learntoquestion ltq discussions

I think that there are two reasons that most non-Asians are unaware of this history, one being that we have minimized their struggle as I mentioned above, another being that we have somehow grouped Asians and White people together, pushing the model minority myth. Jay Kang writes in his article, "The Myth of Asian American Identity," that , "We, in other words, want to become as white as white will allow. For the first three decades of my life, this process felt inevitable." In his article he talks about his experience as an Asian American. He mentions often that no Asian that he knows really cares about the term "Asian American." They know that they've been grouped under one large umbrella, and that the people who show them hate won't care about their nationality, only their differences from each other. They've been grouped together and have gotten close to "being white" in terms of success and social mobility, which is why we don't take the time to teach it, or learn it, because of our ignorance to their plight.

2. Asians have confronted our "othering" of them in a multitude of ways. Some have accepted that this is how it's become, whether out of fear or knowing that change might not necessarily happen. Jay Kang for example, mentions how he feared for his daughter when she was first born because she looked fully Asian. He said that he could only hope that one day she could walk with as much confidence as someone who could pass as half-white. Some however, are starting to lift their voices, now more than ever with the beginning of the pandemic. The Human Rights Watch article mentions several incidents concerning Asian people being taunted, attacked, tormented by white people for simply existing as Asian Americans. They are currently making sure that their stories are shared and their voices are heard so that something in our society can change.

3. I think that what we can do to help is listen, learn, and care. We can start by doing things that we should have been doing from the very beginning, such as recognizing the differences between Asians, by recognizing their struggle, and learning about said struggles. We can get rid of offensive propaganda, and do our best by breaking down stereotypes. We can do this by making sure that every environment, whether it be one of working, learning, or recreation, is safe for anyone of any race to inhabit and thrive in. Nobody is going to take a chance if they feel they're a step away from being the victim of a hate crime.

4. Responding to: Why does the model minority stereotype exist? Is it bad or good? How is it used?

The model minority is a stereotype that exists to invalidate the success of Asian Americans. It is a bad thing because by maintaining that expectation, the struggle it took to get there is for naught. People aren't able to achieve success without hard work most of the time, and for that to be forgotten is for their stories to be forgotten, and for them to become invisible.

5. What can we do to get people to care about these issues? Is there any group we should prioritize more in trying to get them to care?

I don't think that this hate was surprising in the slightest, for the simple reason that people were experiencing something new and unexpected, different than anything they or their parents or their grandparents had ever lived through. As the Human Rights Watch article specified, the xenophobic sentiment spread to plenty of countries outside of the United States, namely a lot of European ones. As we've already learned, anti-Asian racism is not new by any means, and neither is white supremacist ideology, whether subtle or not. The confusion caused by the pandemic led to a desire for someone to blame, and combined with a strong history of discrimination, it's obvious why some people jumped to the idea that this was somehow the fault of Asian Americans. Reading through the various accounts of instances of anti-Asian hate in the Time article, a recurring theme is that people who are very much American are being targeted for being "Chinese", regardless of whether or not that is an accurate assessment of their identity. You would think that the history of intense hostility toward Asian-Americans would be well known to everyone if these are things which just happen in people's day-to-day lives, but as we all know a lot of Americans are not aware of the history of prejudice Asian-Americans have faced. I think that the main reason behind this would be that it goes back to the idea of a racial dichotomy in the United States, a struggle between "black" and "white" with no in between or other classification of people. Schools are much more inclined to teach about slavery or African-American civil rights movements than the corresponding and often equally harsh treatment of Asians simply because racism against Asians tends to just be swept under the rug.

It's difficult to say how exactly "Asians" have confronted this othering because "Asians" are not a single group of people, and there has in no way been one unified response to what they have been forced to deal with. As The Myth of Asian-American Identity puts it "Today, 'Asian American' is mainly a demographic descriptor that satisfies almost nobody outside the same upwardly mobile professionals who enter mostly white middle-class spaces and need a term to describe themselves and everyone who looks like them". I think the best answer to that question would just be to say that they have tried to just ignore the racism and go on with their lives in this new country. Going back to the Time article, many of the accounts of racism seem to show people doing their best to ignore the perpetrators and just go on with their days, which seems symbolic of a larger movement to just try to keep moving forward in American culture, ignoring whatever is thrown at them. This forward movement often involves, as the New York Times article explains, assimilation into American culture, as that is the main alternative to poverty for Asian-Americans in the United States.

