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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:
Last year, I wrote about the spike in incidents of anti-Asian harassment, verbal abuse, bullying, and violence since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Since then, the level of anti-Asian racism and xenophobia seemed to have declined, but since the start of 2021, there seems to be a new wave of attacks aimed against Asian Americans and especially against older members of Asian American community. With this in mind, within the Asian & Asian American Studies Certificate Program at UMass Amherst that I direct, we recently created Student Advisory Board and Program Ambassador group of 10 amazing undergraduate students who support the Certificate Program through outreach and programming aimed at undergraduate students at UMass Amherst. They recently released the public statement Titled “Working Towards Anti-Racism and Dismantling White Supremacy” about this resurgence in anti-Asian racism and xenophobia and its connections to anti-Blackness, and I am very proud to reprint it here:
Original photographer unknown; retrieved from InStyle.com
To the UMass Asian American Community & Beyond,
Since the start of 2020, racist and xenophobic incidents against Asians and Asian Americans have spiked, with the website StopAAPIHate reporting over 2,800 incidents of harassment, bullying, verbal assault, and violence since mid-March, and with many, many more going unreported. In recent weeks, there have also been numerous public examples of attacks on Asian Americans, including the death of 84-year-old Vicha Ratanapakdee in San Francisco and the police shooting of 19-year-old Christian Hall in Monroe County, PA.
These incidents are linked to historical constructions of Asian Americans as the Yellow Peril — an imagined political, economic, or public health threat to U.S. society. In many of these incidents, bystanders failed to offer any assistance to the Asian Americans who were targeted, which also illustrates how Asian Americans continue to be seen as perpetual foreigners and as undeserving outsiders, unworthy of any help or sympathy.
While many other people have rightfully condemned these attacks and expressed support and solidarity with Asian Americans, some have focused almost exclusively on the racial identity of some of the perpetrators of these incidents and specifically, have resorted to using blatantly racist stereotypes against Black people and feeding into anti-Blackness. This rhetoric is not only problematic but also is unproductive in the fight for racial justice. These instances of violence against Asian Americans should not be seen as just a result of individual action, but rather as enabled by systematic violence inherent in white supremacy. As such, we need to continue to center anti-racism discourse and organizing around actively combating anti-Blackness because Black liberation will enable liberation for all other groups.
Hence, it is important that Asian Americans do not contribute to the over-criminalization of communities, particularly communities that are already disadvantaged, marginalized, and underserved. Asian Americans need to reject the ways we have been used as a wedge by white society to further perpetuate violence against Black and Brown communities. We need to focus on the root causes of systemic inequality, rather than resorting to stereotypes that demonize people and contribute to more policing, criminalization, and incarceration of already vulnerable groups. Instead, we call on our political, economic, and community leaders to develop community-based solutions that address root causes of alienation and powerlessness. In addition, our communities need comprehensive assistance for the victims and for the businesses that have been hurt by the pandemic. We need to combat the ways systems of oppression have long deprived all communities of color of the resources and support we need to thrive in America. We as Asian Americans must reject any attempt to weaponize our pain as a tool for white supremacy.
Cross-racial collaboration and solidarity are essential to move forward together and to fight together for justice and equality. With this in mind, we call on Asian Americans to:
Educate yourself on issues faced by underrepresented communities within the Asian Diaspora and beyond, such as the South Asian, Southeast Asian community, LGBTQ+ community, the Pacific Islander community, and the Black & Brown and Indigenous communities
Actively learn the history of white supremacy across the world and its relation to the domestic & global exploitation of the BIPOC communities
Actively confront the ways anti-Blackness shows up in the Asian community and do the work needed to unlearn and dismantle these behaviors and stereotypes so we can better show up for the Black community
Educate yourself on the history of students of color activism at UMass Amherst and take part in efforts to fight against racism here on campus
Take Ethnic Studies courses to learn the history and experiences of various racial and ethnic groups
Support reparations for Black Americans. Contact your elected officials and tell them to support HR 40, a federal bill that will establish a commission to make recommendations for reparations for Black people. It is important that this bill includes a comprehensive reparations plan, so support calls from activists to have bill sponsors make the necessary changes needed to fulfill their demands
We also call on our allies to:
Learn about the issues faced by various groups under the Asian American & Pacific Islander umbrella and learn about the differences in our experiences and histories
Learn about the ways white colonialism, imperialism, and neoliberalism have exploited Asian countries and Pacific Islands
Learn the origins of the Model Minority Myth & Orientalism and the ways it has been used to make Asians invisible
Actively dismantle stereotypes that you hold about the Asian community
As the Asian American community we need to actively remember that the root cause of our issues and pain has and always will be the result of whiteness and white supremacy. In order to achieve true racial justice and liberation, we must not lose sight of that.
