learntoquestion ltq discussions

Readings and Streamings:

Note: It’s important that you read and/or watch at least FOUR (4) of the 12 items listed below AND clearly reference them in your post. I would especially urge you to include within your choices #1 from Human Rights Watch (HRW) for a global perspective on this topic:

Reading options:

1. “Covid 19 fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide,” Human Rights Watch, May 12, 2020. https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide

2. Ivan Natividad, “Coronavirus: Fear of Asians rooted in long American history of prejudicial policies,” Berkeley News, February 12, 2020

https://news.berkeley.edu/2020/02/12/coronavirus-fear-of-asians-rooted-in-long-american-history-of-prejudicial-policies/

3. Stephanie Garcia, “’I am not a Virus’: How This Artist is Illustrating Coronavirus-Fueled Racism,” PBS, April 1, 2020. https://www.pbs.org/newshour/arts/i-am-not-a-virus-how-this-artist-is-illustrating-coronavirus-fueled-racism

4. Anna Purna Kambhampaty and Haruka Sakaguchi, “’I Will Not Stand Silent.’ 10 Asian-Americans Reflect on Racism During the Pandemic and the Need for Equality.” Time, June 25, 2020. https://time.com/5858649/racism-coronavirus/

5. Sarah Li, “Anti-Asian Hate Has Surged during the Coronavirus Pandemic, Reports Find,” Teen Vogue, September 18, 2020. https://www.teenvogue.com/story/anti-asian-racism-stop-aapi-hate

6. Felix Sitthivong, “Coronavirus has sparked another epidemic in my prison: Anti-Asian Racism,” The Marshall Project, December 3, 2020. https://www.themarshallproject.org/2020/12/03/coronavirus-has-sparked-another-epidemic-in-my-prison-anti-asian-racism

7. Liz Mineo, “The scapegoating of Asian Americans,” Harvard Gazette, March 24, 2021. https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2021/03/a-long-history-of-bigotry-against-asian-americans/

8. Michael Eric Dyson, “Why don’t we treat Asian American history the way we treat Black history,” Washington Post, March 26, 2021.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/outlook/asian-black-atlanta-history/2021/03/26/9f10a9ac-8d98-11eb-9423-04079921c915_story.html

If you find you hit a firewall, go to this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/14Cirx-q5wXJWd4bw0SUvRnp_zQRGGWug/view?usp=sharing

9. Jay Caspian King, “The Myth of Asian-American Identity,” The New York Times Magazine, October 5, 2021. https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/05/magazine/asian-american-identity.html

If you find you hit a firewall, go to this link: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1qdAXaBKpA4qG6ycL66tR5K3Crnudt3zq/view?usp=sharing

10. Sakshi Venkatraman, “Asian hate crimes rose 73% last year, updated FBI data says,” NBC News, October 25, 2021.https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/anti-asian-hate-crimes-rose-73-last-year-updated-fbi-data-says-rcna3741

Streaming options:

11. Video from the Los Angeles Times: Epidemic of Hate: Asian Xenophobia and Coronavirus, February 3, 2020 [7:55] https://youtu.be/7nlenypkMww [7:55] and the accompanying article Suhuana Hassan, “Fear of coronavirus fuels racist sentiment targeting Asians, Los Angeles Times, February 3, 2020. https://drive.google.com/file/d/1Z4iu--gthgMAwX2iuQdjeCkrGDwqvmTx/view?usp=sharing

12. Article and video: Erin Donaghue, “2,120 Hate Incidents Against Asian Americans Reported During Coronavirus Pandemic,” CBS News, July 2, 2020 https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anti-asian-american-hate-incidents-up-racism/

__________________________________________________________________________

The former President repeatedly referred to it as the “China virus” or the “Asian flu.” Insofar as we first became aware of a COVID-19 in December 2019 in Wuhan, China, that association has regrettably stuck for many Americans. What COVID has unleashed, not only in the United States but in far-flung places around the world, is anti-Chinese vitriol and, because of the long history of Asian interchangeability by non-Asians, anti-Asian views more broadly.