The best way of dealing with these issues is just to keep people informed. I imagine that anti-Asian racism, while not being anywhere near solved, would definitely be reduced if we just taught the history of Asian Americans and the prejudice they faced right alongside that of African Americans in our schools. The Washington post article furthers the point that the idea of a black-white racial binary contributes to how much our schools are relatively in the dark about anti-Asian racism, and I couldn't agree more. If we start treating this like a group that needs just as much recognition in the United States as any other identity, it will be a great first step to reducing this kind of bias as a whole.

Responding to the question "What can we do to get people to care about these issues? Is there any group we should prioritize more in trying to get them to care?": I feel like people will naturally care about these issues as long as they are made aware. In my mind, a lot of people simply don't acknowledge this because it's not talked about nearly as much as other kinds of racism, so they view this as evidence for the idea that it's simply unimportant. I don't know how we would prioritize any specific group, but in any case, I think everybody needs to be made aware of it, and devoting more energy towards trying to persuade a specific group to care would be more or less pointless as it would just wind up weakening the point; we don't think this way when trying to get people to care about the struggles of any other oppressed group in the United States.

Question: What is the best way to respond to this discrimination in the context of times as unprecented as the COVID-19 pandemic, when people are likely to be desperate for someone to be angry at and less likely to listen to reason?

The scapegoating of Covid-19 on Asians has been caused by prominent political leaders who have encouraged hate through “hate crimes, racism, or xenophobia by using anti-Chinese rhetoric”, claimed the HRW in the opening statements of the article. The virus has been dealt with so poorly in so many countries, and it’s easier to attach the blame to another country instead of owning responsibility. For example, other countries whose leaders are also using xenophobic language are United Kingdom, Italy, Spain, Greece, France, and Germany, most of whom lacked the health infrastructure to support so many people. We saw how little Italy’s government did to protect their people, so it makes sense why they would want to shift the blame. I believe so many people are unaware of these hate crimes because they’ve been overshadowed by other important events, such as the BLM protests, events in DC, and covid itself.

Many Asians have dealt with these issues by giving themselves a voice. I read the article about artist Lisa Wool-Rim Sjöblom, who has turned racist experiences into artwork. This is a really good way to spread information about these hate crimes because it presents the info in a clear and engaging way. One of the most discouraging parts of the article is when Sjöblom talks about her son being treated with hate at school. I find this sad because these things are happening in elementary and middle schools. The children committing these acts of hate probably have no idea what the background of what they’re saying is and probably don’t realize how incorrect they are. They probably just hear their parents talk about the “Asian flu” at home and then use it to attack Asian kids.

These crimes are happening because of hatred and ignorance. A global virus could’ve started anywhere. While you can argue that China could’ve dealt with it better, it’s certainly not individual Asian Americans’ faults that the virus became so widespread. The best thing anyone can do is to distance oneself and others as far as possible from this way of thinking, and maybe spread awareness of the crimes and falsehoods of certain claims. There’s not much that individuals can do about the hate crimes, but the sooner we all realize that the covid-related claims against Asians is built on a bunch of crap, the sooner these problems will start to diminish.

Response to the questions: “What is the best way to respond to this discrimination in the context of times as unprecented as the COVID-19 pandemic, when people are likely to be desperate for someone to be angry at and less likely to listen to reason?” I think the thing people have to realize is that there might not be something we can blame everytime something goes wrong. Nobody was prepared for a highly contagious global pandemic to spring up for the first time in 100 years. And it’s definitely unfair to blame the country from which the virus originated. Like I said earlier, the virus could’ve started from anywhere.

Question: why do you think so easily buy into this hate, even though most Asian-Americans have nothing to do with the virus?

