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Originally posted by OverthinkingEnigma on January 07, 2022 14:13

Additionally, although anti-Latino and anti-Black hate crimes are higher in raw numbers, Anti-Asian hate crimes have risen a shocking 73% over the course of 2021 according to Sakshi Venkatraman’s article “Asian hate crimes rose 73% last year, updated FBI data says” on NBC News. This frightening data doesn’t even supply an accurate number considering the fact that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the most hesitant to report hate crimes according to Sakshi’s data.

I think this was a very important statistic to point out. People often talk about anti-black hate crimes when the number of Asian hate crimes is rapidly increasing. There needs to be more attention drawn to this subject and there needs to be a solution. Nobody should have to face this level of discrimination.

Originally posted by OverthinkingEnigma on January 07, 2022 14:13

American society has had a habit of comparing the Asian and Black communities’ reactions to discrimination, injustice, and hate-- therefore making a competition of suffering out of serious issues. According to Michael Dyson’s article, “Why don’t we treat Asian American history the way we treat Black history,” (Washington Post), Asian Americans are portrayed to be “less assertive” in their fight compared to Black people despite the undeniable fact that the two communities’ histories and hardships are equally intertwined with American history. Additionally, although anti-Latino and anti-Black hate crimes are higher in raw numbers, Anti-Asian hate crimes have risen a shocking 73% over the course of 2021 according to Sakshi Venkatraman’s article “Asian hate crimes rose 73% last year, updated FBI data says” on NBC News. This frightening data doesn’t even supply an accurate number considering the fact that Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders are the most hesitant to report hate crimes according to Sakshi’s data. Moreover, the Washington Post additionally states that the lack of well-known/iconic Asian figures has also contributed to the lack of discussion on Asian history; when one thinks of the Black civil rights movement, Martin Luther King immediately comes to mind, but when one’s asked to name a prominent figure in the Asian civil rights movement, names like Yuri Kochiyama never resurface. Simply put, Asian American history is wrongfully written off as a subplot in American history so it begs the question--How have Asians/Pacific Islanders reacted to this othering?

Post your response here. I found this part very interesting and eye-opening. Black communities over time have gotten more attention for the racism that they face which has seemed to minimize the racism that Asian Americans face. Part of this could be the fact that research has proven that Asian Americans are less likely to report and speak out about the crimes that they experience. As COVID theories have brought a lot more racism towards Asian Americans the media has talked and made it more clear to the public.

The United States is known to uphold a certain title of welcoming immigrants in hopes of the American Dream surpassing all of their greatest desires and wishes. The Lady Liberty in New York City, for example, epitomizes this acceptance and hospitality that our founding fathers have fought for. The U.S. Constitution even lists amendments that state freedom and equality for all. What isn't truly visible by all of this glamorization of this top nation is our endless history of hatred, racism, homophobia, xenophobia, and much more. Unfortunately, we have NOT progressed; even with history textbooks that explicitly entail the vicious acts of violence such as the Chinese Massacre 1989 -- today's anti-Asian violence such as the Atlanta Massacre 2021 which killed six Asian women -- or acts that limit an opportunity in this land -- the Chinese Exclusion Act --, Asians/Pacific Islanders continue to face hysteria based off their ethnicity.

The COVID-19 pandemic has not backtracked our "progression" in xenophobia. Instead, it has made what was already there, visible. When hearing stories from Asian Americans who have immigrated to the United States, the one thing they all have in common is the immense normalization of bullying based on race. In the New York Times, writer Jay Caspian King shared his take on "The Myth of Asian American Identity". Here, he details how his family's story began, each being about comments or events that altered his perspective on the world's view on his race: "Chinese, Japanese, dirty knees, look at these". In another article, " 'I will not stand silent.' 10 Asian Americans Reflect on Racism During the Pandemic and the Need for Equality", Jilleen Liao's upsetting story was shared in which brought up the virus: "Next time, don't bring your diseases back from your country,". Name-calling as so continues to today's day and age to extremities through social media with additional support from those who label the pandemic as a "Chinese virus" or "Asian flu"; Mayor of Boston, Michelle Wu, went through comments similar as people were relating her to the city of Wuhan, which is where the virus was first knowledgeable.