“We are a society that has been structured from top to bottom by race. You don’t get beyond that by deciding not to talk about it anymore. It will always come back; it will always reassert itself over and over again”. – Kimberle Williams Crenshaw
“You cannot change any society unless you take responsibility for it, unless you see yourself as belonging to it and responsible for changing it.” – Grace Lee Boggs
You don’t need me to tell you that 2020 was quite an eventful year in many ways, and for good and bad. As we approach the end of the year and the start of 2021, I want to reflect on how the Asian American community fared throughout the year and how different political, economic, and social events throughout the year had positive or negative effects for Asian Americans collectively.
Bad (Very Bad): The one event that framed the lives of Asian Americans and billions of people all around the world of course, was the Covid-19 pandemic. Not only has the Covid-19 virus resulted in more than 18 million infections and almost 320,000 deaths (both are officially reported numbers, with many more likely unreported) just in the U.S. (with 77 million infections and 1.7 million deaths worldwide, respectively), but it’s also led to thousands of incidents of racism and xenophobia against Asian Americans, with such examples ranging from verbal harassment, cyberbullying, physical assaults, and even attempted murder. Many Asian American-owned small businesses have also been hurt badly by this wave of anti-Asian hate, through physical damage and vandalism to their stores but also through lost revenue and this situation has made many Asian American communities even more vulnerable to gentrification and the real danger of completely disappearing altogether.
These incidents are based on the historical constructions of Asian American as the Yellow Peril, or some kind of political, economic, cultural, or public health threat to the U.S., and of Asian Americans as “perpetual/forever foreigners” who are unworthy of being “real” or “legitimate” Americans. Making the situation even worse, not only did the Trump administration not do anything to address this situation, they actively fanned the flames of hostility and division by repeatedly using inflammatory terms such as the “China virus,” etc. Recently, the first batches of the Covid-19 vaccine started to be administered so it looks encouraging that the Covid-19 virus might be contained in a few months. However, the sociological aftermath and effects of this wave of anti-Asian hate and racism will continue to linger and fester for the foreseeable future.
Good (Out of Very Bad): After the tragic murder of George Floyd and the resurgence of the Black Live Matter movement this spring, many people in the U.S. and around the world were forced to confront the historical legacy and ongoing dynamics of systematic racism against Black people. This included the Asian American community. As I wrote previously, it should be abundantly clear by now why Asian Americans need to unite in solidarity with our Black brothers, sisters, friends, neighbors, colleagues, and family and embrace their struggle for racial justice. Hopefully Asian Americans recognize how the racism that we’ve faced involves the same institutional structures of privilege, authority, and power that operates against Black people and other people of color, and that if we want others to stand up in our defense during those situations, we also have to show up and do the same without hesitation when it happens to Black people. Through the Black Lives Matter movement, many Asian Americans have taken steps to have these difficult conversations and to confront the anti-Blackness that has and still exists within our communities and our own families (see this excellent list of resources to promote Black-Asian solidarity).
Good: Although it was a nail-biter in many ways, the 2020 Presidential election resulted in Joe Biden and Kamala Harris being elected as our next President and Vice President, and the upcoming ouster of the worst President in U.S. history. While we progressives are still a little wary of Biden’s more “centrist” positions on several important issues, we certainly need to celebrate this as a major accomplishment and big step forward for racial equality and social justice for people of color, immigrants, and others in vulnerable situations, and common decency for all of us as human beings. These past four years have been literally terrifying in many ways and while there’s still a lot of work to be done, at least we can be thankful that the worst of it is coming to an end.
Speaking of Kamala Harris, we should also recognize the significance of her election as the first woman, Black, and Asian American Vice President in our nation’s history. This is a major accomplishment that is also long overdue. We should also remember that she was one of several Presidential candidates who were Asian American, along with Andrew Yang and Tulsi Gabbard (who is one-quarter Samoan). Of course, the success of a few individual members does not mean that all members of that particular group have successfully overcome all the challenges and barriers that they have historically faced (see the example of Barack Obama). Nonetheless, I hope that this is an encouraging trend in which more Asian Americans feel inspired by the success of Harris, Yang, and Gabbard and can now see themselves vying for positions of power in various areas of life, and second, that more Americans in general are hopefully seeing that Asian Americans can indeed be confident, charismatic, and inspirational leaders and not just be confined to “technical” jobs like an engineer or scientist.
Image by Celeste Sloman/Redux
Bad: While I am very thankful that Biden won the election, it is very sobering to realize that over 74 million Americans still voted for Trump, the most racist, xenophobic, corrupt, and despicable President in U.S. history. On top of that, it appears that, given the defeat of many progressive Democratic candidates around the nation, that large numbers of Americans are still not ready to support much-needed reforms to our political system and the social structure of our society that seek to eliminate the destructive inequalities and divisions that have caused so much damage to the lives of so many vulnerable people. It is really sad — even tragic — that so many Americans have bought into the propaganda that anything labelled as “socialist” or even “racial equality” is somehow “un-American.” On the one hand, I am encouraged that after George Floyd’s death, many White Americans were jolted into taking a close look at their privileged position within the U.S. racial landscape. On the other hand, I am very discouraged that data seems to show that after the initial shock of George Floyd’s death, support for the Black Lives Matter movement has declined among Whites, Asian Americans, and Hispanics in the months leading up to the election. I suppose it’s another example of the adage of “two steps forward, one step back.”
