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Academic Version: Applying my personal experiences and academic research as a professor of Sociology and Asian American Studies to provide a more complete understanding of political, economic, and cultural issues and current events related to American race relations, and Asia/Asian America in particular.
Plain English: Trying to put my Ph.D. to good use.
On March 16, 2021, a white gunman murdered eight woman at three spa and massage businesses in the Atlanta area. Six of those killed were Asian/Asian American (text below from the New York Times):
Soon C. Park: Ms. Park, 74, who worked at Gold Spa, was the oldest person killed on Tuesday. She lived in New York before moving to Atlanta.
Hyun J. Grant: Ms. Grant, who was 51 and a single mother, worked from early morning to late at night at Gold Spa to support her two sons who needed college tuition, the rent on the home they shared and their bills.
Suncha Kim: Ms. Kim, 69, worked at Gold Spa.
Yong A. Yue: Ms. Yue, 63, worked at Aramotherapy Spa, and was the last person killed in the shootings. She moved to the U.S. from South Korea in the 1970s with a husband who had been stationed in the Army. The couple had two sons and divorced in 1982.
Xiaojie Tan: Ms. Tan, 49, was the owner of Young’s Asian Massage. She made her patrons feel at home and treated her friends like family, a customer said.
Daoyou Feng: Ms. Feng, 44, was one of Ms. Tan’s employees who started working at the spa in the past few months.
Delaina Ashley Yaun, 33 and Paul Andre Michels, 54 were the two non-Asian victims. As more details emerge, the gunman claimed that he suffered from “sex addiction” and that he felt compelled to “eliminate” “sexual temptations.” At this point, what he says is irrelevant and so is the question of whether sex work occurred at any of the spa and massage businesses that were targeted. What is of utmost importance, is that Asian American women were specifically targeted and murdered. These tragic deaths are the latest example of how Asian Americans have experienced countless incidents of harassment, bullying, verbal assault, and violence since the start of the COVID pandemic, including increased attacks, particularly against elderly Asian Americans who are perceived as foreigners and easy targets, just since the start of 2021.
Beyond highlighting how Asian Americans continue to be seen as the Yellow Peril, or some kind of political, economic, cultural, and/or public threat to U.S. society and specifically to the white population, these murders also specifically illustrate the misogyny and fetishization of Asian American women and how these are fueled by toxic masculinity. Mainstream media and popular culture further racialize and sexualize Asian women, heightening their vulnerabilities to interpersonal and institutional violence. My colleagues Jennifer Ho, Hye-Kyung Kang, and Nancy Wang Yuen have written excellent articles that detail, on the personal and structural levels, the challenges Asian Americans face on an everyday basis that are centered on the intersections of their identity as Asian American women, along with Kimberly Kay Hoang’s excellent article about how perceived connections between Asian American women and sex work ramp up suspicions even more and further dehumanizes Asian American women.
In addition to data that shows that hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased 149% from 2019 to 2020 while overall hate crimes declined by 7%, StopAAPIHate data also shows that women report hate incidents 2.3 times more than men. These hateful acts have forced Asians and Asian Americans into a constant state of hyper-awareness and vigilance when they are in public, taking a huge emotional toll. My heart and deepest condolences go out to all those who have been affected by these acts of anti-Asian hate and I join them in collective grief, sadness, and anger. As an Asian American myself, and someone who has both a young Asian American adult daughter and elderly Asian parents, I have never been more afraid than any other time in my life that I, and people who look like me, will encounter some form of racism or xenophobia on a daily basis. It is a really scary time right now to be an Asian American in the U.S.
Where do we go from here? How can we as a society respond? What actions can we take? Here are some ways to support the Asian American community right now. For Asian Americans, we need to come together and recognize that our Asian American identity makes us vulnerable for discrimination. From there, the solution is not to run away or dissociate yourself from being Asian American, try to embrace whiteness and the model minority image as much as possible, and hope that those who have hateful intentions just leave you alone. Instead, we need to unite with each other, recognize our shared experiences and how those experiences make us vulnerable at this particular moment, and to help each other as much as possible — emotionally, physically, and politically. With that in mind, here are some resources to help those affected by anti-Asian hate.
