History and Politics of Anti-Asian Racism and Violence
History and Politics of Anti-Asian Racism and Violence
(RECOMMENDED) March 31, 2021: In 2021, What Does Visibility Mean to the Asian and Trans+ Communities?, Lex Shu Chan.
"The invisibility experienced by many Asians is not an accident, and having silenced myself time and time again, it has taken me many years to get here. But on this day, I have decided to be visible as a proud member of two sparkling, resilient and brilliant communities. Asian cultures are often regarded as centring collectivism over the individual, but it is important that each unique experience is amplified in a movement that already aims to bring together a group of very disparate individuals. While there are human values that unite us all, I would like to invite marginalised members of the Asian community who feel ready, such as the economically disadvantaged, sex workers, Asians with disabilities, and of course my queer Asian siblings, to join me and share their unique stories, and for those who are in a relative position of privilege to provide the platform to do so. This is not about comparing pains, but being truly seen in a world when simply ‘being noticed’ is so often conflated with true visibility."
For more information, see The Roots of Anti-Trans Violence from the Transgender Law Center.
(RECOMMENDED) May 14, 2020: "I'm Building Counter-Narratives": LGBTQ+ Asian Americans on How They're Processing Racism During Coronavirus, Kyle Casey Chu.
"I connected with other queers and Asian Americans at my company to co-write a company-wide letter about the danger and history of conflating Asian Americans with disease. While collaborating on the piece, I felt something I hadn’t experienced in a long time. I felt energy. So I reached out to other queer and trans Asian-Americans to hear about their experiences processing and healing from racism and hate crimes. In doing so, I fully expected to encounter the same feelings. In reality, their reactions ran along a wide spectrum, and their coping methods were varied and unique."
(RECOMMENDED) May 7, 2021: Understanding America: Asian American History, Contributions, and Current Challenges, Dr. Madeline Hsu, Professor of History and Asian American Studies at The University of Texas at Austin, Washington Foreign Press Center Briefing, U.S. Department of State (Includes 47 minute video and transcript).
The Biden-Harris Administration is committed to supporting and investing in AAPI communities. In March, the Administration announced new actions to respond to the increase in acts of anti-Asian violence, and to advance safety, inclusion, and belonging for all Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities. More recently, the U.S. Senate passed a bipartisan COVID-19 hate crimes bill, to respond to attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, which includes funding to increase data collection and reporting. Dr. Madeline Hsu, provides an overview of the breadth and depth of AAPI contributions to U.S. history and culture, as well as strategies to counter Asian-American discrimination and harassment in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.
(RECOMMENDED) May 7, 2021: This Is the Anti-Asian Hate Crime Capital of North America, Natalie Obiko Pearson.
"Covid-19 was the trigger. But the resentment had been building for decades. Few cities have been so visibly transformed by Asian immigration—and money—as Vancouver, a struggling industrial backwater that morphed into a glittering cosmopolis of luxury condos and designer boutiques. The disproportionate rash of incidents has raised an unsettling question: Maybe Vancouver isn’t the bastion of progressive multiculturalism it thinks it is."
(RECOMMENDED) Rise in Asian American Discrimination and Violence During COVID Is Causing Mental Health Crisis.
"Asian Americans are three times less likely to seek mental healthcare than white Americans, according to data collected in 2012 from the National Latino and Asian American Study. A lack of cultural competency among mental health professionals in addressing issues specific to Asian Americans is also a big challenge."
"Instead of investing more resources in the NYPD, our communities need anti-violence infrastructures that don’t replicate or support systems that cage and dispose of people. For example, the Center for Anti-violence Education has been building upstander trainings that better enable community interventions and responses for disrupting racist attacks and harassment. Rather than bilingual cops, we need more funding for language justice so our communities can have the necessary translation and interpretation for accessing care, benefits, and services. Rather than bringing more police into our homes and communities, we need safe and accessible housing. We need institutional support for street vendors, nail salon workers, and other precarious Asian-American workers, including the decriminalization of sex work. These forms of support will keep us safe."