Xenophobia directed at Asians isn’t new, as we have/will see this week in class. What COVID has inspired is just the latest in a long history of anti-Asian hate.

President Biden signed S.937, the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, sponsored by Senator Mazie Hirono (D-Hawaii), in May 2021. At the signing ceremony, Biden spoke eloquently of the “why” behind the legislation:

“We heard how too many Asian Americans have been waking up each morning this past year genuinely — genuinely — fearing for their safety just opening the door and walking down the street, and safety for their loved ones. The moms and dads who, when they let their kids out the door to go to school, were worried.

Attacked, blamed, scapegoated, harassed during this pandemic. Living in fear for their lives, as I said, just walking down street.

Grandparents afraid to leave their homes even to get vaccinated, for fear of being attacked.

Small business owners targeted and gunned down.

Students worried about two things: COVID-19 and being bullied.

Documented incidents of hate against Asian Americans have seen a shocking spike — as the Vice President has outlined at the front of her comments. Let alone — let alone the ones that have never been reported.

Gut-wrenching attacks on some of the most vulnerable people in our nation — the elderly, low-wage workers, women — brutally attacked simply by walking outside or waiting for a bus. Asian American women suffer twice as many incidents of harassment and violence as Asian American men.

And the conversation we had in Atlanta is one we’re hearing all across the country, that all of this hate hides in plain sight — it hides in plain sight — and too often, it is met with silence: silence by the media, silence by our politics, and silence by our history.

For centuries, Asian Americans, Native Hawaiians, Pacific Islanders — diverse and vibrant communities — have helped build this nation only to be often stepped over, forgotten, or ignored. You know, lived here for generations, but still considered, by some, the “other” — the “other.” It’s wrong. It’s simply — to use the phrase — it’s simply un-American.

My message to all of those of you who are hurting is: We see you. And the Congress has said: We see you. And we are committed to stop the hatred and the bias.”

The Asian and Pacific Islander (AAPI) population in the United States, according to the US Census (as of 2020), is believed to number approximately 20 million people, roughly 7.7% of the total population in the nation. It constitutes the fastest growing population in the United States. According to the Pew Research Center, Asian-Americans constitute the “highest-income, best-educated and fastest-growing racial group in the United States.”

So many non-Asians can’t distinguish among Asians—witness Valerie Soh’s keenly observed short All Orientals Look the Same [pointedly using the pejorative term, “Orientals”]--so they lump Asians all together. Not unlike the Native American voices we heard who wish that we would identify Native peoples by their tribes and not label them all “native” or “indigenous,” many Asians too wish people would acknowledge their specific places of origin, their differing circumstances, cultures, and histories, and not simply assume that “sameness.”

We know that Asians have been the target of dismissive language; think of the episode when then Boston School Committee chair, Michael Loconto, was caught on tape (in fall 2020) mocking Asian names. And they have been the target of growing violence—think most especially of the killings of Asian women at spas in Atlanta in spring 2021.

For you to consider in this post, after choosing from the readings/streamings above:

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?

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.

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

Maybe those are foolish questions. What we know from our work on discrimination and othering thus far is that issues of “us” and “them,” “superiority” and “inferiority,” the desire to identify an “in group” and an “out group” governs much of human interaction.

Please weigh in on these questions in a thoughtful, well-supported post, supported by what you learned from class, from the readings/streamings and from what you know from your own experiences. Don’t just generalize—be specific! And please do post a question for the next person to respond to in their post (and respond to the question posed prior to your posting!).