For our political, community, and institutional leaders, they need to take our concerns and demands for equality and justice seriously, rather than systematically ignoring us, continuing to blame us for the pandemic or any number of other social problems taking place right now, and/or focus on trying to humanize the perpetrators of hate and violence against us (for example, by saying that the Atlanta killer “was having a bad day”). And for the rest of U.S. society, the first thing they should do is to become active bystanders and to challenge the everyday forms of anti-Asian hate that take place around them, from biased and offensive comments in one-on-one conversations, to acts of microaggression in the workplace as another example, to incidents of violence in public spaces. Other ways to respond and steps that people can take are:
Today, May 18, would have been Vincent Chin’s 65th birthday. As many of you already know, he was beaten to death in 1982 by two White autoworkers who perceived him to be Japanese, even though he was Chinese American, and blamed him for the economic recession that was threatening their jobs. History tells us, and as the excellent PBS documentary series Asian Americans that recently aired portrayed, his tragic death and the gross injustice of how his killers were merely sentenced to just three years probation and a $3000 fine galvanized and united the Asian American community and led to the creation of the modern “Asian American” identity that millions of us now embrace, and led to the formation of numerous pan-ethnic and multi-racial community organizations dedicated to fighting for justice and equity across all areas of life for Asian Americans.
Photograph of Vincent Chin
A lot has happened since that fateful day in 1982. In a lot of ways, the Asian American community has grown demographically and socioeconomically, become more integrated into the U.S. mainstream, and achieved notable gains in political representation and cultural citizenship. At the same time, these positive developments are extremely precarious and are easily undone whenever the U.S. experiences some kind of conflict or crisis that involves some Asian country.
As we have all seen, the CoViD-19/Coronavirus pandemic has laid bare how racist and xenophobic stereotypes and underlying prejudices of Asians and Asian Americans as the Yellow Peril easily resurface and lead to suspicion, hostility, hate, and even violence against anyone perceived to be Chinese or more generally, Asian or Asian American. These dynamics are exacerbated by political leaders who seek to scapegoat Asians and/or Asian Americans as a way to misdirect anxiety or their own mistakes during such times and whose actions implicitly or explicitly embolden other acts of anti-Asian hate. These hateful acts represent the worst forms of ignorance and result in Asian Americans having to be in a constant state of hyper-awareness and vigilance when they are in public, taking a huge emotional toll.
As we remember Vincent Chin’s 65th birthday, I hope that everyone, and particularly our political, community, and institutional leaders, will not forget the needs of the most vulnerable members of our society, including those who already feel marginalized and face everyday challenges in their lives due to sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, religious intolerance, and other overt and covert forms of prejudice and discrimination. I also hope that people from all racial, ethnic, and cultural backgrounds do everything that they can to recognize their own implicit biases, find resources that will educate themselves about the historical and contemporary structures of racism, xenophobia, and other forms of inequality in the U.S., and intervene when they hear or witness bigoted or hateful remarks or behaviors against anyone who is in a vulnerable position.
Ultimately, recommitting U.S. society to fight ignorance and hate with all the tools at our disposal to prevent anti-Asian prejudice and discrimination from becoming normalized is probably the best way for us to remember and celebrate Vincent Chin’s birthday, and the month of May as Asian Pacific American Heritage Month.
As you may have heard, May is Asian Pacific American (APA) Heritage Month and despite the CoViD-19 pandemic, there are many events and programs taking place all around the U.S. to commemorate this occasion, even if almost all of them are being conducted online. As one example, in conjunction with the Center for Asian American Media and WETA Television, PBS will be airing a five-part documentary series titled “Asian Americans” on May 11th (8pm-10pm eastern time) and 12th (8pm-11pm eastern time), so be sure to tune into your local PBS station to watch this extraordinary video series. Angry Asian Man also has a listing of different events and programs through the end of the month.