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Question: why do you think people so easily buy into this hateful rehtoric, even though its obvious that most Asian-Americans have nothing to do with the virus?

An Answer: Humans will believe any lie, however false, if it justifies being lazy. Being uneducated and following in the footsteps of the mass is always preferable, and drastically easier, to thinking for oneself, being politically present in your government, and making personal improvements on one's mentality. It doesn't help that the proliferators of such derisive and hateful dogma are charismatic, tyrannical, and violent, making it even harder to have an original thought or to contradict the viewpoints of the group. Not to mention that such groups have taken up positions in the highest echelons of state and government, making it even harder to ignore. [Our previous president, the highest executive power in the United States (and arguably the world) proliferated hateful dogma. let that sink in...]

It also certainly doesn't help that most major media outlets and online content puts on a veneer of goodwill, whilst behind the viewer's backs contributes to such a hateful group, and such dogmatic content is being proliferated in gargantuan numbers and propagandized by corporations and governments. Peace and prosperity don't make profit either, hate and derisiveness and polarization make more money for the greedy corporations that flourished in the information age.

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• Why the hate? And why is this hate not new but is based in a long history of anti-Asian discrimination? And why are most non-Asians—and some Asians--minimally aware of this history?

As far back as the invention of organized society in the Mesopotamian river valleys of the middle east, humans have discriminated against “us” as “them”. Whether it be landowner versus farmer, slave versus slaveholder, whether one's skin has more or less melanin than another, taller or shorter, that tribe or this clan, humans have, for as long as society has been incorporated into our lives, distinguished worth and power, right or wrong, based on this deeply flawed and ethically dubious division of an “us” and “them”. Fast-forward 8,000 years later, and we have modern man using the same methods to discriminate against the “us” and a “them” in a country where, ironically, it was founded by the persecuted, seeking independence from a tyrannical government. We may be taking up that mantle left by the British Empire in that regard. Through active, unfair, intolerant treatment undertaken by modern society, particularly the United States, through treating other people's differently because of their race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, religion, or other characteristics. American discrimination against Asian Americans, therefore, is an extension of this national, and global, trend. Retracing that previous claim through ~8000 years of human history, we can start to piece together the ‘why’ regarding why America has such an avid hatred towards the “other” or the “them”.

We can start our reparations process by looking at Asian Americans. Focusing in on Asians in particular, after reading 4 articles, written by academic experts on fields such as prejudice, Asian American history, and history as a whole (among many other distinctions) one can start to develop an understanding, and start to focus and dilate one's perspective in order to get a fuller “picture” of what exactly spawns and proliferates such hatred.

Asian Americans have faced hate and discrimination in the United States for a significantly long time. This is not a new phenomenon but is the result of a long history of anti-Asian sentiment in The United States.

One of the earliest examples of this is the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which, as discussed at-length in-class, effectively barred Chinese immigrants from entering the United States and fully denied them citizenship, both congressionally and later constitutionally. This legislation was motivated by fears of job competition and xenophobia towards the Chinese community. In addition, Asian Americans have faced violence and discrimination during times of war, such as the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II and, more recently, the persecution of Vietnamese Americans during the Vietnam War. More recently, hate crimes and discrimination against Asian Americans have been on the rise, with incidents ranging from verbal harassment to physical assault. These instances of hate and discrimination are fueled by a variety of factors, including xenophobia, racism, and prejudice. This all ties into the discrimination faced even more recently during the Covid-19 pandemic, where such festering hatred has been rebirthed and given a new light, disguising itself through relatively mundane mediums, such as online chat rooms and internet socialization threads, breeding-places for such despicable rhetoric and dogma to be created and proliferated en-mass.

