Asian feminists have had
enough. Photo by Gabriele
Holterman
Contributing Writers: Azad Ali, Tangerine Clarke,
Nelson King, Vinette K. Pryce, Bert Wilkinson
GENERAL INFORMATION (718) 260-2500
Caribbean L 10 ife, MAR. 26-APR. 1, 2021
Equality and justice for
Asian Americans
By Frank H. Wu, Queens
College, CUNY
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 Asianowned
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.”
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
front-line health care professionals
risking their lives
to treat patients during the
pandemic. Yet Asian-Americans
continue to be blamed
for the disease in childish
jokes and conspiracy theories.
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.
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 Spanishspeaking
due to family roots
in South America, or Asian
and adopted. 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 through
and through, 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. We
should be sympathetic to
the victims instead of the
perpetrators. What is not
deemed “racist” in intention
can nonetheless be racial in
consequences.
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 well-educated 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.
OP-EDS
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Put an end to
ignorance in NYC
By Caribbean Life
Arguably, the worst aspect of
our modern era is the politicization
of both a global pandemic
and of hate.
The issues of our health
and respect of one another in
society should be a universally
shared belief, regardless of race,
creed, color or party affiliation.
We should want to protect each
other from a plague; we should
want to stop spreading hate and
instead promote kindness and
justice for all.
But that’s not where we are in
America in 2021. We are a society
split in two factions: those who
respect each other, and those who
only respect themselves. One side
cares to solve two of the biggest
issues of our time; the other side
couldn’t care less about them.
Look at the rash of hate crimes
targeting Asian Americans both
in New York and throughout the
country. Slurs that the former
president trumpeted throughout
the COVID-19 pandemic last year
fueled an ugly backlash that continues
to this day.
Over the weekend, as hundreds
protested the most recent rash of
hate crimes, an elderly man was
beaten up by a bigot on the Lower
East Side; and a protester was
attacked by a hate-filled brute in
NoHo who stomped on the sign
she carried, then punched her
repeatedly in the face.
It’s reflective of the kind of
ignorance that has permeated
the country during the pandemic.
The simple act of wearing a
mask to protect other people was
wrongly conflated into a debate
over personal freedom. Business
closures, painful as they were,
were also roped into the false
debate.
And there figures to be more
ignorance to come now with
media outlets reporting on what
they’ve dubbed as “the crisis on
the border.” It is indeed a humanitarian
crisis, but the response to
this is not one of concern over
the welfare of migrants coming
into America.
The same people on the
right who condoned the former
administration’s jailing of immigrant
children are again smearing
migrants on our border as
some sort of foreign invasion to
be stopped. That will only kindle
more acts of hatred in this
country — and they don’t seem
to care.
Enough is enough!
We cannot allow this ignorance
to continue. We must rise
up and drown it out.
Speak up, New York! Say no to
hate, ignorance and bloodshed.
Say yes to unity, justice, tolerance
and equality.
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