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Hi, My name is Dianna, a proud first generation Asian American. My
parents moved to the US
before I was born for a better life, giving me an idyllic childhood
in the suburbs of Cleveland, Ohio. I currently write to you with a
heavy heart from London, England, where I’ve lived for the past four
years.
If we are looking at all this injustice occurring right now in the
world and have remained silent. If we are seeing these protests all
over the news and social media and have ignored it. If we continue
to go about your day to day lives without trying to figure out how
to help the situation.
We are part of the problem.
And before you say my accusations are unfair, before you try to
assure me that you have good intentions, and before you say you feel
uncomfortable talking up about these injustices - stop and look at
what is actually happening. It is time for us as a community to let
our voices be heard.
When has this ever happened to you or your family? When has this
ever happened to our people to this extent? When has this level of
state violence in a Western country ever been imposed onto East
Asian people to the point where we had to protest like this, for our
right to exist? Ultimately, Black lives are in danger, and we have a
duty, empathy, and history to support this community, who need it
more than ever.
As a minority, know the difference of your privilege as a person of
color
I am writing this letter to you all to remind you all of the simple
fact that - though we are people of color, we do not and will never
understand the level of tolerance and racism faced by Black people.
Any racial slur said to us, although hurtful will never have its
roots in slavery. We are simply not profiled by police and society
in the same way Black people are?. We don’t experience police
brutality to the extent they do, in fact I know East Asian people
that just pretend they don’t speak English when they want to get out
of a traffic fine, meanwhile Black people are murdered for it. We
are not held back from our jobs because of our hairstyles. We are
not seen as “uneducated” if we use AAVE (African American Vernacular
English). White people don’t call the police on us when we are being
loud in the park. Our people are not incarcerated on mass. None of
us have had our children stolen in cultural genocide by colonisors.
Our skin’s proximity to whiteness means we can foolishly use makeup
products to try and blend in. We can be portrayed in offensive ways
in media such as movies, our women are constantly fetishised however
it’s still nowhere near the level of tarnishing Black people have
received by white media throughout history about their culture and
their way of life. If anything, the recent spike in anti East Asian
racism from coronavirus has shown us that even if we go through
racism, we are at least given a platform to speak about it. There
were cases after cases about our feelings towards coronavirus racism
and when we protested, the police didn’t even care. We are so quick
to defend ourselves yet we don’t show the same urgency towards our
Black community.
Check your privilege
Writing this letter is the bare minimum I can do, but I am also
writing this letter out of my sheer frustration towards the
complicity we are exhibiting as a community. There is no denying
that every single one of us has perpetuated some form of anti-Black
racism in our lives. This anti-Black racism is so deeply ingrained
in the systematic racism rampant throughout most Western countries,
sometimes we don’t even know we are doing it. No one chooses the
skin color they’re born with. No one chooses the country they’re
born into. No one chooses the privilege they have and no one
certainly ever chooses the oppression they face. However, regardless
of all these things we didn’t choose, we still have a choice to act
against it. We have a choice to defy these systems. We have the
choice to hold ourselves, our friends, our family and our community
accountable.
As East Asian people, we have a lot more privilege than we realize
and we need to use our privilege and our voice. Being first
generation American, it means I can live on stolen land and have
more rights than Native Americans. I can shake my fists at the
American government and criticise them over their corruption without
being worried about being arrested. To my Asian American community:
recognize that your family migrated to a country built on the slave
labor of Black people yet you can’t even stand up to defend them
during this time? How are you going to demand Asian American rights
when you don't even want to get involved in fundamental rights? A
lot of our families no doubt had to flee war, some of us were
refugees and some of us had to seek political asylum. We did all
have to work extremely hard to get a place in these Western
countries, not to mention the amount of racism we would’ve had to
endure but this does not exempt us from not fighting against
anti-Black racism. It makes it even more important to stand up in
support.
Check yourself
Not only do we have more privilege and should use it, we also
constantly consume Black culture every single day. We consume it, we
profit off it and we exploit it. Through music, fashion, make up,
hair styles, art, food - every day in some way or another, something
we enjoy originated from Black people. So many of us are quick to
jump on the new Beyonce remix or the new Kendrick Lamar album and
blast it through our speakers yet when injustices like Christian
Cooper, George Floyd and Ahmad Aubrey happen, we are silent. We will
go through hours of learning how to do our hair in cornrows (which
is cultural appropriation, do not do this) but can’t spend a few
minutes of our time reading up on the discrimination that Black
people face in the world. We will carefully watch dance music videos
and steal dance moves from Black people so we can look cool at the
club but we can’t watch documentaries to learn about how we can
fight their oppression. We spend time teaching ourselves how to mix
house and techno records but can’t recognise the discrimination they
still face on music festival line ups. We listen to Black people
speak and steal words out of their vocabulary so we can sound
“cool”, we listen to them speak so we can copy their accent, yet we
can’t listen to their experiences with racism and ask them what we
can do to support them?!
Educate yourself. Learn about the mistakes in the past, so we can
unlearn the prejudices within.
Too many Asian Americans are uncomfortable talking about race. Too
many of us feel like we don’t belong at the table. Too many of us
feel unrelated to the struggles from the institutional racism. And
your silence is uplifting white supremacy. The racism our community
exhibits can sometimes be as violent as what white supremacy has
done and it is our responsibility to hold our own people accountable
for it.
Innocent Black people have died at the hands of East Asian police
and East Asian shop owners. There have been numerous cases of East
Asian people calling the cops on Black people for no reason. East
Asian shop owners also are known to follow Black people around their
stores for no reason other than racism. East Asian people are also
part of the problem when it comes to the gentrification of Black
neighbourhoods. The stereotype of East Asian people “loving a good
deal” isn’t just for supermarket sales but also property and
business hoarding which then forces Black communities out. We need
to learn about this so we can try and combat this.