This hate is not new, rather based on a long history of anti-Asian discrimination as mentioned earlier, but non-Asians and some Asians are still minimally aware of this history -- why is that? The ongoing discussion of white colonization and superiority is the only possible answer I can give to this question. In a Berkeley News article, "Coronavirus: Fear of Asians rooted in long American history of prejudicial policies", the concept of anti-immigrant bias is struck in the quote from the director of the college where he states, "It's an assumption that the West, particularly Anglo-American Christians, should dominate the world,". This not only amplifies the idea that we have not grown as a nation, but have actually remained exactly the same as 19th-century loathing for immigrants. If we refer back to the Chinese Exclusion Act, we must question what happened prior to this; Chinese were immigrating to the U.S., doing labor such as mining, fairly becoming richer, and either leaving the country or staying for more work. As a result, the government feared for this new "competition" and had to limit their success. Our modern-day world is no better; from scapegoating to Anti-Asian crimes rising to 73% last year, Asians/Pacific Islanders are entirely facing brutality. The blame of the virus is also pressured among them as they're confronted and targeted as seen in many personal stories.

Non-Asians must become allies by ending the hate. The more we publicize what is going on, listen to what the Asian community feels/has to say, becoming upstanders rather than bystanders in difficult situations, then some growth will occur. To the next person, think and answer the question: Before this assignment, did you know about any of this anti-Asian history? Was the backlash from the pandemic your first time hearing about this kind of hate?

Originally posted by cnovav on January 07, 2022 11:48

Considering just what we have learned this year about this country’s history, it shouldn't be a surprise that that anti-Asian hate has only just recently been addressed. The hate incidents did not start at the beginning of the pandemic. They did not start when Trump was elected as president. They’ve been happening for many, many years. I don’t think it’s even possible to wrap your head around why anyone would feel that it is productive to engage in or encourage hate incidents against Asians/Pacific Islanders, especially during a time where the country is already split over how to properly manage a life threatening virus for many and life altering virus for every single person living in the county. I have never met an Asian person who has enjoyed this pandemic or felt as though it was necessary. Which is something that many people seem to think. They seem to believe that because the virus allegedly came from Wuhan, China, that every single Asian person is to blame. The majority of Asian people being attacked aren’t even from Chinese descent, but of course, the stereotype that all Asians are from China is sadly still alive and well. People living their normal lives, going grocery shopping, eating a restaurant, walking down the street, are being attacked and murdered because of a country’s ignorance. And although this did not start with Trump, we cannot deny the fact that he gave these people a safe place to be hateful and violent. How is it that a person who is meant to lead a country and keep the country united during a crisis, was allowed to refer to COVID-19 as the “Asian virus”, “Kung Flu”, etc? How is it that he was allowed a platform to blatantly discriminate against and encourage discrimination against a large population of the very country he claims to love? If the president of a country says these things, of course the people living in the country are going to believe it’s okay to do the same.

Not only are Asians/Pacific Islanders being physically hurt, their businesses are as well. Kim Lam, the owner of a restaurant that was extremely popular before the pandemic, says his sales have gone down over 50%. Not because he or his employees are doing anything different, but because of the ignorance of the American people. Since the beginning of the pandemic, politicians have made it clear that they care about the economy, and the economy only. They claim they want to help all businesses who are struggling due to the pandemic. Why are business owners like Kim Lam, not being helped? Why are the thousands of people in the same position as him, not being helped?

I don’t think there is a clear answer to why people choose to hate. I honestly think it’s a mental illness. Nothing more, nothing less. If we continue to give these hateful people a platform, these incidents will never end. Maybe we can never change every single racist person’s beliefs about Asians and other races, but we can certainly take their power to express their hate away. Sure, we can always take time to educate the general public, but at the rate things are going, I don’t think that’s the most effective way to go about solving this issue. I think in order to be allies in this situation, we have to be prepared to be upstanders whenever possible and whenever it is safe to do so.

In 2020 alone, anti-Asian hate crimes have increased by more than 73% according to FBI reports. This should be enough to anger us all, and enough for us to stand up for change.

To the next person, I ask, do you think these problems can be “fixed”, if so, what would a “fixed” problem look like to you?

I think these problems can be "fixed" but not forgotten. The long history of anti-Asian violence/hatred will not disappear ever, no matter our progression. These issues can somewhat be resolved by simply becoming more knowledgable and the news publicizing more and more articles in which people hear first-person stories and understand the affect it has had on them.

A question for the next person: Do you think that enough has been done to address the Anti-Asian hate across the US due to the pandemic?

