On Asian Hate Crimes

So I recently saw a former co-worker comment on a friend’s post about standing with the Asian community against anti-Asian racism, and condemning the murders of the Asian women in Atlanta. Below is a summary of his comments (no names/names have been changed — we’ll call him Chad). I’ve responded to these comments here, out of respect to the friend and not wanting to start anything on her Facebook page. But I think that there are still people out there who share the same views as Chad, so it’s important to explain why those views are incorrect and harmful.

Chad’s comments:

Here is my response to Chad’s comments:

The fact that the murderer frequented those specific salons was because he fetishized Asian women, and that in itself is racist. Asian fetishization, misogyny, and racism are all connected. The reality for many Asian women is that they are navigating not only racism and all the burdens that come with that, but also racial stereotypes specifically about Asian women being sexual objects used by white men. Many of my Asian female friends, and myself, have faced backlash from former significant others when we don’t display the stereotypical submissiveness that’s come to be expected from Asian women. Moreover, the media continues to perpetuate this stereotype. Madama Butterfly, Miss Saigon — the plots for those shows are literally Asian fetishization and Asian women submitting to white men. White men viewing Asian women as sexual conquests, and not as human beings with agency and choice. That is a stereotype specific to Asian women, and this cannot be discounted when we look at the Atlanta murders. The Atlanta murders were racially motivated, whether or not the police admit it or rule it out as motive. And I think based on the events of last year with Breonna Taylor and George Floyd, the police are about as trustworthy as a snake.

Additionally, the fact that people like Chad are nitpicking and trying to detract the conversation away from anti-Asian racism, is also really insensitive. Those people will never know what it means to be a person of color in the US. Who are they to tell us that our experiences and perceptions are not valid? It is not their place to say whether something was racist or not, especially if they have no experience being judged and discriminated against due to their race. Right now their job should be to listen and to learn, not to question whether a hate crime was really a hate crime. If a POC feels that an act, or a comment, is racist, the person who did the act or made the comment does not get to decide that they were not racist. It is unfair that in addition to the racism Asians are experiencing, they are also being gaslit by white people who can never understand what it means to experience racism.

Also, Chad brought up the fact that focusing on racism was taking away from other issues such as violence and addiction. Aside from the ignorance and insensitivity of that comment — has he considered that violence and addiction are affected by race, because people of color don’t always have the same resources and protection that white communities do? We’ve seen pretty consistently that communities of color are victims of violent crimes, disproportionately more than white communities. And, the perpetrators of said violent crimes are often not held accountable, because systems put in place to do exactly this do not often protect communities of color, and instead target and stereotype them. We cannot look at violence and addiction as isolated issues, we cannot silo these issues — these issues are all symptoms of deeper systemic flaws in our society, and they’re all connected with racism and misogyny and white supremacy. Additionally, we need to broaden our definition of violence. Violence is the bodily harm of others, but poverty is also violence. Homelessness is violence. Lack of basic needs is violence. Those things all cause bodily harm to a person, and so should be regarded as violence. Because it is. It’s silent violence, as a result of the rich controlling most of the wealth in this country. And, communities of color are disproportionately more affected by this type of violence as well. When we talk about racism and address racism, as a natural consequence a lot of other issues such as addiction, violence, poverty, mental health, gender inequality — will also be discussed, because they are related to racism. All these issues are intersectional.