In the spirit of contributing to these collective efforts to commemorate APA Heritage Month, I was also asked to participate in two “Zoom-inars” (online seminars conducted through Zoom), and below are some video clips of my contributions. The first Zoom-inar was titled “Stand Together: Solidarity During Coronavirus” and organized by the Center for Multicultural Advancement and Student Success at my university, the University of Massachusetts, Amherst. On this panel, I was joined by several of my distinguished colleagues at UMass Amherst including professors Amilcar Shabazz and Stephanie Shonekan (W.E.B. Du Bois Afro-American Studies department), Alice Nash (History department and Native American and Indigenous Studies Certificate Program), and Laura Valdiviezo (Teacher Education and School Improvement department and Center for Latin American, Caribbean and Latinx Studies). The panel discussion focused on issues related to how people of color and communities of color can strengthen our ties and connections during the CoViD-19 pandemic.
In this first clip (about 4 minutes long), I discuss recent incidents of discrimination faced by Africans in China since the start of the CoViD-19 pandemic and how they relate to historical and ongoing examples of anti-Blackness in the Asian American community:
In this second clip (about 3 1/2 minutes long), I discuss how the model minority image hurts the Asian American community and our efforts to form critically-important bonds of solidarity with the Black community:
I was very privileged to share this (virtual) space with my awesome UMass Amherst colleagues, to be able to share our academic expertise and our personal experiences with each other and with the audience, and to reinforce our commitment to collaborating with each other to mutually support our Ethnic Studies programs, during this present moment and throughout each moment in which our programs and our communities are being threatened politically, economically, or culturally.
The second Zoom-inar related to APA Heritage Month was organized by the Massachusetts Asian American Commission, titled “AAPI History: Debunking Stereotypes and Finding our Voice,” and also took place on May 4, 2020 (that’s why I’m wearing the same shirt). In this first clip (14 minutes long), I answer several questions related to (1) the history of activism among Asian Americans and how they first defied the stereotype that they were quiet and passive; (2) the origins and basic summary of the Model Minority image; and (3) why Ethnic Studies programs are important and how they contribute to greater understanding, equity, and justice in U.S. society:
In this second clip (less than 3 minutes long), I briefly discuss the need for young Asian Americans to get involved and to support Asian American Studies programs at their university, including the Asian & Asian American Studies Certificate Program that I direct at UMass Amherst.
A big part of APA Heritage Month is to renew the bonds of connection and solidarity within the Asian American community, and also between our community and other racial, ethnic, and cultural minority groups. This is especially true in times of crisis. As we individually and collectively continue our fight for justice and equality, let’s also remember to celebrate all of the positive and inspiring examples of our heritage, and to draw on the strength, resilience, and power of our families, our communities, and our allies.
Do you remember 2018? If not, let me jog your memory. That summer, the movie Crazy Rich Asians exploded onto into the cultural scene all around the world. As my colleague (and wife) Miliann Kang and I wrote in our review of the book and movie:
This is a potential game changer, as the mainstream U.S. entertainment industry has had a long-standing Asian American problem. . . . In a world where Asian Americans are still seen as perpetual foreigners and often marginalized as outsiders, this portrayal of them (or at least of Singaporeans) as wealthy and powerful might be seen by some as a welcome change. . . . The movie deftly captures the struggles of feeling accepted in Asia and the U.S. that resonates with millions of Asian Americans, particularly those who are second generation and higher. . . . We should see Crazy Rich Asians for what it is — a fun romantic comedy that provides an escapist snapshot of one slice of the Asian diasporic experience. And we should celebrate its commercial success and hope — even insist — that it leads to more movies and creative works that center the Asian American experience, each of which brings us closer to ultimately resolving the Asian American problem in the entertainment establishment
Many people, including many Asian Americans, heralded the movie as a sign of change, an indication that Asian Americans were making real, tangible progress in terms of becoming more integrated into the fundamental fabric of mainstream U.S. society. Many of us hoped that its success would be the impetus toward greater acceptance into the everyday practices that come with cultural citizenship, or along the lines of multiculturalism and pluralism, being in a position to insist for not just for legal equality across race, ethnicity, religion, class, gender, and sexual identity, but also for recognition that our historical and ongoing experiences and contributions should be fully, legitimately, and centrally embedded within mainstream societal institutions.
