By: Lucas Liu
Longstanding discrimination against Asian-Americans predates the pandemic
In the past year, the United States has seen an unprecedented spike in anti-Asian hate crimes all across the country. It has become quite undeniable that the increase in anti-Asian hate crimes correlates directly to some people’s hatred and frustration nationwide at COVID-19, which is believed to originate from Wuhan, China. Many have directly attributed this spike to former President Trump’s repeated use of the prejudiced terms “Chinese virus” or “Kung Flu”, even when urged by his medical advisors and the World Health Organization (WHO) to refrain from attributing a pandemic to one place. However, while former President Trump played a major role in the recent uptick of anti-Asian hate crimes, it is more important to acknowledge that anti-Asian hate did not come merely with the pandemic or the Trump administration.
The U.S. must first acknowledge that anti-Asian hate is something that has long nagged at the roots of modern American society. Going forward, schools must educate children about the Chinese Exclusion Act, in which the United States banned all immigration from China into America for racist reasons. Similarly, schools must bring awareness to the Chinese Massacre of 1871. During this massacre that took place in Los Angeles, a group of around 500 White and Hispanic people entered Chinatown and killed 19 Chinese immigrants, 10% of the Chinese population in the city at the time. Some have called this event the largest mass lynching in American history, yet it has continuously been excluded from school history curriculums. Schools rarely put educational emphasis on the Anti-Japanese sentiment against innocent Japanese Americans during World War II, or the fact that when Japan proposed racial equality as part of the Treaty of Versailles following World War I, President Wilson and other Western leaders rejected it.
Asians have been oppressed for hundreds of years in America, and in the midst of Stop Asian Hate, Americans must understand that recent events are not a new phenomenon. It is simply the first time society has been forced to confront Anti-Asian racism in our country. Going forward, community members must raise awareness through education about Anti-Asian racism in the past and present, such that Stop Asian Hate can be met with the recognition it needs.
This past year, the NYPD reported that anti-Asian motivated crimes in New York City alone rose nineteen-fold. Over 4,000 anti-Asian hate crimes have been reported to the Stop Asian Hate organization since the start of last year, such as the shooting of eight people in Atlanta, six of whom were Asian American women. These horrendous instances testify to the extremes of racism against Asian Americans. Still, hundreds of murders and assaults do not just appear instantly in one year. Instead, they suggest that many more underlying factors far beyond the pandemic affect the situation. Members of American society must spread awareness about a couple deeper issues, including the normalization of casual anti-Asian racism and the model minority myth.
Anti-Asian racism can be viewed on a scale of varying intensity, almost like a pyramid. At the bottom of the pyramid sits casual racism, such as offensive jokes, making fun of one’s culture, squinting eyes, and microaggressions. These jokes and microaggressions are normalized to a point where many Americans view them as ordinary. Asians and Asian Americans are regularly mocked for their appearance, traditions, or families, in a large public setting or a private one.
Oftentimes, racially related jokes about Asian people are delivered solely with comedic intent, but whatever the underlying intentions may be, they are insensitive and spread misinformative stereotypes. Instead of participating in jokes and microaggressions against the Asian community, the nation must hold those that make these statements accountable and take the issue of anti-Asian racism more seriously.
Another perception of Asian Americans that much of society holds is the model minority myth – the idea that Asian Americans are all good students, have good jobs, and face no economic/societal distress. Portraying Asian Americans in this way is both false and harmful. It fails to consider Asian Americans as a group of people that could require society’s help. The model minority myth has also been used to pit the Asian American community against other minority groups, most notably African Americans in the United States.
At a time when both Asian Americans and African Americans are facing prejudice in the United States, it is especially damaging to say that one group is better off than the other, or that one movement deserves more attention. For the sake of morality and humanity, America must give both situations the attention that they deserve, and unite communities rather than dividing them.
A woman holds a poster at a protest against Anti-Asian racism
(https://www.latimes.com/world-nation/story/2021-03-05/anti-asian-crimes-harassment)
A man pays respect to the victims of March’s Atlanta shooting (https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/03/these-are-the-victims-of-the-atlanta-spa-shootings.html)