One thing, however, is certain. Humanity, as a species and as an advanced and learned branch of the genus Homo, cannot continue to illogically, unjustly, and unethically persecute and despise others based on false arbitrary elements of one’s life. In order to progress as a species, we must unite our peoples as do away with the multitude of divisions and discriminatory vices that plague our progress and advancements, hinder our collaboration, and stain our just nature as humans. To put it simply, the words of acclaimed UC Berkley professor John A. Powell, as presented in an article published by Berkley News, says it most succinctly: “Sometimes they’re Muslim, sometimes they’re black, sometimes they’re Mexican, sometimes they’re Asian…But there is no them. There’s only us, and we have to figure out how to go forward where everybody belongs, and nobody dominates. Not blacks, not whites, not Christians, not Muslims. No group dominates.”

• How have Asians—who we already know are classified as “white” when it’s convenient (think of the example of the Boston School Committee) and are also classified as “other” or “POC”—confronted this othering? The latest version may be triggered by COVID, but we know this has a long and sordid history.

Asian Americans have confronted the discrimination and "othering" they face in a number of ways, including through activism and advocacy. This can include participating in protests and direct action, sharing personal stories and experiences, and using media and social media to amplify their message. Many Asian American organizations and advocacy groups have also worked to raise awareness about the issues facing their communities and to lobby for policy changes.

An example of activism in Massachusetts is the Boston Chinatown Neighborhood Center (BCNC). Founded in 1969, BCNC has worked to empower the Asian American community in Boston through a variety of services, programs, and outreach services, including education, workforce development, and civic engagement. The organization has also been active in advocating for policies that benefit the Asian American community, such as language access and immigrant rights. BCNC has played a crucial role in supporting and uplifting the Asian American community in Boston and beyond and continues to be an important voice for social justice and equity.

It was also a common trend noticed in the articles just how important the internet was in Asian American communities’ activism efforts. Asian Americans have used their voices to speak out about their experiences with discrimination and to challenge the narratives that contribute to their "othering." This can include sharing personal stories and experiences, participating in protests and other forms of direct action, and using social media and other forms of media to amplify their message. Many Asian Americans have also sought to educate others about their cultural histories and traditions, as a way of promoting understanding and challenging negative stereotypes. These communities continue to use online social apps to empower their members and others through self-determination and self-representation, via educational videos, infographics, and livestreams. This can also include supporting and promoting businesses and organizations that are owned and operated by Asian Americans, as well as seeking out and creating spaces where Asian American voices and perspectives are valued and celebrated.

• What should Asians as well as non-Asians do today to be allies in response to what these articles and the video clips chronicle?

As stated in my first paragraph, the sooner we realize that we are all one-in-the-same, and the sooner we cast aside our own personal prejudices and biases, the sooner we can rally humanity to solve this problem and the numerous others that plague our species. An added bonus of that is that it will be accomplished in a drastically accelerated timeframe, as we have more manpower to work on such solutions. We can continue to be allies to everyone, particularly marginalized communities like Asian Americans, by reporting harmful messages on online discussion platforms, and spreading positivity and uplifting messages. We can set an example for others.

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My Question to the following person: Knowing our limited scope of influence in our country, and being legal minors, how would you utilize our limited power to make meaningful changes to the flawed governmental order and structure we live under today in the United States? Do we even have any power at all, or is our power there but we have never properly utilized it?

Originally posted by Freight Farm Enjoyer on December 19, 2022 10:29

The best way of dealing with these issues is just to keep people informed. I imagine that anti-Asian racism, while not being anywhere near solved, would definitely be reduced if we just taught the history of Asian Americans and the prejudice they faced right alongside that of African Americans in our schools. The Washington post article furthers the point that the idea of a black-white racial binary contributes to how much our schools are relatively in the dark about anti-Asian racism, and I couldn't agree more. If we start treating this like a group that needs just as much recognition in the United States as any other identity, it will be a great first step to reducing this kind of bias as a whole.

I agree with your solution. Making sure the masses are educated equally to how we're getting educated on such issues is PARAMOUNT to fixing this problem.