Originally posted by strawberry123 on January 09, 2022 22:12

To the next person, think and answer the question: Before this assignment, did you know about any of this anti-Asian history? Was the backlash from the pandemic your first time hearing about this kind of hate?

Before this assignment I didn't know much about anti-Asian history, and there is certainly a lot more that I would like to learn about. I think that history textbooks and schools definitely need to be including a lot more Asian American history into their curriculums, since it really is such a prevalent and important part of both global and United States history. Before the pandemic, I was aware of hate that Asian people face, but I certainly didn't hear about it on a very large scale. Hopefully, all of the recent work with the "Stop Asian Hate" movement will spark more discussions and bring more awareness to it for years to come.

Also, I definitely agree with your points about the hypocrisy of America advertising the "American Dream" as a way to encourage immigration, but then meet new immigrants with xenophobia when they arrive.

Originally posted by SlicedBread on January 09, 2022 22:20

During the Covid-19 pandemic, as we all know, anti-Asian sentiment has become a global pandemic of its own. As mentioned in the “The Scapegoating of Asian Americans” article from The Harvard Gazette, “Between March 2020 and February 2021, Stop AAPI Hate … reported nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents in the U.S.,” and that’s only the ones reported. Furthermore, this situation isn’t unique to the United States, as mentioned in the Human Rights Watch article, “Several political parties and groups, including in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Germany have also latched onto the Covid-19 crisis to advance anti-immigrant, white supremacist, ultra-nationalist, anti-semitic, and xenophobic conspiracy theories that demonize refugees, foreigners, prominent individuals, and political leaders.” Even political leaders, like Donald Trump encouraged this kind of hatred by calling the Corona Virus names like the “Chinese Virus” and the “Kung Flu.” In the article, “‘I am not a Virus’: How This Artist is Illustrating Coronavirus-Fueled Racism,” the artist mentioned how language like that can dehumanize people and lead to a lot of violence. All of this has contributed to a lot of hatred directed at Asian people, and this has resulted in fear and verbal and physical abuse. For example, as mentioned in the video and article, “2,120 Hate Incidents Against Asian Americans Reported During Coronavirus Pandemic,” many Asian run businesses have taken a big hit during the pandemic,“The damage is already done,” said a restaurant owner in New York.

Throughout history, scapegoating has been a devastating thing to happen to many minority groups in stressful times, and the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly not been an exception to this. Asian Americans very quickly became a scapegoat for the Covid-19 pandemic, even before the virus became prevalent in the US. Since the virus first became known in China, and America already has a long history of anti-Chinese (and more broadly anti-Asian) hate, it was easy for people to use the Asian community as a scapegoat, since there was already a lot of racism to build off of.

That said, not many Americans know that much about Asian American history and the racism that they faced and continue to face, because it is not taught about very much in classrooms. For example, one important piece of Asian-American history, as mentioned in the article, “Coronavirus: Fear of Asians rooted in long American history of prejudicial policies,” was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first immigration law that excluded an entire ethnic group. Personally, I don’t ever recall learning about this in a history class until I took AP World History in 10th grade, which is pretty absurd. The exclusion of Asian American racism in the history textbooks is also a common theme in general conversations about race, as mentioned in the article, “Why don’t we treat Asian American history the way we treat Black history,” “The American racial conversation, in which African Americans are the default minority group, has impoverished our understanding of — and provided a poor platform for — the stories of others.” Additionally, since Asian Americans have, in cases when it’s convenient, been considered “white,” a lot of racism against the community gets discredited or undervalued. The model minority myth also contributes to that greatly. Consequently, one way to be a good ally to the Asian American community is to make sure to include Asian Americans in discussions about anti-racism and to value their stories just as much as any other minority group.

A question for the next person: Do you think that enough has been done to address the Anti-Asian hate across the US due to the pandemic?

I do not believe enough has been done to address the anti-Asia hate across the US because many of these crimes have gone unpunished so people continue to believe they will get away with it. Although there has been more awareness and discussions about Asian hate, hate crimes are still occurring almost everyday.