People who are angry that Covid-19 is affecting their lives are projecting this anger onto Asian people instead of the virus itself. It doesn’t help that former U.S. President Donald Trump and Secretary of State Mike Pompeo call Covid-19 the “Chinese virus” and “Wuhan virus”. Once you group an entire ethnicity or country to something that is having a negative impact on people, then people’s ire will be directed towards that ethnicity/country. This is not the first time this has happened either. During WW2 in the 1940s, Japanese-American citizens were forced into internment camps and ostracized simply for being Japanese. In Mineo’s article, “The scapegoating of Asian Americans”, she goes more in-depth with how this “scapegoating” tactic has been going on for centuries. Whether it was the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 which blamed Chinese people for “stealing jobs”, the treatment of Southeast Asians after the Vietnam War, or the killing of Vincent Chin, who never got the justice he deserved, Asian Americans have been pushed out again and again to take the blame of crimes the U.S. have committed.

Since the start of Covid in the United States, crimes against Asian Americans have risen by 73%, as stated in Venkatraman’s article. This includes a shooting in a spa in Atlanta that killed 8 people, 6 of them were women of Asian descent. In New York, a Chinese woman was also pushed onto the train tracks. However, discrimination doesn’t just occur in America either. In the U.K., Brazil, Russia, and even Asian countries like India, South Korea, and Japan, Asian people (but more specifically Chinese in South Korea and Japan) have been getting physically and verbally assaulted. In India and Sri Lanka, even Muslims were blamed for the rise of Covid (Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide). This brings us back to the idea of “scapegoating” certain groups of people. Furthermore, the increase in crimes has caused some Asians who were not Chinese to come out and “clarify” that they were of so-and-so descent. During WW2, Chinese people + other ethnicities also wore shirts that said, “Please don’t hit, I am not Japanese.” We’re seeing a repeat of that history today. I don’t blame them for what they did because I understand their fear of getting beaten, or even worse, killed, but we need to address the bigger issue behind all of this. Instead of siding with the oppressor to “blame” Chinese people, we as a nation should start enacting federal laws to stop hate crimes and begin arresting racists committing these crimes. Let’s stop the victim blaming.

To combat this predicament, Asians and non-Asians have been protesting and sharing their stories online to bring light to the problem. One Korean-Swedish artist, in particular, Lisa Woo-Rim Sjöblom, has been shedding light on these issues through her illustration series: I Am Not A Virus. She says, “I find that a lot of things that I comment on, which are often seen as quite controversial, people tend to understand it better or show more empathy when they see my drawings.” Instead of reading words on paper, people tend to emphasize more with things they can visualize, and Sjöblom does exactly that. Other Asian artists who were not mentioned in the article but I think deserve recognition too are Kezia Gabriella, Jonathan Chang, and Amanda Phingbodhipakkiya.

My question is: We obviously know the issues of “us” and “them” and the divide between white people and Asian people, but there are internal problems within the Asian community too. Some people actively try to exclude certain ethnicities when discussing Asian hate OR they publicly show their support for racists such as Donald Trump. What do you think causes some Asian people (mostly older generations) to side with the oppressors despite what they’ve done?

I think that this recent surge of hate stemmed from fears about the pandemic. When people encounter something that they don’t understand, they tend to project that fear onto something that is easier for them to grasp. In this case, given COVID19’s origin, Asian people were the most convenient group to scapegoat and pin the blame on. Anti-Asian discrimination has a long history in the US as we saw with the cards on Thursday. So much legislation has been passed over the years to try to enforce this separation and othering, but public opinion is equally as influential in this process. But the 2,120 hate incidents against Asian Americans from March-June 2020 (according to the CBS video) aren’t a product of any new legislation, they are the result of our country’s mindset. One big contributor, as seen with the example of former president Trump’s creation of a ‘culture war’ from the war against the pandemic, is misinformation. According to a science.org article, as of June 2022, ⅓ of the American population were still unaware of the rise in hate and discrimination since the beginning of the pandemic (over two years ago). This is extremely concerning because if people don’t understand the significance of what is happening, it makes it much more difficult to address the problem. I think that this lack of awareness is a very big contributor to the difficulties in combating the recent rise, and the best way to begin to remediate it is by bringing light to these issues so that people at least understand why it matters.