Originally posted by WindWanderer on December 19, 2022, 09:10

3. I think that what we can do to help is listen, learn, and care. We can start by doing things that we should have been doing from the very beginning, such as recognizing the differences between Asians, by recognizing their struggle, and learning about said struggles. We can get rid of offensive propaganda and do our best by breaking down stereotypes. We can do this by making sure that every environment, whether it be one of working, learning, or recreation, is safe for anyone of any race to inhabit and thrive in. Nobody is going to take a chance if they feel they're a step away from being the victim of a hate crime.

I agree with this quite a lot. Making sure that the harmful propaganda the mass gets given on an hourly basis must end. Making sure people are not victimized in any sociological "3rd places" are tantamount in order to make the proper reparations.

The hate doesn’t surprise me because this entire country is built in hate, centuries and centuries of hate, what surprises me is the fact that hate goes beyond the United States into countries like Italy, where the governor is blatantly racist to Chinese people or Brazil where the minister “ridiculed Chinese people by saying that the pandemic is part of the plan for China’s world domination”(Human rights watch), like that even makes any sense or in the UK, where Asian people are being physically assaulted, and many other countries. People always need someone to blame when they are dealing with problems they can’t handle or control. This hate is not new because it started in the 1800s in the United States with the Chinese exclusion act, which was “the first immigration law that excluded an entire ethnic group”(Ivan Natividad), It prevented Chinese laborers from entering the country. Then there were the Chinese and Japanese immigrants who were detained under oppressive conditions for as long as six months, at immigration stations like angel island, then Japanese internment camps, where Japanese people lost their homes, jobs, and livelihoods and became prisoners. These are just of the long history of Anti-Asian discrimination. I believe not many people are aware of this because, when crimes against minorities/POCs are committed there’s a lot of coverage on it, even though Asian people are POCs, they aren’t considered that according to white people, they “are not POC and not white either” they’re better than people of color but not as good as white people according to the model minority myth, so the empathy that given to minority groups when they face discriminations isn’t given to them. They also don’t tell their history much in school history textbooks, I didn’t learn much about the discrimination that Asian people have faced in the U.S. until last year, and I only learned a little about the Japanese internment camps. Their history isn’t as publicized as other minority groups. “There also isn’t an Asian American figure as universally [praised] for his contributions”(Eric Dyson). This is because the very obvious racism and discrimination that they have faced aren't considered as serious or as important in comparison to other minority groups.

According to Sara Li in the teen vogue article, groups like Stop AAPI Hate are working to dismantle the myth that that being told for years about Asian people, and are also working to bring the discriminations that Asian people face to light so that they can be properly addressed. I’m not sure what individual Asian people are doing to confront the othering but I assume, they are expressing they’re expressing their cultural identity more, and talking more about their unique cultures.

The first thing that needs to be done is there need to be more upstanders instead of bystanders. During the incidents like physical assaults that happened against Asian people, “In almost half of these incidents, adults were present, but only in 10% of cases did bystanders intervene”(Sara Li). 10% percent is an extremely low number, In a lot of videos I saw online of Asian people being assaulted there are always people who are recording to be the first to post online but not many people intervene to try to stop the assault and racism happening in front of them. Non-Asians also need to learn about Asian history there are many mediums where we can learn about the history of others, don’t be ignorant, all Asian people are Chinese, Japanese, or Indian. The model minority myth is extremely harmful to Asian people so stop being a believer in it.

What can we as BLS students do to fight against Xenophobia and Hate crimes against Asians, and also get more people to learn about or care about Asian history?

Response to:

"Knowing our limited scope of influence in our country, and being legal minors, how would you utilize our limited power to make meaningful changes to the flawed governmental order and structure we live under today in the United States? Do we even have any power at all, or is our power there but we have never properly utilized it?"

I think that we have power, and this is where social media becomes extremely useful, apps like Tik Tok, and Instagram. If we educate people about Asian history on those apps and tell more people about the discrimination that Asian people are facing then we can start to make meaningful changes. We're so quick to make petitions for things we don't like and agree with, we can look for laws that discriminate against Asian people, or laws that we want to be put in place to protect Asian people, make a petition, get people to sign it, especially through social media, take it to the city council, or call your state representative and try to make a change. Our age although it might be hard doesn't stop us from making tangible changes if we want to.

