Anti-Asian Sentiment at Large
The pandemic brought about some of the best and some of the worst in people. Arguably, some of the worst had to do with issues of blatant racism and hate crimes committed against minority communities. A tragically salient example is that of the fatal Atlanta spa shootings in March 2021, where a white man left 8 dead: 1 white woman, 1 white man, and 6 Asian American women. These harrowing events, along with a sudden slew of others over the past 3 years, have shaken up Asian communities across the nation all over again. Despite the novelty of these highly violent crimes in against Asian Americans in the face of the pandemic, modern scholars like Shelley Sang-Hee Lee have produced comprehensive literature to argue that these sentiments and attacks against Asian Americans are nothing new. Works like Lee's A New History of Asian America illuminate the United States' omission of its historically turbulent racial relations with Asian Americans. Julian Clarence Levi Professor of Social Sciences Jennifer Lee at Columbia University struck upon the gaps in U.S. education on courses regarding racial relations and the absence of Asian Americans as group in their scope. The fact of the matter is that marginalization of Asian American communities and experiences as a whole can arguably be traced back to the very erasure of their footprint in American history. What implications does this historical exclusion of past generations have for the current generations today?
Survey data from the Pew Research Institute on perceived concerns of violence against Asian Americans revealed that about 21% of Asian Americans say they worry more or less daily that they might be threatened or attacked just because of their race and ethnicity. Despite President Biden signing COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, aimed to make reporting hate crimes easier and more accessible at local and state levels, this failed to address the urgency of hate crimes that occur at the daily, interpersonal level. As many as 2 in 5 Asian Americans feel community leaders and local officials are doing a poor job at raising awareness and protecting their communities. Further, most U.S. adults from this survey attributed their perceptions of rising violence against Asian Americans to former POTUS Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric and the impact of COVID-19 on the nation since 2020. Though other large-scale AAPI Momentive poll data reveal that hate crime reports decreased in early 2022, Asian Americans somehow also reported feeling more concerned about becoming a victim compared to other communities of color as well as more wariness when it comes to actually reporting hate crimes against them. This has to do with fear of societal retaliation and the consequences of unwanted social attention. There is a lot of stigma for Asian Americans when it comes to their victimization.
For me, the social issue of Anti-Asian hate, discrimination, and racism hits literally close to home. It breaks my heart to think of dear Asian friends and loved ones fearing for the lives of their loved ones in the exact same way I feared for my family's own when Trump called them all criminals. I grew up in the 626, San Gabriel Valley. I grew up in Rosemead, where it is predominantly East Asian. I still live here today. Some of my best friends growing up in school were Chinese or Vietnamese. My partner is Chinese, and so are his parents, his sibling, and his grandparents -- who I cherished very much during their life -- all Asian American. I've made the effort to dig deep and learn more about different Asian cultures inherent in U.S. history, their histories, and their identities within a nation that fails to educate its own members equitably. Being anything less than educated on the lives and legacies of Asian Americans would be to do a disservice to my loved ones in that community. Though I am Mexican American and have my own battles to pick with the legacies of my own immigrant parents, I realize the lives and legacies of my Asian American loved ones are not so different. I want to be a part of the social justice Asian Americans -- and all communities of color -- rightfully deserve. Here I offer my platform to them. Here are their voices.
_________________________________________
Question: "Has Anti-Asian racism touched your life since the pandemic? How has it (e.g., violence, news on attacks, #StopAsianHate) affected or impacted you and your mental health?"
STATEMENT
Raydon Lam, 27: Chinese, Vietnamese
"I would say the anti-Asian discrimination has definitely affected not only my family but every single Asian all around the area. My parents have been scared to go out ever since the rise of asian hate crimes and the same goes for all my relatives who live within the area. My parents only go out when they need to buy necessities for home such as food and supplies. They haven’t been eating out at restaurants or going to parks to go for a nice walk. They’re not able to enjoy being out in public like they used to. My family have been living in constant fear that one of us would be brutally injured by even stepping foot into a Target. I myself have anxiety whenever my parents say they need to go to Costco to restock on groceries/house supplies because they could honestly be attacked whenever possible. It honestly sucks just having the thought of my parents not being able to enjoy their life like they used to and being stuck in constant fear of being attacked in public, and my parents vice versa. The whole anti-Asian discrimination definitely took a huge toll on all of our mental health because of the constant fear of being attacked. The #StopAsianHate movement has been great on educating and showing non-Asians that we have been suffering and I believe it has been great help, but the constant fear of being attacked has not went away. I believe that there are still people who do not care about Asians and the #StopAsianHate movement and they’ll still attack Asians because of the pandemic."
STATEMENT
Eliza Qi, 18: Chinese
"Living in a community that is predominantly minorities, specifically Asian has been a huge blessing during the pandemic and now because it felt like a safety bubble when the wave of Anti-Asian racism was happening. Watching news about hate crimes was extremely frustrating, knowing that a person who had power decided to misuse his platform, and fueled/encouraged Anti-Asian racism. Over time it affected my mental health as it became another factor towards my anxiety. I wasn’t anxious about myself, but for my family. Since the main targets in the Asian community were the elderly, I became extremely anxious every time my parents or grandparents went out. So i felt obligated to go out with them, just to feel at peace knowing I was there if anything were to happen. However, was great seeing communities rally to support one another during this time."