Sadly, It is not the most surprising thing to see the little amount of coverage that hate against Asian Americans has received recently and specifically in the last two years, considering this nation's history with this. One of the biggest problems with the increase in hate and crime against Asian Americans is that there has been a lack of coverage on these problems, and a lack of accountability from many non Asians. From my experiences while watching the news or being on social media, even when a hate crime against an Asian American is committed, and people are made aware of it, the media, and people in general do not cover it the way in which it should be. There is a level of ignorance that possesses a very large portion of America's population, and with such a divided and hateful country, ignorance becomes even more dangerous. It is quoted from an article about this by Ivan Natividad, where it says, "“Racism and physical attacks on Asians and people of Asian descent have spread with the Covid-19 pandemic, and government leaders need to act decisively to address the trend,” said John Sifton, Asia advocacy director. “Governments should act to expand public outreach, promote tolerance, and counter hate speech while aggressively investigating and prosecuting hate crimes.” Although all of the things mentioned are positives in terms of combatting Asian hate, the problem is shown through the fact that something like this needs to be stated in the first place. Government officials and political figures should already be speaking out about this, rather than having to be told and compelled to do so. An important step in understanding and combatting this is to understand the history of it, which was done in an artical by Humans Rights Watch, which states, "This anti-Asian xenophobia has a history rooted in decades of discriminatory and biased American public health and immigration policies that have targeted, and continue to target, immigrants from Asia because of the perceived threats they pose to America’s dominance domestically and abroad". Understanding this concept is a key piece in understanding the reasoning behind the racism that continues to take place today. It is stated that this xenophobia has dated back to the 19th century in America, and it can be said that some of this is due to "Americans", feeling threatened by the idea of immigrants coming to America. Once this system of oppression was put into place, it became that much harder to remove it from our society today. Many of these xenophobic ideas have been passed down from generation to generation, bringing an extremely deep rooted racism to this country. In an article done by Stephanie Garcia, titled "I am Not a Virus", She says "The Asian community went “from being invisible” to being “hyper-visible, but as a virus or as a carrier of a virus”". This quotation is vitally important because it shows how Asian Americans have felt like they were not being recognized, to now being recognized, but only recognized when the recognition comes from racism or xenophobia. An extremely scary yet very real fact that must be accepted is how comfortable these racists feel when doing these horrible things. It is scary to see that these people seem to have no fear of any consequence for their actions, and when their actions are not followed up with by consequences, they feel that the government and society as a whole is protecting them and allowing them to continue doing this. This idea is also thoughtfully explored in an article done by Sarah Li, where she states that “Harassment is primarily focused on blaming China and Chinese people as the source of the virus and mocking Chinese dietary habits, according to the Stop AAPI Hate report. In the youth campaign survey, the breakdown of harassment against Asian American Pacific Islander youths are as follows: verbal (43%), shunning (26%), online bullying (21%), and physical altercations such as being coughed at, spit upon, or assaulted (10%).” She tells about how the comfortability of these people to be racist, has created fear and exclusion among Asian youths. The unfortunate truth is that racist Americans are using Asian Americans as a way to blame a worldwide problem on one group of people, who had nothing to do with the virus, just because of their culture. Liz Mineo talks about how Asian Americans are being used as a scapegoat, throughout the entire pandemic, and states why this had been extremely damaging. According to an article done by NBC news, Anti-Asian hate crimes have risen by 73 percent in the last year. This shocking and frightening number provides realism to the incidents that we have seen throughout the pandemic. One detail that I find slightly ironic about this horrible situation is that, the types of people who are going out and committing Hate crimes since the pandemic, are the same people who claim that the Corona Virus “isn't real”, or “doesn't kill people”, proving the fact that these people just need and wanted an excuse or a reason behind their horrible actions. Asian Americans have confronted this by attempting to speak out and share their stories, yet these extremely important facts don't seem to get the media coverage and attention they deserve. I think that the most important thing that can be done as an ally, would be to share stories and news about Anti-Asian hate crimes, in an attempt to reduce the level of ignorance that has been displayed by many Americans regarding this. The biggest question I have is that if these people feel so safe and comfortable doing such horrible things, what measures can be taken so that they don't feel protected doing them anymore.