In the context of the effects of COVID-19, confronting this othering often takes the form of showing support through things like putting up signs for the Stop AAPI Hate movement, attending protests, posting on social media and sharing their stories through art such as Lisa Wool-Rim Sjoblom. In the past, it was harder to confront. Because of the excessive laws and regulations to try to prevent Asians from leading their lives, the options for combating them were much more complicated and harder to execute.

I think that in response to these sources, we should work together to combat this othering. The division of people who live in the same country and are supposed to coexist isn’t constructive to the vision of what our country is supposed to be. We share a country, so shouldn’t we share respect for each other?

In response to the above question: I think that it's easy to stoke this fear, but one very significant way is the pitting of different minority communities against each other. If groups who are already at a disadvantage because of negative stereotypes can't see past them to support each other, then how is it possible for them to support themselves. The division that has been reinforced is extremely damaging-- as seen in several of the articles where a member of one minority group commits an act of hate against someone in another, when it would be much more constructive for them to work together to combat their shared oppression.

My question is: We know that politicians and public figures have voiced their opinions on this issue, but what about the media? Throughout history negative stereotypes about Asian people have been spread through the media (like the images we saw in class) and still are today (ex: anything from casual comments on social media to blatantly mockery in tv and movies), but often don’t face any ramifications and are casually disregarded. What can be done to get people to take these incidents more seriously AND is it possible to convince people that even if something is meant as a joke it can still be harmful?

I agree with the previous responses that people are scapegoating Asian Americans because of their fear of the virus, but I also think that’s not all that has to do with it. Lack of education on the coronavirus also contributed to the spread of hate and misinformation. I don’t think there’s any way that someone with a full education of how virus’ work could really blame anything on Asians as a whole. Also, this racism didn’t just appear when COVID hit, it was hidden in people’s minds well before this, and the virus gave them an excuse to let it out. Human Rights Watch states that “In early May, the Malaysian authorities carried out mass raids to detain refugees and migrant workers, suggesting without basis that the migrant community and Rohingya refugees were responsible for the spread of Covid-19.” and that “Hate speech against Muslims, already a serious and growing problem since the election of the Hindu nationalist Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in 2015, increased in connection with the spread of Covid-19.” Other countries are also using COVID-19 as a way to persecute groups they previously deemed inferior to them.

The United States has a long history of being against Asian immigration and success. Our country has profited greatly off of the cheap labor of immigrants, yet some still believe that we would be better off without them. Hate against Asians goes undocumented because it is so normalized. It is woven into our daily life through jokes and gestures that go unnoticed. As Felix Sitthivong says in his article “Coronavirus has sparked another epidemic in my prison: Anti-Asian Racism,” of The Marshall Project, “hate is not a mistake”. Racism is buried so deeply in our society because we like to tell ourselves that it doesn’t exist. People who are radically racist probably make up logic for their behavior so that they can think they are right, but the hate is always there. Those who choose to be violent towards Asian American’s didn’t just feel inclined to after the pandemic. When we think of racism, we think mainly of slavery and the BLM movement, racism against Asians is put in a different category because they were paid or because they chose to come to America. The conditions and exploitation that they suffered through all while being persecuted as a racial group is overlooked. I think people forget too often that no one except the Native Americans are ethnically American.

Ida Chen, a first generation Chinese-American, says that "oppression of one minority group results in oppression of all minority groups eventually” in Time Magazine. She and others in the article agree that all groups of people should be fighting for each other, no matter what they are classified as on a piece of paper. To be allies, we should never overlook racism against Asians or excuse it due to the coronavirus or fear. People being stressed about where the virus came from doesn’t give them the right to perpetrate crimes against the people that are ethnically from that place. Erin Donaghue from CBS News says in her report that Asian Americans are receiving discrimination over a disease that doesn’t discriminate. We can’t blame a worldwide disaster on one group of people.

