OP-ED
Assaults against Asian Americans are neither random nor right
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TIMESLEDGER | QNS.COM | MARCH 26-APRIL 1, 2021 15
BY FRANK H. WU
How many Asian Americans have
to be killed before other people realize
there is a pattern? The past year of
pandemic has seen every type of violence
directed toward Asian Americans,
from name calling that leads to
spitting on pedestrians and shoving
the elderly to the ground hard enough
to break bones to stabbings and ultimately
the recent shootings in Atlanta,
Georgia. Although the three businesses
visited by the confessed killer
were Asian-owned and six of eight victims
were Asian women, a senior law
enforcement official there described
the mass murder as the outcome of a
“bad day” and then was revealed himself
to have spread the “China virus”
meme on social media.
The assaults are neither random
nor right. Asian Americans, however,
have experienced this type of
dismissal of their concerns. President
Joe Biden mentioned in his first
major speech that Asian-Americans
number among those heroic frontline
health care professionals risking
their lives to treat patients during
the pandemic. Yet Asian-Americans
continue to be blamed for the disease
in jokes that are less funny than they
are dangerous.
In the face of tragedy, Asian
Americans encounter skeptics about
whether they in fact suffer at all.
Asian Americans have difficulty persuading
others despite the compelling
evidence because we frame race in
black and white terms, literally and
figuratively.
We discuss civil rights as if everyone
fits into one of two boxes, black or
white. A stroll through New York City
confirms that this picture of the world
is inaccurate, regardless of your identity
or your politics. Queens College
is more than 25% Asian in enrollment
and the CUNY system is over 20%.
Many people are Latinx, Jewish,
Arab, and mixed. There are Haitians
and Nigerians distinct from African
American and “white ethnics” who
identify as Italian or Polish or Greek.
They can be Afro-Asian, Asian and
Spanish-speaking due to family roots
in South America, or Asian and adopted.
Pacific Islanders are neglected
even as “Asian Americans and Pacific
Islanders” are mentioned. Asian
Americans are not alone in being
multi-cultural or of mixed descent.
We wish for conflict to be simple,
villains and victims. We visualize
bigots to be wicked beyond redemption,
and those whom they harm to be
pure beyond reproach.
The trouble is that everyone except
the most extreme and the most
foolish appreciates that they are expected
at least in polite society to
disavow their racism. Observers help
them by speculating that there is an
alternative explanation for their malfeasance.
What is not deemed “racist”
in intention can nonetheless be racial
in consequences. It can be blended
together with sexism. We should be
sympathetic to the victims instead of
the perpetrators.
Some people are oblivious to the
possibility that Asian Americans run
into discrimination. I have been informed
directly by folks that all the
Asian Americans they know are “well
off” or that Asian Americans don’t
have it as bad as they would in their
“homelands” as if they didn’t belong
here. The studies consistently show
that Asian Americans who are welleducated
professionals are crowded
below the glass ceiling, or what some
have called a “bamboo ceiling.” Asian
Americans also report bias at rates
lower than the reality, due to language
and culture.
It is infuriating when people explain
to me the attacks on Asian
Americans are not racist because
they are directed at foreigners. That
pretext makes the prejudice obvious:
Asian Americans, both naturalized
and native born, face the very same
problems their parents and grandparents
do, but are not accepted as bona
fide citizens. They are shouted at to
go back to where they are “really”
from and complimented for speaking
English so well. Wrongdoers who are
about to strike you rarely pause to
check your passport. The implication
of the excuse should be called out,
that it somehow would be tolerable
if offenders only targeted those who
were aliens. Once revealed, the sentiment
becomes indefensible.
I continue to be hopeful. Anti-Asian
American attitudes, hate crimes, and
government policies have always been
around. But the awareness is new and
therefore encouraging. Perhaps now,
in coalitions with the #BLM movement
and the campaigns against resurgent
anti-Semitism, Asian Americans
will have allies in demanding
only what our great nation promises
to all who believe in its ideals: equality
and justice.
Frank H. Wu is president of Queens
College.
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LAST WEEK’S TOP STORY:
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