Originally posted by SlicedBread on January 09, 2022 22:20

During the Covid-19 pandemic, as we all know, anti-Asian sentiment has become a global pandemic of its own. As mentioned in the “The Scapegoating of Asian Americans” article from The Harvard Gazette, “Between March 2020 and February 2021, Stop AAPI Hate … reported nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents in the U.S.,” and that’s only the ones reported. Furthermore, this situation isn’t unique to the United States, as mentioned in the Human Rights Watch article, “Several political parties and groups, including in the United States, United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Germany have also latched onto the Covid-19 crisis to advance anti-immigrant, white supremacist, ultra-nationalist, anti-semitic, and xenophobic conspiracy theories that demonize refugees, foreigners, prominent individuals, and political leaders.” Even political leaders, like Donald Trump encouraged this kind of hatred by calling the Corona Virus names like the “Chinese Virus” and the “Kung Flu.” In the article, “‘I am not a Virus’: How This Artist is Illustrating Coronavirus-Fueled Racism,” the artist mentioned how language like that can dehumanize people and lead to a lot of violence. All of this has contributed to a lot of hatred directed at Asian people, and this has resulted in fear and verbal and physical abuse. For example, as mentioned in the video and article, “2,120 Hate Incidents Against Asian Americans Reported During Coronavirus Pandemic,” many Asian run businesses have taken a big hit during the pandemic,“The damage is already done,” said a restaurant owner in New York.

Throughout history, scapegoating has been a devastating thing to happen to many minority groups in stressful times, and the Covid-19 pandemic has certainly not been an exception to this. Asian Americans very quickly became a scapegoat for the Covid-19 pandemic, even before the virus became prevalent in the US. Since the virus first became known in China, and America already has a long history of anti-Chinese (and more broadly anti-Asian) hate, it was easy for people to use the Asian community as a scapegoat, since there was already a lot of racism to build off of.

That said, not many Americans know that much about Asian American history and the racism that they faced and continue to face, because it is not taught about very much in classrooms. For example, one important piece of Asian-American history, as mentioned in the article, “Coronavirus: Fear of Asians rooted in long American history of prejudicial policies,” was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first immigration law that excluded an entire ethnic group. Personally, I don’t ever recall learning about this in a history class until I took AP World History in 10th grade, which is pretty absurd. The exclusion of Asian American racism in the history textbooks is also a common theme in general conversations about race, as mentioned in the article, “Why don’t we treat Asian American history the way we treat Black history,” “The American racial conversation, in which African Americans are the default minority group, has impoverished our understanding of — and provided a poor platform for — the stories of others.” Additionally, since Asian Americans have, in cases when it’s convenient, been considered “white,” a lot of racism against the community gets discredited or undervalued. The model minority myth also contributes to that greatly. Consequently, one way to be a good ally to the Asian American community is to make sure to include Asian Americans in discussions about anti-racism and to value their stories just as much as any other minority group.

A question for the next person: Do you think that enough has been done to address the Anti-Asian hate across the US due to the pandemic?

I do not think that nearly enough has been done to address the Anti Asian hate across the US during the pandemic. I think that something with such a level of deep rooted hate and racism that has propelled itself even further due to false stereotypes and xenophobia, is something that should be constantly covered by the media in order to make the country more aware of the ongoing problem.

The hate crimes that Asian Americans experience has been around for years. This should be common knowledge by now. In my opinion, all of the prejudice and discrimination against them is a product of Americans deflecting their own personal problems to an easy target; whether it be the second world war, similar to what we learned in class, or in more recent times, covid. Asian American hate has always been important to the US especially when it comes to worldwide issues that may or may not involve these Asian countries. When it was WWII, Asian Americans were singled out for little to no reason whatsoever similar to what was talked about in the Berkeley article "Coronavirus: Fear of Asians rooted in long American history of prejudicial policies". The same thing is happening right now and there is little to no attention being shown to it. The fact that anti-asian hate crimes rose to 73% is due to the stigma around Asian Americans and covid says a lot about the hive mentality Americans have. Although black history is very much important, we were not the only group to suffer from hate crimes and prejudice. More recently it has all been directed towards Asian Americans. It was something that could be expected, sadly, especially when the president of the US in the beginning stages of Covid quite literally normalizes associating the virus with Asian Americans. In all of the articles that talk about the Asian American experience during Covid, the same idea of fear and prejudice is expressed. This is the same deflection I mentioned earlier.

The history of Asian Americans is never really talked about in class either. Asian Americans aren't aware of their own history because its either not taught or they literally experience the hate for themselves. Also, The whole identification thing can blur their own sense of history especially if they are being classified as white which is clearly beneficial to them. I also agree with the Washington Post article "Coronavirus: Fear of Asians rooted in long American history of prejudicial policies" because I also believe that Asian American history is overshadowed by African American history in a sense as well. It seems like Asian American history is kind of thrown aside because their history is not really told or portrayed to the extent that African American history has been. The description of Asian American history being called a "subplot" is interesting to me as well. I think that non-Asians have to understand that their issues and problems are their own. Nobody caused their problems besides themselves.