Christina Li, Class I
Photo courtesy of NBC News
On February 16th, 2021, I attended Virus: Racism’s roundtable dedicated to discussing the recent rise of attacks against the Asian American population, particularly the elderly. On March 3rd, 2021, TBLS’ Asian Student Alliance (ASA) club held a similar forum for the school community and I attended that as well.
According to information and statistics provided by ASA, anti-Asian hate crimes have rapidly risen by 1900% ever since the pandemic began, most commonly occurring in the states California and New York. On January 30, 2021, Vicha Ratanapakdee, an eighty-year-old Asian American man, was assaulted in San Francisco and passed away from his injuries. On February 3rd, 2021, a sixty-four-year-old Vietnamese grandmother was assaulted and robbed in San Jose. On that same day, Noel Quintana, a sixty-one-year-old Filipino man, was slashed across the face with a box cutter on an NYC subway. These are only a few of the many attacks that have been happening against the Asian community.
In response to this, both Virus: Racism and ASA aimed to foster a safe space for Asians and their allies to share their thoughts and feelings about the recent troubling events.
Regarding how surprised people were about this recent rise in anti-Asian racism, I heard different opinions from the two conversations. During Virus: Racism’s roundtable discussion, I noticed there was a common agreement among the attendees, including myself, that they had seen it coming. With our former president referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese Virus” and “Kung Flu,” participants expressed that when the United States began blaming China for the United States’ own failure in managing a global health crisis, they had expected that people would harbor sinophobic views. In ASA’s discussion, however, many discipuli were caught in disbelief and shock that anti-Asian hate crimes were something that was truly happening until recently. Regardless, both groups agreed that the media’s use and perpetuation of anti-Chinese language had ignited anti-Chinese sentiment, which then translated to discrimination against an entire racial group–Asians–and that was not only deeply unfair but undeniably racist. Additionally, I heard dismay from both discussions that these attacks were predominantly taking place in the two states known to be more liberal and expected to be more accepting: New York and California.
In ASA’s discussion, the conversation shifted to one where Asian TBLS discipuli began speaking up about how their Asian upbringing and culture had taught them to be silent to injustice when it occurred to them. The older generation told the younger generation to keep their heads low and not talk back when people were being disrespectful or racist towards them. As this complacent frame of thinking was pushed forth by the Asian elders in their lives, and the Asian elderly population is currently the main target of anti-Asian hate crimes, this led to the disturbing thought: How many more anti-Asian attacks have happened that simply went unreported? How can we show up for the most vulnerable who are also the least likely to speak out?
After sharing their emotions and some of their own–or a loved one’s–experiences with racism, TBLS discipuli reflected on what could be done moving forward, and what our roles as students are. Discipuli mentioned supporting Asian businesses during this difficult time as a lot of them have been hit hard by not only the pandemic, but also by xenophobia. Furthermore, as we had seen how influential and harmful language can be, there was a push for people to call out and correct those who use phrases such as “Chinese virus” and “Kung Flu.” Additionally, TBLS discipuli expressed the need for more spaces such as the forum ASA has created for the school community, and also emphasized the importance of education, such as, but not limited to debunking the model minority myth and integrating Asian history in our curriculums. The underlying tone of all of these proposals and comments was to support one another.
I believe in this support so strongly and would like to shed further light on it. I had spent time reading the posts of activists on Instagram, and had seen a lot of angry comments on social media coming from the Black and Asian communities directed at one another. This led me to think about Black and Asian solidarity. The recent string of anti-Asian attacks has led to some Asian activists calling for more police, but we must not rely on something that has terrorized the Black community for decades to protect us. When advocating for the Asian community, it is absolutely crucial we are not being anti-Black while doing so.
I feel there can be a “scarcity mindset” that communities of color hold when speaking out about the racism they face. I know this because I have felt it. It is instilled into us (and backed by ideas such as the model minority myth, which is also inherently anti-Black) that there can never be more than one group speaking out at a time. White supremacy has ensured that we will feel there is a limited amount of time, space, and ways we can have conversations. White supremacy will want to pit us against each other.
But when we begin to break away from this scarcity mindset around speaking about our experiences as people of color and in letting white supremacy dictate when and whose stories get told and are valid, we will see that while our racial experiences are most certainly different, our liberation as people of color is bound together.
If you would like to get involved with Virus: Racism, the organization’s contact information is below. You can also contact William Diep, Class I.
Instagram: @virusracism
Twitter: @RacismVirus
Youtube: Virus: Racism Campaign
Email: virusracism@gmail.com
Instagram sources used by ASA:
Instagram accounts provided by ASA for further learning:
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