Last Tuesday’s tragedy in Atlanta shocked the whole nation. All of sudden the mainstream media drew wide attention to the discrimination and violence targeted at Asian Americans. There have been many rallies across the nation demanding #stopasianhate . Many folks may even have participated. While it’s important to have rallies to draw media attentions, there would be business as usual and tragedy could repeat after rallies if we don’t demand concrete changes.
In fact, discrimination and violence against Asians have never stopped in the past. If you just pay attention to Asian Dawn, NextShark, you’d see many reports of Anti-Asian violence. However, there has been basically no report in mainstream media . Just as Connie Chung pointed out recently, ”The media is miserably late covering anti-Asian violence.” Why ? “We are insignificant, and it’s so apparent to all of us who are Asian.”
Recently we have seen many politicians speaking eloquently against violence in support of Asians at #stopasianhate rallies and press conferences. However, everything goes back to business as usual after rallies. Everyday discrimination and violence targeted at Asian Americans still play out every day. In different parts of the country, innocent Asians, seniors and women in particular, are subject to violent attacks. In order to make a change, Asians cannot stop at just rallies. There has to be concrete demand for fundamental changes and subsequent implementations of the reforms. Sadly, many of eloquent politicians and organization representatives speaking at the rallies are the ones responsible for the systemic discrimination reality against Asians.
For example, one of the speakers at the Chinatown rally recently is state senator Bob Hasegawa, he is not only a staunch advocate for I-1000 at the expense of Asian American interest, but also a major opposition to our fight to call out Anti-Asian racism in the legislature. Former governor Gary Locke, who spoke at both Chinatown and Bellevue rallies, not only endorsed and testified in support of I-1000 in 2019, but also championed actively and debated on behalf of Pro I-1000 campaigns. Other than throwing a few high pitched hallow slogans at the rallies, these career politicians have never worked to defend the interest of Asian Americans. Recently it was disclosed that some organizations started to collect donations under the names of anti-racism, yet they have done nothing but working against Asian American’s interests. Just an example, when Asian Americans were fighting against I-1000 in 2019, these organizations either openly supported I-1000 or remained neutral doing nothing.
Recently in a UC Berkeley article “In times of crisis, anti-Asian violence is an American tradition”, Professor Lok Siu hit the nail on the head, “The continual and persistent reinvocation of the deeply ingrained notion that Asian Americans are ‘outsiders’ and therefore (don’t belong) in the U.S., fuels anti-Asian sentiments and attacks during moments of social crisis or disruption.”
Precisely! Unless fundamental changes are made to the Perpetual Foreigner status of Asians, anti-Asian history will repeat periodically. Yesterday we, under the names of Washington Asians For Equality(WAFE) and American Coalition For Equality(ACE), submitted a joint statement, “Take Concrete Steps to End Anti-Asian Racism”, to all 147 Washington state legislators, governor Jay Inslee and OSPI Superintendent Chris Reykdal. In this statement, we listed the following specific requests:
- Legislations to call out anti-Asian racism in several of the Equity bills still under discussion in the legislature in order to ensure sufficient attention and effort to combat systemic racism against Asian Americans.
- Governor to fund and launch a long term campaign to educate the public of contributions of Asian Americans and discrimination they suffered in history. Awareness of Asian American history will combat the ingrained notion of ‘forever foreigners’ status.
- OSPI and school districts to prioritize Asian American History study in curriculums. As Mercer Island 7th Grader Julia Shang pointed out “when the oppression that a community faces is neglected, you begin to think that it’s okay to be racist to that community.” This negative cycle needs to be stopped. Let’s start from young age!
- Education institutions, government agencies, and employers examine and recognize the implicit bias associated with the image of a “model minority” and terms such as “Asians are overrepresented”. It is wrong to limit Asian students’ opportunity to attend state colleges and medical schools. (SB 5228, still under discussion, would require preferences of certain underrepresented students, while Asians are excluded, in other words, this bill would severely limit the opportunities of Asian American students).
- Law enforcement agencies to prosecute the hate crime case to the full extent of the law.
In addition, an effort led by our ACE Foundation(ACEF) to produce video ads reflecting Asian American contributions and promote the ad. Estimated cost is $20,000. Please join us and donate by clicking https://acefus.org/donate .
Best Regards
Linda
Chinese version 本文中文版在 https://mailchi.mp/i200.org/take-concrete-steps-to-end-anti-asian-racism
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