Response to ilovesharks44’s question: One example I can think of is the Aristocats movie from Disney. The movie shows a cat that is supposed to be an Asian-American, it plays the piano with chopsticks, speaks broken English, and has negative stereotypes portrayed in its attire and facial features. There is a warning at the beginning of the movie stating, “This program includes negative depictions and/or mistreatment of people or cultures”. This is a good first step, but more should be done. In my opinion, parents are still going to play this movie for their kids who aren’t going to understand the quick warning at the beginning of the film. Showing these pieces of media to children gives them the idea that racial stereotyping is funny and normal. Disney said that they left this movie intact because it will help to spark discussion, but what discussions are being sparked by four year olds? I think a lot of people are against removing negative racial tropes from the media because most of the movies depicting them are ones they grew up with. People are hung up on to the idea of tradition and don’t focus enough on the effects these things can have on children, especially those that belong to that racial group. I think if people were able to see how Asian stereotypes affect kids, especially through bullying in schools, they would be convinced that those “jokes” can be harmful.

My Question: It only takes one powerful person (such as Trump) to legitimize hate and give people an excuse to be hateful. I feel like we are definitely improving as a society, but it always feels like there are people lurking in the background who won’t give up their illogical and radically racist beliefs. Is there any way to counter the racist and hateful beliefs or cut it at the root? Do you think that as time goes on, the amount of people with hatred towards raical groups will diminish as new generations promote equality?

I think that the primary source of this new surge in anti-Asian discrimination comes from the pandemic, and the language that has been normalized surrounding it. Having a president of the United States regard covid-19 as the “China Virus” not only was an attack on the Chinese government, but unfortunately due to much of the US population grouping all Asian people under one group, made anyone who “looked” Asian much more vulnerable to often violent infliction. Anti-Asian discrimination has a very long history in the United States. Two major sources were surges of hate targeting Chinese immigrants during the California Gold Rush, as well as a surge of hate against Japanese during and after World War II. The Chinese exclusion act was one of the first legislated policies that directly targeted a specific race of people, and was only repealed in 1943. Much of the history that is taught nationwide is chosen by states to promote a patriotic view of the country, and often neglects teaching what is often referred to today as “ethnic studies”. Anti-Asian hate crimes rose 73% in 2020 in the US according to the FBI (Article 10), but anti-Asian hate is also on the rise globally. In Australia for instance, “On April 15, 2 women in a group attacked 2 female Chinese students at Melbourne University, yelling racist statements such as, “Go back to China” and “you fucking immigrants.” One of the women repeatedly punched one of the students in the head and, after pushing her to the ground, kicked her in the torso several times.” (Article 1) Article 5 states that “almost half of Chinese American youths (45.7%) report experiencing direct online discrimination during the COVID-19 pandemic”. With a surge of anti-Asian hate, it may seem like the safest route to identify as white when possible, however, this conflicting presentation of one’s identity is extremely degrading and can cause conflict within groups of Asian people as well. I think that one of the largest perpetrators of this violence is the spread of misinformation, and a lack of education of the true history of many different groups of people. The most basic necessity for everyone to combat this hate is to foremost educate themselves to the best of their ability. Everyone needs to expand their scope of perspective and instead of seeking out information that directly supports their pre-established beliefs, we all need to constantly take in multiple perspectives, especially those that go against what we believe. The next step that anyone can take part in, is educating others around them, and stopping the perpetuation of misinformation. A final way that many people can be allies is simply financially. In a capitalist society, where everything is so intertwined with money, supporting victims and their families, and providing resources for activism can go a very long way.

Answer to: “We know that politicians and public figures have voiced their opinions on this issue, but what about the media? Throughout history negative stereotypes about Asian people have been spread through the media (like the images we saw in class) and still are today (ex: anything from casual comments on social media to blatantly mockery in tv and movies), but often don’t face any ramifications and are casually disregarded. What can be done to get people to take these incidents more seriously AND is it possible to convince people that even if something is meant as a joke it can still be harmful?”

I think that holding the media accountable is one of the most difficult tasks in this technological age where free speech is glorified so immensely. Just as I stated above, I think that when people become aware of where these racist jokes are rooted historically, it may cause some people to rethink what they believed prior to be just an innocent post. It is especially difficult in convincing people that jokes are harmful when many believe that jokes require a victim in order to be perceived as funny, and I think it would require a larger cultural shift to combat.