Speak to your friends, family to keep them responsible.
Opening up intentional dialogue with fellow East Asians is
essential. It’s uncomfortable to call out and address racism,
especially with parents, who you know may be subconsciously or
consciously holding racist beliefs due to their own prejudices, the
model minority myth, the criminalization of Black people, or all of
the above. We’re in a community that emphasizes respect for our
elders and I’ve definitely been accused of ‘talking back’ or being
‘ungrateful’ during these conversations because I’m pushing hard. It
may take many terrible and difficult conversations, especially if
their views are fused with other political issues or if there are
language or cultural gaps, but remember that you may be their only
access point to talking about this. Especially in the US where
mainstream media is so polarized and politically aligned. It’s okay
to feel angry and frustrated; as long as the conversations are
happening, it’s progress. Show them the numbers, talk about the
stories and the systemic problems. Tell them this conversation is
out of love, because I don't want this issue to divide us. Relate
the issue to their own immigrant story and their deep-rooted fears;
try to connect them on a personal and emotional level to understand
the fears and oppression Black people face every day.
Show up, pay up, vote.
If you are uncomfortable speaking out, then contribute in different
ways. If you can, direct your wealth to Black supporting
organizations instead. It can be the money equivalent to your
monthly coffee purchase, it could be the money that you were saving
up for new shoes. It can just be $5 dollars today.
Educating ourselves is another necessary step in helping end what is
happening around us, and not to us. We can no longer act like we
aren’t part of the problem. We can no longer sit by and expect
someone else to do the work that we need to do. And it’s not the
responsibility of Black people to teach non Black people. We must
truly listen, learn and unlearn. I encourage all of you to follow
Black leaders who are spreading awareness and educating those of us
who have the privilege of never experiencing what they themselves
have to face each and every day.
Vote. For any real change, we need our society to reflect on our
leaders and vice versa. Voting in November is very important,
however voting for your local leaders may even be more important to
have direct change in your communities. Barack Obama states,
“The content of that reform agenda will be different for various
communities, A big city may need one set of reforms; a rural
community may need another. Some agencies will require wholesale
rehabilitation; others would make minor improvements. Every law
enforcement agency should have clear policies, including an
independent body and conducts investigations of alleged misconduct.
Tailoring reforms for each community will require local activists
and organizations to do their research and educate fellow citizens
in their community on what strategies work best.”
At all cost, shake the model minority myth
Themodel minority myth (mostly an American term but it definitely
happens in the UK and Australia as well) is the myth that as East
Asian people, we can be “good citizens” and integrate into white
society. It’s a lie. This myth however has conditioned a lot of us
to turn our noses up at the behavior of Black people, especially in
this case of these protests. Firstly, we are no better citizens
because we don’t loot. We simply don’t “riot” because 1. We aren’t
driven to it and 2. Decades of suppression, inequality and
persecution has pushed a small minority to violent protest actions
out of desperation. It is racist to accuse Black people of violence
whilst completely ignoring the horrific violence white supremacy has
forced upon a lot of people. We don’t get to stand on the sidelines
because we are not white, we’ll never be. We are not the model
minority, we never will be, no matter how '“good” our behavior is.
Let that go.
Be mindful of what media you consume
Mainstream media can really brainwash you. If you think you aren’t
susceptible to propaganda in the West, you are wrong. I’m sure as
East Asian people we would’ve seen the lies the media said about us
in regards to coronavirus. Are we all bat eating, evil communists,
who kill exotic animals at wet markets all the time? No we are not,
yet certain sections of the media tried to portray us as that. If
the media did that to us, then you know they are definitely
publishing misleading information about Black people to warp our
perspectives. The recent wave of protests that have spread across
the cities across the world represents decades of failure to reform
the broader criminal justice system. A small minority of the people
have resorted to violence, rioting and destruction of property and
as history shows, the media will extort this side of the story
versus the majority of the peaceful protests. To quote Malcolm X
here: “If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating
the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are
doing the oppressing.”
When it comes to fighting these injustices, we are all on different
paths. We can talk to our immigrant families all we want to convince
them not to be racist, but we also need to scrutinize ourselves.
It’s not enough just to be a “good person”. If you personally have
“never” actively engaged in a racist act. As Angela Davis said: ?“In
a racist society, it is not enough to not be non-racist, we must be
anti-racist.” It’s easy to become the lethargic, comfortable
beneficiaries of white supremacy and the model minority myth. Asian
professionals, people in tech, lawyers and bankers- these are the
people who have the most power but who are often the most
politically apathetic. Some of us do have more time to learn and
some of us have more energy to learn. We all have other factors in
our lives that we too need to deal with which can affect our pace at
learning about how we can combat anti-Black racism but, please
remember that doing nothing means absolutely no progress is
happening.
Though it feels like we are in a scary time in history, real change
is in the future. As history shows with Harriet Tubman, Rosa Parks,
Martin Luther King as they took a stand for something there will be
reform. We need to use the momentum of this movement to share
knowledge and to re-educate ourselves.
To fight for basic human rights. With the awareness on social media,
protests and people of all color to educate themselves will have an
impact for reform. We cannot sit and dwell on this issue as if it
will not solve itself. Even with reform, we must actively and
continuously listen and learn and unlearn for a lifetime as racism
is to be actively aware and stand against it. Scott Woods compares
racism to, “It is a thing you have to keep scooping out of the boat
of your life to keep from drowning in it. I know it’s hard work, but
it’s the price you pay for owning everything.” This work is everyday
to dismantle oppressive, racist systems because so much of the work
that needs to be done is internal, long-term offline, real life work
. It forces you to look deeply at who you are as a human being. For
humanity’s sake, we can do this. |
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