‘A painful reckoning’
How local Asian American leaders are responding to the rise in hate crimes
The increase in hate crimes against Asian Americans has left many feeling helpless, frustrated and in despair. This is why some academic and professional institutions are taking steps to support their communities.
Donna Demanarig, an assistant professor in the University of Bridgeport's Psychology Department, said the Asian American Psychological Association, in which she holds a leadership position, has been trying to provide resources and healing spaces for its members. This includes not only webinars with resources and how to address Asian American hate and discrimination in their own communities, but lighter events like Zoom karaoke which can help encourage fun and resiliency.
“Constantly talking about it, it burns us out,” Demanarig said. “Sometimes talking too much about it is emotionally draining for a lot of folks. We provided a healing space for members where we air out our anger and be able to safely discuss our feelings and thoughts especially with what just happened with the women in Atlanta. That was triggering and it angered so many folks.”
Last month, eight people, including six Asian women, were killed in a shooting spree targeting several spas in Atlanta.
At UB, Demanarig has worked to provide outside resources for community members to use to educate themselves and take action. In her multicultural psychology class, she talks about not just anti-Asian violence, but the Black Lives Matter movement.
UConn Stamford Campus Director Terrence Cheng, who is also an English professor, said the school is working to find more long-term solutions to address the rise in violence against Asian Americans, but in the meantime, he has spent the last year especially working to support the campus’ international student population many of which come from Asia.
Cheng said he’s also been working on basic outreach, sending out surveys to international students and aiding with needs like emergency housing or helping find part-time employment. But most importantly, he said he tries to be open to conversations with them to find out needs and work on the infrastructure to support those needs as quickly as possible.
But it’s always possible to do more, something Cheng said he’s devoted to doing for students across the board.
“We’re very much aware of international students being supported and successful in academic programs, but also socially, psychologically and socially,” Cheng said. “...It’s important other leaders at the university and I who represent everyone. But as a person of color, maybe I wear that a little more heavily because there are people of color who look to me and they expect more. Whether that's fair or not, I don't really care. Having a strong voice and letting everyone know you see their fear and pain . ... I think it’s important.”
Part of the work being done is not just external, but internal. Cheng said he, like many others of Asian descent, has spent a large portion of his life being a “model minority” and not speaking out about systemic racism for fear of making waves.
Cheng said there’s a Chinese saying —”eating bitterness”— which sums up a large part of the cultural outlook and sensibility instilled in many Chinese people.
“It’s a Chinese way of saying you suck it up,” he said. “I think that's really impactful because we have really internalized that. Chinese history demonstrates how that's been internalized and builds into the model minority myth that no matter what Asians will plow forward and that's having a reckoning of its own. ... It’s a painful reckoning for me personally to know I’ve not done enough in my life to end racism . ... I think it's because culturally we’re put in those boxes and given enough to succeed and not enough to unify. I think that's changing for individuals like myself and across the country.”
There’s been a history of institutionalized racism against Asian Americans throughout the country’s history, said Cheng, going back to the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882 which prohibited all immigration of Chinese laborers.
That, and the internment of Japanese Americans during World War II, are only some of the most prominent examples. It was only just last year that then-President Donald Trump and other politicians called COVID-19 “Kung Flu” and other derogatory names linking the virus back to the Chinese.
“This is not a new thing,” said Cheng. “Those two symbols and moments in our history are almost completely invisible in social studies and history courses in our curriculum. That speaks to the fact Asians and Asian Americans occupy this invisible space as the model minority, as the white adjacent race allowed to succeed to a certain degree. The long history of Asian cultures combined with American caste system all come together to create that invisibility but it’s been there for a long, long time. Unfortunately it’s being exacerbated now but hopefully we can shed light on ongoing complex problems.”
People who aren’t Asian American might be having their own reckoning about how much they’ve been oblivious to and what can be done. Demanarig has some advice for them: just ask how your Asian American friends are doing and listen. Don’t offer advice and don’t be afraid of sitting in uncomfortable silence. Just listening is enough, she said.
“Pretending nothing’s happening is a little more personal and perpetuates the invisibility this community is facing in the United States,” she said. “For a lot of our allies outside the community what they can do is really reach out to friends and people they know who are in the community and just to ask how are you doing? Even though they seem simple, they’re powerful. Those words convey allyship.”