(RECOMMENDED) Asian American Feminist Antibodies {Care in the Time of Coronavirus}, Salonee Bhaman, Rachel Kuo, Matilda Sabal, Vivian Shaw, and Tiffany Diane Tso.
"[T]his zine offers a way to make meaning of the coronavirus crisis through long-standing practices of care that come out of Asian American histories and politics. We bring together first-hand accounts and analyses from our communities, including health and service workers and caregivers on the frontlines, students, people living with chronic illness, journalists, and organizers. Together, this collection of stories, essays, and artwork shows how we experience, resist, and grapple with a viral outbreak that has been racialized as Asian, is spoken of in the language of contagion and invasion, and reveals the places where our collective social safety net is particularly threadbare."
(RECOMMENDED) March 19, 2021: Coverage of Bay Area Anti-Asian Violence Is Missing a Key Element, Rebecca Onion Interviewing Claire Jean Kim, Professor of Political Science and Asian American Studies, UC Irvine.
"What we see in the United States are these periodic attacks on Asian Americans, always related to something else going on in the world. In this case it’s COVID. In the 1980s, it was U.S.-Japan trade relations. In the 1870s, it was a regional depression in the West and Southwest, and white workers turned against Chinese American workers. So there’s always been some kind of larger economic, political cause for these upsurges in anti-Asian violence. I think that’s different from what we see with anti-Black violence. Violence against Black people in this country is continuous, structural; violence against Asians is more periodic, contingent on events."
Jeff Chang: The long history of violence against Asian Americans that led up to Atlanta
R.O. Kwon: A Letter to My Fellow Asian Women Whose Hearts Are Still Breaking
Viet Thanh Nguyen, Professor of English and American Studies, USC, and Janelle Wong, Professor Political Science, University of Maryland, College Park: Bipartisan Political Rhetoric About Asia Leads to Anti-Asian Violence Here (see interview about this topic with Viet Thanh Nguyen on Democracy Now! below)
Alice Y. Hom, Equity and Social Justice Director, Northern California Grantmakers: Why We Turn to Intersectionality to Confront Anti-Asian Violence
Jennifer Ho, CU Boulder, Colorado, President of The Association for Asian American Studies: To Be An Asian Woman in America
Erika Lee, University of Minnesota: Discrimination and Violence Against Asian Americans, Testimony Before the Subcommittee on Civil and Constitutional Rights, Committee on the Judiciary, March 18, 2021
Pawan Dhingra, Professor of Sociology and American Studies, Amherst College, Incoming President of The Association for Asian American Studies: Racism is behind anti-Asian American violence, even when it's not a hate crime
Anti-Asian racism during coronavirus: How the language of disease produces hate and violence
The Deep History of Anti-Asian Violence in the U.S. [podcast]
Adrian De Leon, Assistant Professor, American Studies and Ethnicity, USC: The long history of US racism against Asian Americans, from 'yellow peril' to 'model minority' to the 'Chinese virus'
Christine Ahn, Terry Park, and Kathleen Richards: Anti-Asian Violence in America Is Rooted in U.S. Empire
Interview with Cathy Park Hong: Why This Wave of Anti-Asian Racism Feels Different
When Chinese Americans Were Blamed for 19th-Century Epidemics, They Built Their Own Hospital - Interview with Laureen Hom, Assistant Professor of Political Science, Cal Poly Pomona.
(RECOMMENDED) May 1, 2021: CBS News Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Surge in Several Major U.S. Cities (Video, 7:08 minutes) Interview with Angie Chung, Associate Professor of Sociology at The University of Albany.
Viet Thanh Nguyen on Roots of Anti-Asian Hate from U.S. Colonialism to Anti-China Political Rhetoric (25 minutes)
PBS: Violence Against Asian Americans (10 videos of varying running times)
A Townhall on Anti-Asian Racism by The People's Collective for Justice and Liberation (2 hour video)