Originally posted by Soxbestcat! on December 21, 2022 21:30

Hate of any kind for any group of people usually stems from an othering, usually by a majority that looks down upon the minority for one inane reason or another. Anti-Asian discrimination is no exception. When the first major wave of Asians came to America, there was clearly something different about them from everyone else that was already there. They looked different, they acted differently, and they spoke different languages. It was easy for white Americans to create an “us” versus “them” scenario. Then when something happened that white Americans are unhappy with, “Asian Americans have been regularly scapegoated during periods of national duress.” as Liz Mineo says. To some, it’s okay to place the blame of the attack on Pearl Harbor or the loss of jobs or COVID-19 onto Asian Americans who had nothing to do with these things because they’re the “them.” Even now, Asian Americans are never seen as truly American. We are often asked where we are from and for those of us born in America, if we respond with America, we are then asked “No, where are you really from?” as if it’s impossible for us to ever be American.

So many people are unaware of this history simply because it is often brushed aside by both non-Asians and Asians. The NBC News article states that Asian Americans are least likely to report hate crimes. However when we do speak about injustices, they are often ignored because they’re not seen as important since there isn’t a great movement to go along with fighting these injustices. Michael Eric Dyson adds that “Asian Americans have been unjustly perceived as less assertive than African Americans in the fight for equality. For the same reasons that the AAPI community is a collective, the comparison makes no sense. The struggles and needs and timing of its constituent groups have always been different, but no less needed” and I completely agree. The AAPI community is incredibly diverse and we are all facing different struggles so it often seems like we’re quieter. In America, all Asians are treated as one. We are not all the same. The term AAPI is useless because while it stands for Asian American and Pacific Islander, it is most often used to describe only Asians, and usually only East Asians, completely ignoring the different struggles that non-East Asians and Pacific Islanders face. As Jay Caspian Kang says, “Asian Americans have the widest internal income disparity of any racial group in America: The median Indian American household in America earns $119,000 a year, while the average Burmese family earns $44,400.” In Asia itself, there is no sense of an “Asian identity” because each country and its culture are unique.

Asian Americans are often classified as white because we are seen as the “model minority,” perfect for white Americans because we’re hardworking, but will never be taken seriously enough to gain leadership positions, we’re quiet and many Asian people end up in the middle class. Again, pushing this Asian monolith directly harms many people in the Asian community who get overlooked because we’re supposedly “naturally smarter” or more likely to succeed. Asian Americans have confronted this othering by speaking out about their experiences, especially more recently with the drastic increase in hate crimes because of the pandemic.

Other than educating themselves, I think something simple non-Asian people can do to be allies is take the time to learn the names and faces of Asian people in their daily lives. It’s incredibly frustrating to be called the name of someone who I look nothing like just because we’re both Asian. I also think for non-Asians who really want to learn how to pronounce an Asian name, make sure whoever you’re asking is comfortable with it. It can often be embarrassing or isolating to be forced to pronounce your name multiple times so that other people can feel like they did something good by saying your name correctly. Asians need to make sure that our stories are told, to let everyone know that we will not be silent in the face of injustice.

To answer Rileyy’s question, I think the best thing BLS students can do to fight against xenophobia and get more people to care about Asian history is to continue to educate ourselves and our peers. As one of the best high schools in the nation, if we are not educated, then who is? I know it seems weird to randomly bring up any social injustice that isn’t new news in a conversation with your friends, but I think it’s super important.

My question is why do so many prominent figures think it’s okay to make blatantly racist remarks towards Asian Americans? And how are some of them able to get away with it?

Many figures think it's okay to make these remarks because they were brought up in an environment where it is ok. It doesn't help that many people in this country start scapegoating others when anything in this country gets out of their control. They just start blaming to have something to put their anger and regret towards, which is just awful. Stereotyping has also played a role in them seeing it be ok to do these things, because stereotyping is dehumanizing. It's meant to make people feel ashamed of themselves more than it is to uplift them. Some are able to get away with it through money, connections, and having fans (ew) that support their views.