to pacify public anger over white police brutality against African-Americans. We are outraged that NYPD officials set Liang up as the scapegoat right from the start by leaking lies to the press that Liang ignored his supervisor’s order and texted his union rep while his victim lay dying, which successfully made the public believe Liang was recklessness and heartless (http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2015/02/12/peter-liang-akai-gurley-_n_6670230.html). We are outraged that the system punishes Liang - a rookie officer from a poor family in Chinatown – for the faults of NYPD and the city government of New York. (https://www.change.org/p/danny-chun-call-for-leniency-in-peter-liang-s-sentencing/u/15633188). We are mad at our own elected city council member, who is supposed to represent people in Chinatown neighborhood and to fight for our interests, but did the opposite (http://voicesofny.org/2014/12/chinese-call-indictment-peter-liang/). The council member explained to the Chinese language media that she was not representing the Chinese community only, but often presented herself to or was used by mainstream media outlets (http://www.nytimes.com/2015/02/23/nyregion/in-new-york-indictment-of-officer-peter-liang-divides-chinese-americans.html) as the voice and representative of the Chinese community. The people we are mad at most is ourselves. We failed Liang by not coming out to help him earlier, by being the silent “model minority”, by being not involved in politics so that even our own elected representatives often do things that hurt us. This rally is a statement. We are telling our sons and daughters they are not alone anymore, there is a whole community standing behind you. We are telling future Peter Liangs that if you are wronged, we will support you and fight for you and with you. We are telling our future elected political representatives that we elect you to represent us, not yourself or your political beliefs. We are also telling the system that we won’t be the doormats anymore. This rally is also us saying goodbye to some of our Confucian cultural programming. Unlike the city councilwoman from Chinatown and many others, instead of feeling collective guilt or quick to condemn the one among us who did wrong to others, we say forget the fears, the guilt, the humility, the self-criticism and the deference to authority. This is America, we should do things American ways! We should not be afraid of or deterred by seeming to defend a guilty man. Most importantly, we are telling ourselves that we should unite, speak up, stand up and show up, let our voices be heard! This is not the strength of our culture, not something we are good at. But we can learn and change. We may make many mistakes and pay some prices during this learning process, it is okay. We must take the risk, because the price for being silent is too high. This rally represents the awakening and the rebirth of a traditionally silent ethnic group. Yes, this was why we rallied.