Bad: Along the same lines, I also bemoan the apparent rise in power of a small but very vocal contingent of conservative Chinese Americans who have gained attention, influence, and support within the Asian American community and U.S. society in general. As I’ve also written about before and as previous research has documented, this group is overwhelmingly comprised of recently-immigrated, older, and affluent Chinese who are unfamiliar with the U.S.’s tragic history of racism and racial injustice (or even completely deny it altogether) and instead, routinely spread disinformation within their WeChat networks that perpetuate racist stereotypes against Blacks, undocumented immigrants, and Muslims to name just a few groups, and have basically internalized that for them to attain success and be accepted as part of the U.S. mainstream, they need to embrace Whiteness and reject Blackness.
These conservative Chinese Americans are the ones behind the organization Asian American Coalition for Education that sued Harvard University, alleging that it systematically discriminates against Asian American applicants. By the way, as a small “good” item, in March and November, two different sets of federal judges ruled against their claim and found that there is no credible evidence that Harvard discriminates against Asian American applicants. Nonetheless, it’s almost certain that AACE will appeal this case all the way to the Supreme Court and now that it has a solid conservative majority, the future prospects for affirmative action are not positive. Either way, this small but vocal and politically active group of conservative Chinese Americans has shown that they are passionate, committed, willing to stand toe-to-toe with progressive Asian Americans in asserting their position, and will be a force to be reckoned with in years to come.
Good: 2020 was a pretty good year for Asians and Asian Americans in terms of representation and commercial success in mainstream media and entertainment. Who could forget the surprise and excitement when Bong Joon-Ho’s film Parasite won the Academy Award for Best Picture back in March, the first non-English language film to do so? While Parasite wasn’t an Asian American-centered work, I can confidently say that its success was a source of pride for many of us and it showed that Asian cultural products have the same high levels of quality and depth that white-centered cultural products have implicitly enjoyed for decades.
Moreover, several Asian American-focused works were a big hit, especially during the spring and summer when people were generally confined indoors and watching more tv, such as the critically acclaimed PBS documentary series Asian Americans, produced by Renee Tajima-Peña; ESPN’s documentary Be Water that profiled the life and legacy of Bruce Lee and was directed by Bao Nguyen; and Netflix’s charming Never Have I Ever series, produced by Mindy Kahling and The Half of It produced and directed by Alice Wu, to name just a few examples. Other high-profile Asian Americans were recognized for their success and excellence, including professional tennis player Naomi Osaka (who plays for Japan but is also very Americanized) who was named Sports Illustrated’s “Sportsperson of the Year” and the Associated Press’s Female Athlete of the Year for her success on the court including winning the 2020 U.S. Open and just as important, becoming a force off the court with her strong activism in support of Black Lives Matter.
Also in the world of professional sports, Kim Ng made history by becoming the first woman and Asian American general manager of a Major League Baseball team (the Miami Marlins). Younghoe Koo’s ups, downs, and ups culminated in him becoming the top scoring kicker in the National Football League and being named to its Pro Bowl all-star game. In addition, K-Pop superstars BTS was named Time magazine’s Entertainer of the Year for their commercial success and their activism in support of numerous causes including Black Lives Matter, mental health awareness, and LBTQ+ rights. Several Asians and Asian Americans are also part of Time magazine’s annual 100 Most Influential list, including Nathan Law (main organizer of Hong Kong’s pro-democracy movement), Ali Wong, Yo-Yo Ma, Bong Joon-Ho, Sundar Pichai (CEO of Google, joining Satya Nadella CEO of Microsoft who was not part of the list), and Lisa Nishimura (Senior Executive at Netflix).
While we need to be careful and not gloss over the struggles and challenges that many Asian Americans still face on a daily basis, these high-profile examples go a long way to making the life, experiences, and contributions of Asians and Asian Americans visible, especially to young people who are beginning to see others like them in positive ways in the mainstream media, rather than as one-dimensional stereotypes and caricatures. The long march towards justice and equality will have a lot of twists and turns, ups and downs, and the Covid-19 pandemic has had and will continue to have severe negative consequences for the Asian American community in many ways. That said, there were also many positive events for Asian Americans in 2020 that we can build on and to move forward in terms of asserting our rights to cultural citizenship and to continue forging solidarity with other minoritized communities. It certainly helps that we have a new presidential administration coming in with that in mind, let’s keep working on building a better future for ourselves, our families, our community, and our society in 2021!
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:
