Racism growing conspicuous against Asian Americans
Chineseh f followll ‘survival l rules’l amidd BLM protests
The ongoing Black Lives Matter (BLM) protests in the US, sparked by the police killing of African-American George Floyd, have brought the plight of the relatively invisible Asian community to the surface at a time when Asians are experiencing rising racist sentiment since the novel coronavirus pandemic, Asian Americans and experts told the Global Times.
Some Asian Americans have been drawn into the anti-racism campaign as their stores were looted or destroyed in the sweeping riots sparked by the protests, which are a stand against racism and police violence.
Experts and Asian Americans told the Global Times that since the COVID-19 epidemic in the US, Asian Americans have been facing an unprecedented level of racial discrimination – a result of the Trump administration’s endless lies and slander against China.
The spread of racism in the US has led to instability and confrontation, which will not only reduce the sense of national identity of its own people, but also damage its international influence and soft power, said Li Haidong, an expert from China Foreign Affairs University in Beijing.
Silent Asians
Asian businesses in many cities across the US – including Minneapolis, Chicago, New York City, Oakland, San Francisco and Los Angeles – were struck by looters and vandals in the protests, news site nextshark. com reported earlier this week.
In Minneapolis, a Chinese restaurant owner surnamed Huang said the window of her restaurant was smashed by a bullet by rioters, and another bullet went through the wall. Instead of asking for compensation from protesters or authorities, she turned to her insurance company for the damage.
“We Asians are a weak group in the US. We don’t dare speak even if our stores are smashed in the protests,” Huang said. “Black people are under protection of the so-called ‘political correctness,’ but Asians here are protected by nothing.”
For fear of personal safety, Asian shop owners and residents in the US said they have to follow some “survival rules.”
Following nearby shops, Huang immediately boarded up her shop with thick planks. A Chinese living in California said she has been closely following the protest through a community application called Nextdoor, and she would share such alert with her local friends on WeChat.
It is uncertain whether Asian businesses are specifically targeted in the recent protests, US-based observers said. Asian businesses nonetheless suffer from the riots as “Chinatowns and Asian-run stores and shops are often located in areas where people protest,” said Russell Jeung, director of Asian American Studies Department at San Francisco State University.
Imputing riots to China
Asian Americans and Asians living, working or studying in the US used to suffer “implicit bias” such as unfair university admissions and unequal pay instead of direct attacks, said Ji Hong, a research fellow at the Institute of American Studies of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences.
“The pandemic, however, is turning this implicit bias into outright discrimination and even violence against Asians,” Ji said.
The main form of discrimination is verbal harassment, which constitutes about 70 percent of the cases, said Jeung, who has been running the STOP AAPI HATE database. “People are hurling racist insults, using profanity and slurs, and traumatizing Chinese and other Asian Americans,” Jeung said.
In about 8 percent of the reported incidents, people have been physically assaulted, Jeung added.
The Trump administration even tries to impute the riots to China. According to several Asians in the US, it has been “brainwashing the people and blaming China for the protests.”
The intensified white-supremacy mindset in the US is a consequence of the country’s demographic change and increase in employment pressure. Many white Americans feel threatened by the growing population of ethnic minorities in the country and globalization. So they blame black and Asian people for taking away their jobs, Ji said.
As an immigrant country, US vitality will eventually be weakened with the possible loss of immigrants, especially younger ones, because of the country’s discrimination against ethnic minorities, Li said.