Oppression Archives - We Are ILI

A sign in Flushing shows a black-and-white photo of Yang Song, who has a slight smile in the photo. The sign has the name "Yang Song" and the text "Rest In Power" underneath. Below Yang Song's face, the sign says, "Yang Song was a 38-year-old Chinese immigrant and sex worker killed by the NYPD during a raid in Flushing last November. No NYPD officers have been disciplined or charged with any crime." The sign also says #DecrimNow #RightsNotRaids and #JusticeForYangSong

Death of Flushing Massage Worker Yang Song & Red Canary Song Organizing

38-year old Yang Song, a Flushing massage worker, fell four stories to her death during a New York Police Department raid on November 25, 2017. Song’s family revealed that she described being sexually assaulted by a man who flashed a badge and gun and claimed to be an undercover cop and that the police urged her to become a confidential informant and turn in clients and friends. She had been arrested months before on prostitution charges — her case referred to the Queens Human Trafficking Intervention Courts (HTICs) and a court date set. After her death, community organizers rallied outside..Read More

Ching-In Chen November 25, 2017

An image of Ted Koppel in a suit and tie on a TV screen, delivering a news report on Nightline. There is an inset image that says "Day 100" and "Iran."

Iranian Hostage Crisis

In 1979 dozens of American diplomats were taken hostage by militant Iranian students in the U.S. Embassy in Tehran soon after the Islamic revolution in Iran. They are held captive for 444 days and over this time the event receives the most extensive coverage on US television of almost any other event in U.S. history until then, including daily coverage on Nightline. This dramatically shapes the experiences of Middle Eastern people in the U.S. and especially Iranian Americans.

Sahar Driver November 4, 1979

An image of Kim Teehee speaking in front of a microphone.

Chief Hoskin announces the appointment of a Cherokee Nation delegate to Congress

Cherokee Nation Principal Chief Chuck Hoskin Jr. announced that the tribe is taking a historic initial step to enact the Cherokee Nation’s treaty right to send a delegate to the U.S. Congress. The Cherokee Nation delegate is referenced in both the Treaty of Hopewell from 1785 and the Treaty of New Echota from 1835 between the Cherokee Nation and the federal government. The Treaty of 1866 also reaffirms all previous treaties between the Cherokee Nation and the United States. For nearly two centuries, Congress has failed to honor this promise. Yet the obligation to seat a Cherokee Nation delegate remains..Read More

Loren Waters August 1, 2019

This is a presentation slide with the title "Puerto Rico: La Operacion." There is a black and white image of a woman smiling while looking at a young child that she is holding. There is also the following text: "Young women were key to labor force — Problem was pregnancy. Result: massive sterilization program. Women coerced into sterilization without being told it was irreversible. By 1968, 1/3 of women childbearing age were sterilized. Emigration and sterilization resulted in population drop with no increase in standard of living."

Sterilization of Puerto Rican Women

In 1937, Puerto Rico enacted Law 116, the last eugenics sterilization law passed under United States territorial jurisdiction. Soon after, a program endorsed by the U.S. government began sending health department officials to rural parts of the island advocating for sterilization. The Puerto Rican government fully supported this program, as it attributed overpopulation to the island’s high levels of poverty and unemployment. With the growth of American corporations on Puerto Rican soil and factory work, they also wanted to integrate women into the workforce more fully and child bearing was seen as an obstacle to that. In fact, sterilization efforts were..Read More

Samantha Galarza May 13, 1937

Old black and white photograph of Queen Liliʻuokalani. It is an official photograph and she is in formal dress.

Illegal Overthrow of the Hawaiian Kingdom

In the nineteenth century, the Hawaiian Kingdom existed as an independent country recognized as such by the United States of America, the United Kingdom, and various other countries, including by exchanges of diplomatic or consular representatives and the conclusion of treaties. As an independent county, the Hawaiian Kingdom entered into extensive treaty relations with a variety of States establishing diplomatic relations and trade agreements. By 1893, the Hawaiian Kingdom maintained over ninety Legations and Consulates throughout the world. In the United States of America, the Hawaiian Kingdom manned a diplomatic post called a legation in Washington, D.C., which served in..Read More

Lilinoe Kauahikaua January 17, 1893

Engraving showing the arrival of a ship and enslaved Africans to the British colony of Virginia.

A Portuguese ship, the São João Bautista brought captive Africans from Angola to the American colonies.

Sometime in 1619 enslaved Africans arrive near Point Comfort, a coastal port in the British colony of Virginia from the Portuguese colony port city of Luanda, the present day capital of Angola. Over 20 captives were unloaded from the hull of the São João Bautista. America had not become herself, yet lit the spark for the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade and further set the stage for slavery, oppression and persecution across her history.

Frederick Delahoussaye January 1, 1619

Omar ibn Said

Omar ibn Said was born around 1770 in an African region then called Futa Toro, near the Senegal River, which now forms Senegal’s northern border with Mauritania. After receiving 25 years of schooling in Africa, he was enslaved and transported to Charleston, South Carolina. Not long after his arrival and sale to a local planter, Said escaped and made his way to Fayetteville, North Carolina, where he was imprisoned after entering a Christian church to pray. After garnering attention for writing on the walls of his prison cell in Arabic, Said became the legal property of General James Owen of..Read More

Tufara Waller Muhhamad January 8, 2022

Hurricane Katrina, 2005

Carol Zou April 23, 2005

United States Invasion of Iraq, 2003

Carol Zou April 23, 2003

Hurricane Hugo Hits SC September, 1989

Hurricane Hugo in Charleston, SC. It impacted the low wealth people who did not have insurance and small businesses. It impacted the poor Black Neighborhoods which were not protected against looting the same way as the other neighborhoods. Here on the picture a ILI fellow is going to check her tiny business downtown Charleston.

Gwyelene Gallimard September 1, 1989

Occurance Type: Oppression