STATEMENT
Kyle Qi, 23: Chinese
“Seeing events was just shocking but I was also not surprised by it just given people being people. And this kind of thing has happened before with the 'Yellow Peril', a period of time where people were skeptical of Asian people, or didn’t like them because of wartime and immigrants 'taking jobs' and stuff. So now in this case with the [coronavirus] and people making assumptions and all that kind of stuff, there being violence is not surprising. Seeing the #StopAsianHate movement is cool, it’s interesting that people are speaking out, but it also reminds me a lot of #BlackLivesMatter and how people handled that kind of stuff. I think a big controversy surrounding BLM or how I saw it extending into #StopAsianHate is that it became more of a marketing tactic or something to call attention for… but the amount of change is pretty much not there from what I see. Like, people are speaking out about it but so what? What does that do? To incite action and change we can start at a more fundamental level, like education, right? Maybe not older people now, but we can always educate the children and, you know, have them be the next stage in this change. I definitely think we can go deeper into history and even just covering the [melting pot] more because I don’t think that we’re taught as kids in school how diverse America is…I don’t remember being taught about any of that sh**. And so I don’t…you know, all of my understandings of race are from just my classmates, my peers, and from family, but there’s definitely more context to the minority groups in the states than just what we experienced directly. It would be good to learn more about it proactively.”
STATEMENT
Johanna Quach, 26: Vietnamese
"Anti-Asian discrimination has touched my life since the pandemic in a few ways. I come from a mixed family. My father’s side of the family is Vietnamese and during the pandemic it was a scary time for all of us. You didn’t know if you were going to be the next person targeted and end up on the news being another tragic story. We would see attacks against different Asian communities on the news and it was heart breaking. It would make me feel helpless and very upset that nothing was being done to stop all the unjust violence. As for my mental health it did not effect me in a big way. It however made me more cautious of the people I would come across and the way the spoke about the Asian community. I saw a lot of #StopAsianHate on social media, specifically instagram and it gave me a sense of pride in my culture that they all came together to protest, uplift, and support one another."
STATEMENT
Jenny Lee, 24: Chinese, Vietnamese
"I feel I’ve been affected by is hate crimes against Asian Americans in the United States. I am Chinese-American, and I grew up in a neighborhood where there weren't a lot of Asian people around me. I remember when I was younger, others would say racial slurs like 'Ling-Ling' or mock me for how 'small' my eyes were. Because I wasn’t aware of social issues when I was younger, I didn’t consider it as a big deal but now I understand that, it was racism. After it was revealed that COVID-19 originated in China, there have been many incidents of hate against Asians. This has caused my family and I to be extra cautious around others when we’re out. I remember seeing plenty of videos where Asians were being attacked for no reason and it’s really devastating to know that my people are being affected by these senseless acts."
The Importance of Civic Engagement
According to Youth.gov (n.d.), civic engagement can be “defined as working to make a difference in the civic life of one’s community”, with different forms of it including volunteering, national service, and service learning. Another definition of civic engagement comes from the American Psychological Association (APA; 2009). APA defines civic engagement as “individual and collective actions designed to identify and address issues of public concern.” Furthermore, they posit that “Civic engagement can take many forms, from individual voluntarism to organizational involvement to electoral participation” (APA, 2009).
My personal belief has come to be that civic engagement involves active participation in public activities to address community and/or societal issues. It involves people giving back to their communities and nation (granted, they have the agency and liberty to do so) through acts of service (e.g., volunteering, donating) and sociopolitical participation (e.g., voting). It seems most logical that the more proactive Americans are in the processes and structures surrounding them, the more progress that will be achieved. Social issues, among other issues inherent in modern society, need some of the most proactivity, effort, and community to achieve wins for communities who need it most. If we are to achieve any change for the voices collected here in this writing, an understanding of the multidimensional accessibility to civic engagement is key.
Resources and References
8 Dead in Atlanta Spa Shootings, With Fears of Anti-Asian Bias
AAPI Data|Momentive poll: American experiences with discrimination 2022
A New History of Asian America by Shelley Sang-Hee Lee
About a third of Asian Americans say they have changed their daily routine due to concerns over threats, attacks
Confronting the invisibility of anti-Asian racism
Stop Asian Hate - The NYC Commission on Human Rights
The mental health impact of anti-Asian racism
The mental health of Asian American adolescents and young adults amid the rise of anti-Asian racism
Xenophobia and Racism Against Asian Americans During the COVID-19 Pandemic: Mental Health Implications
https://youth.gov/youth-topics/civic-engagement-and-volunteeringhttps://www.apa.org/education-career/undergrad/civic-engagement
No comments:
Post a Comment