Unfortunately, the situation since the start of March 2020 has shown us that once again, this hope remains an elusive goal and that instead, Asian Americans remain a long ways off from even sniffing that goal of greater acceptance and full cultural citizenship. As I previously wrote and has others have described and elaborated on (including excellent pieces by Adrian de Leon and Brittany Wong), the CoViD-19/Coronavirus pandemic has provided cover for various people in U.S. society to act out their racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans, with such examples ranging from verbal harassment, cyberbullying, physical assaults, and even attempted murder.
These incidents have shattered the optimism (symbolized by the growing popularity and success of such Asian- and Asian American-centered media/cultural products such as Crazy Rich Asians or K-Pop/BTS, to name just a few) that many Asian Americans had that U.S. society was making progress in reducing racism and moving toward greater inclusion and equity. Instead, these examples of anti-Asian discrimination have illuminated how Asian Americans are still considered as “perpetual foreigners” and the “yellow peril” and are used as convenient scapegoats whenever there is some kind of conflict or crisis that directly or indirectly involves China or some other Asian country or society and that results in Americans feeling more economically insecure or that the U.S.’s superiority around the world is being threatened or is in decline.
Some, most prominently former Democratic presidential candidate Andrew Yang, have suggested that Asian Americans can respond to these incidents by trying to demonstrate even harder that we are just as patriotic, loyal to the U.S., and “American” as anybody else. But as Jenn Fang at Reappropriate writes, we as Asian Americans have nothing to apologize for. If anything, taking this kind of “colorblind” approach and trying to pretend that race or racial distinctions don’t matter, or that race is not a clear dividing line in U.S. society, is naive, unrealistic, and ultimately counterproductive because it just reinforces and perpetuates White supremacy.
In the same way that it is not the responsibility of women to “fix” or eliminate sexism, patriarchy, and misogyny, Asian Americans should not be expected to somehow ignore our history, renounce our culture, or discard our identity in the hopes that the majority population will more closely embrace us as a “true” or “legitimate” member of U.S. society. Instead, the U.S. (including its leaders and its social institutions) need to recognize that hate and racism are viruses that continue to infect and reinfect our society and that the only way to address this disorder to recognize and treat the underlying source of the illness, namely the cancer of White supremacy.
All of us who are a part of the Asian & Asian American community care deeply about the well-being of our communities and hope that you and your family are healthy, well, and staying safe. In the midst of these uncertain and anxious times, we hope that all those who are affected by this crisis have access to the resources necessary for them and their families to deal with the multitude of challenges that they face as best as possible. We urge everyone, and particularly our political leaders and members of the medical community, to not forget the needs of the most vulnerable members of our society, including those who already feel marginalized and face everyday challenges in their lives due to sexism, racism, homophobia, transphobia, xenophobia, religious intolerance, and other overt and covert forms of prejudice and discrimination.
In particular, we are very concerned that the Covid-19/Coronavirus outbreak has resulted in widespread racial rhetoric (such as using terms like “Chinese virus,” “Wuhan virus,” or “Kung-flu”), mis/disinformation, and conspiracy theories spread through social media and other media outlets. In turn, these have led to suspicion, hostility, hate, and even violence against anyone perceived to be Chinese or more generally, Asian or Asian Pacific American. There have already been hundreds of reported incidents of anti-Asian verbal harassment, bullying, Asian American businesses vandalized, and/or physical assault, with many more that go unreported.
To document such hate incidents, those affected are encouraged to report them using any or all of the following websites:
Condemn and denounce all manifestations of expressions of racism, xenophobia, discrimination, scapegoating, and ethnic or religious intolerance, and particularly any and all anti-Asian sentiment, in any form
Recognize that the health and safety of all Americans, no matter their background, must be of utmost priority
Combat misinformation and discrimination that put Asian Americans at risk
Investigate and document all credible reports of hate crimes and incidents and threats against the Asian American community and to hold the perpetrators of those crimes, incidents, or threats accountable and bring them to justice
In these times of international crisis and the present historical moment, it is vital for everyone from all walks of life to stand up to those who seek to perpetuate xenophobia and racism, stand in defense of those who have been and continue to be vulnerable to prejudice and discrimination, and to share in the responsibility to create a positive society and culture that promotes and safeguards equity, inclusion, dignity, respect, and safety for all.
The following sites may contain useful resources for those who have experienced such hate incidents:
