Good morning. My name is Stephanie Drenka, co-founder and executive director of the Dallas Asian American Historical Society.
Those of you familiar with the city’s racial equity plan might have seen my name on the “Women influence historical events” timeline on page 21.
In this plan, mayor, you said that “our goal must be to ensure no community in Dallas remains underserved and overlooked.”
I was here in this room last month when the Palestinian community and allies were not just overlooked, they were ignored and ridiculed by members of this council.
I’m a member of the city’s Historic and Cultural Preservation Stakeholder Steering Committee. Those who appreciate the importance of preserving history can also understand the gravity of its intentional erasure.
This level of civilian death and cultural destruction is why scholars consider it to be a textbook case of genocide. The state of Israel doesn’t want us to remember what it did to the Palestinian people.
As a historian, I will make it my life’s work to ensure we don’t forget- especially here in Dallas. Every social media post, quote in the newspaper, is a historical record now. Evidence showing how you let crimes against humanity continue unchecked.
It will be a permanent stain on your legacy and undermine any “equity” work you try to accomplish.
If you do not pass a cease-fire resolution, people like you will be remembered for generations to come as being on the wrong side of history.
I say that with full confidence, because people like me will be the ones to write it.