anti-asian america: 2021 edition
It is no surprise that so many people in the world (particularly, the United States) have doubled down on anti-Asian/-American sentiment in the past year. But, it really isn’t a surprise.
Having seen so many Instagram stories and news headlines about the brutalization of the Asian body, it’s important to consider that this is another example of the laziness America is known for: pinning its inability to overcome a crises (like this pandora) through discrimination and blame towards a specific group of human beings.
It’s quite easy for so many folks on social media to believe that such events surrounding brutality and racism, regardless of the race of the person in the news headlines, are isolated incidents. “Oh my god, how could this happen?” or, “Why is America like this?” are common exclamations so many people use to respond to today’s crises and events. What mainstream media tends to forget is that this is a cyclical pattern America is known for and what many know of already.
In the late 1800s, the American government instituted the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first race-specific, government-sanctioned law that created a quota for the number of Chinese immigrants that could enter the country. Let’s be clear: this was the first immigration law that banned a specific group based on race and nationality, a tool to lock the gates of America to people who did not look white.
But, since America prides itself on welcoming all for the purpose of Westernization and white supremacy, waves of Asians immigrants (regardless of ethnicity) have made their way to the land of opportunity and the American Dream. Let’s consider how many Asian-/Americans have come face to face with white supremacy all throughout history.
In the 1950s, we know the redlining of certain areas of San Francisco created the hub of Chinese immigrants and Chinese-Americans: Chinatown. No, no, no — Chinatown wasn’t made because Chinese immigrants wanted a place to live together to embrace their culture, but for the purpose of upholding anti-Chinese sentiment and white supremacy. White men simply did not want Asian people walking the streets of SF freely, especially when segregation upheld the social fabric in America. Another part to this discrimination is that many white people feared the Chinese, believing their collective culture and way they looked, threatened traditional (white) norms.
From emasculating Chinese cis-men for their long, braided ponytails to racializing opium to domesticating Chinese women, Americans have made moves to subtly discriminate the Chinese body in the past. These examples are only the less violent ways America has abused the Chinese identity, with the sheer brutalization of their bodies at its worst.
So, let’s be clear: be wary of social media and mainstream media calling attention to something that has been engraved in the American identity. If not COVID-19 and anti-Chinese sentiment, then 9/11 and anti-Muslim and anti-Middle East sentiment. If not that, then the AIDS epidemic and extreme homophobia. America is known for facing crises the only way it knows how: blaming a specific BIPOC, or other marginalized, group and calling it a day.
There isn’t anything wrong about posting and sharing information. I believe, though, there is merit in considering that this is not new and we cannot continue to act surprised as if it is new because…it isn’t.
I suppose the best metaphor I can think of is this: America is like a fuck boy. It has the same patterns as a fuck boy: it takes no responsibility for its actions, so it gaslights (or “blames”) specific groups for crises it should know how to take care of. But, as a result, it gives permission, to white extremists and supremacists to brutalize bodies for the sake of upholding their belief systems, the same way fuck boys bring out their worst behaviors from each other.
It is time for BIPOC to divest their energies in spreading known information to creating sustainable ways that combat anti-racism and anti-Blackness in our own communities. We can’t keep acting like this is new. We can’t keep relying on social media to fix everything, because, like Vine and MySpace, it can all go away the next day.
Do the work of learning and recognizing the patterns America is known for. Biden and Harris aren’t going to fix anything: they can make gestures about equity, but can do nothing real about it because they face other barriers that stop equity from becoming a reality.
The real work of looking out for each other and addressing problems the moment we see it, no matter how afraid or fearful we get, is what is going to get us out of this mess. Not simply re-posting the same aesthetically pleasing post on your story or saying things we been knew: it’s simultaneously addressing anti-racism and anti-Blackness within ourselves and the world around us while actively creating a culture where BIPOC can elevate and breathe and just live without fear of being.