My Question: How can social media users and companies work to address and combat the proliferation of anti-Asian hate and harmful stereotypes on platforms that do not have moderation such as the current state Twitter?

This hatred is not in way new because as previously mentioned, Asians and Asian-Americans are an already marginalized group. As we saw in class, dating back to the 1800’s there was already such a level of xenophobia and over generalization of the group that made up a whole continent. As mentioned in the article “Coronavirus Has Sparked Another Epidemic in My Prison: Anti-Asian Racism”, it is seen that the inmate remembers hearing a White person say “there all gooks anyway”. Not only is this language highly harmful and racist but it also causes people who hear it, Asian or not, to think about what was said and it can be a gateway to other harmful opinions. Some Asians and non-Asains maybe can’t see how it is rooted in hisotry and what is means becuase quite frankly, hate and xenephobia is almost all non-white people face. As I had read in “Why don’t we treat Asian American history the way we treat Black history?”, I noticed just how much we don't teach about Asain history as much as we should. But even worse, in this country we don’t really ever bother to look at what we as a nation have done to Asain people. As we see around the nation and globe, Asain people are making their voices heard and not accepting the hate that they are being faced with. As a non-Asain person it feels odd for me to answer the question if being Asain and classified as White, POC or other feels like othering but if I were to attempt to stand in the shoes of an Asain person, I would think most certainly, yes, this is othering. If someone or a group of people are not giving even the slightest bit of proper generalization, yes it is othering. By making it so widely known that you don’t fall into a category it does make a person feel othered.

Something that I have done personally now and at the start of the pandemic was to go to Chinatown and other Asian stores or restaurants and support them because as both me and my parents saw, there was hate towards establishments like that just because of the location which completely boggles my mind. As seen in the NBC article called “Anti-Asian hate crimes rose 73% last year, updated FBI data says” the attack in Atlanta was done with the sole purpose of spreading fear, hate and violence through the Asian community. Additionally, and probably most obviously, standing with people who are experiencing hate and standing against those who prepare it. Although I feel like personally that isn't me doing a whole lot, it's better than doing nothing at all.

Almost every “group” in history has experienced some sort of bigotry and racial profiling since the start of modernism. I think when people are scared in this case because of the coronavirus they are more sustainable to manipulation and lashing out resulting in blaming a group which is often a low-hanging fruit. The difference is some groups are more easily susceptible to this/ it is seen as more acceptable to be racist to one group than it is to others. For example, if you see Asian people call being racial there would be a lot fewer people who would step in and check them whereas if someone called a black person a slur a lot more people would check them. These kinds of crimes have been happening for some time now but have gone unchecked until last year when it got bad enough that the media had to talk about it as shown in the teen vogue article where they state 10% of the time people intervened in hate incidents.

Asian Americans have been a hated group ever since the California gold rush where they were used as a scapegoat for politicians looking for something to divert the attention of the masses of losing jobs to Asians. When Asian Americas were starting to make some headway in breaking down the belief that there all the same and there taking American jobs WW2 happened and everything went back to square one after Pearl Harbor. The Harvard Gazette article discusses this pointing out various acts put in place to put Asain Americans down such as the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 and the Page Exclusion Act of 1875. Along with that the article also brings to light the 120,000 Japanese placed into internment camps and of whom 62% where American citizens.

History in America oftentimes isn’t faced but rather pushed away once it is done with, and oftentimes in school, tough things aren’t taught.

Lately, we have seen a rise in the stop AAPI hate which is a movement founded to combat and bring attention to this problem. There have been protests and schools such as the one in the CBS video have worked to educate people about racism.

It is first important to understand that this isn’t just something that is happening in one city or state or country but the whole world. There are reports of Russia banning Chinese citizens from entering the country and Australia has seen an uptick in Asian-related hate crimes. So know that posting thing online to spread awareness as well as joining movement that doesn’t just focus on America but some that have bases in multiple countries, can help.