OUR SILENCE OFTEN MAKES US COMPLICIT
Having a bad day or dealing with a sexual addiction are not excuses for killing eight people in Georgia, six of whom were women of Asian descent. When I heard the suspect behind the recent attacks in the Atlanta area defend his motives, I became disgusted for myriad reasons — for the obvious tragedy of any killing and the blatant racism that was being downplayed by both the accused killer and local law enforcement.
The fetishism of Asian women being blamed for such egregious killings speaks to a greater narrative placed upon Asian Americans, which is not relatively new. It represents an exploitation of the “model minority,” a label characterized by weakness and passivity.
Despite being a growing portion of the total U.S. population, Asian Americans are often viewed along the periphery of mainstream culture rather than as being integral. The current narratives of Asian Americans include more than that of first-generation immigrants adjusting to Western culture.
Asian Americans are subconsciously viewed as exotic, and it is often forgotten that we have been here for decades.
I wonder if things have really changed since both my paternal and maternal grandparents immigrated to the
United States in the 1960s from the Philippines. I think of how they purposely did not teach their children to speak Tagalog or the customs of their native culture in order to properly meet the expectations of assimilation. And I think of how the similar steps taken by Asian Americans across all ethnicities are still not enough to merit national concern over the recent rise of hate crimes. While my cultural identity has been erased, I have become disheartened like any person of color to think that my physical appearance is still my defining trait in the eyes of many in 2021.
While growing up in San Diego and attending college in Los Angeles, I considered myself lucky to live in a state typically associated with cultural diversity. Now, I am not sure where safety can be found in the U.S. for someone who looks like me.
At the start of this year, I thought that the elderly Asian American victims just north of me in the Bay Area could easily have been one of my relatives. My chest tightens thinking that when I reach that age, that could one day be me. As I process the Atlanta killing spree, I ponder all the physical and verbal anti-Asian attacks that have not been caught on camera.
Anti-Asian sentiment has not randomly arisen out of nowhere. Phrases such as the “China virus” or “kung flu” have been a cowardly attempt to shift the blame away from a failed public health response by American political leaders. They are code language for those who believe that the presence of Asians and other minority groups in the U.S. is the real disease that needs to be eradicated. Such phrases have consequences, and the Atlanta attacks show that they can be deadly.
Those condemning such language as racist are not merely being sensitive. To deny the underlying derogatory racial component is simply being tone-deaf.
The common trope that is given to Asians is silence. Part of the “model minority” is the concept of singling out and celebrating Asian Americans more so than other communities of color for working hard to assimilate without much resistance. It has been our defining role in race relations in the United States. For many Asian Americans, 2020 was a year of recognizing our role in institutionalized racism that has traditionally hurt Black, Latino and Native American populations in more direct ways.
Our silence has often made us complicit bystanders in structural discrimination faced by other groups and ourselves.
While Asian Americans have privileges often not held by other communities of color, we still have problems that cannot be ignored. The running joke that all Asians are successful due to being academically inclined does not negate the severity of the current dog whistles exacerbating persisting prejudices being pointed in our direction.
We cannot be satisfied with the status quo merely because it could be worse. The killings in Georgia show just how bad it can really get.
The current struggles of Asian Americans may not be the only problem concerning racism in the U.S. that warrants the public’s attention. But it deserves more concern by all Americans than it has historically received and is currently receiving.
As I process the Atlanta killing spree, I ponder all the physical and verbal anti-Asian attacks that have not been caught on camera.