We are excited to celebrate our Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) community this May!
Happy Asian American and Pacific Islander Month!! First of all, we would like to sincerely apologize for being so silent these past few weeks and months. It’s felt like every time we’re about to address a tragedy, another one happens and another community has lost lives at the hands of those who didn’t have the right to take those lives. First, we wanted to start a conversation about supporting our local Asian community members in the wake of rising anti-Asian violence. Then 8 people, 6 of whom were Asian-Americans, were slaughtered in an Atlanta spa. Then 20-year old Black father, Duante Wright, was killed by police during a traffic stop 10 miles away from the scene of George Floyd’s death and trial. Then 13-year-old, Latine, youth Adam Toledo was fatally shot with his hands up, by a Chicago police officer. Then 8 people, 4 of whom were Sikh were killed in a mass shooting in Indianapolis. All while healthcare was being stripped away from transgender youth in Arkansas, voting rights for Black Americans in Georgia were disintegrating before our eyes, and the nation was closely watching the trial of George Floyd’s killer, Derek Chauvin. What could we say besides expressing the pain that we are sure you already felt?
As a community, we need to recognize that, if one person in our community is experiencing pain, perhaps because they can picture themselves in that very situation, then we must all share in that pain and try to support them as best we can. And even if we cannot picture that specific individual that might be impacted by a horrific event, we need to work towards having the consciousness, empathy, and compassion to prevent and protect our community from such bigotry and violence.
Now more than ever we need to take this opportunity to celebrate our Asian American & Pacific Islander communities and all of the rich traditions and cultures that come with AAPI heritage. (This awesome blog post provides a brief history of American relations with Asian and Pacific Islanders in the US as well as 30 important Asian and Pacific Islanders to know!)
As one of the largest (and growing) communities in Berkeley Heights and Mountainside, Asian Americans have long been contributing to the diversity of our towns, but with that, has come a slew of incidents that have been dismissed due to something we’ve discussed before: the myth of the model minority. Speaking from personal experience, racial comments and slurs against Asian students and community members are often perceived as jokes and often do not elicit a strong negative reaction. Though not completely attributable to the myth of the model minority, this idea can often explain some of the dismissal and lack of visible anger in response to microaggressions and now growing anti-Asian violence. As we’ve previously discussed, the model minority myth comes from historical immigration patterns that manipulated an image of primarily East Asians as economically successful people of color. This benefitted White society by becoming an example of the “work hard and you shall succeed” narrative in response to cries of discrimination and systemic racism. It was a way of saying, “see? Racism doesn’t exist! People of color can have economic success!”. Asians were, and are, used as proof of “diversity in workplaces and schools”, as token people of color. In reality, this manipulation diminishes the diversity of and disparities within the Asian community, serves to drive a wedge between racial groups, and maintains a rigid racial hierarchy that promotes Whiteness and White supremacy. Politically convenient tropes of Asian Americans as “quiet & hardworking” emerged around World War II as a means of contrasting with Black counterparts who were (and are still) fighting for civil rights.
Once again, we would like to emphasize that anti-Black racism is NOT the same as anti-Asian racism, and it does not come from the same roots. And we shouldn’t be conflating or comparing the two. Asian Americans have faced brutal discrimination and violence due to fears of “Yellow Peril”, or the fears that Asians would invade and disrupt Western values, in addition to incarceration in internment camps, and continued discrimination and violence especially in the wake of erroneous and dangerous claims about the COVID-19 pandemic’s origins. Anti-Black racism is rooted in centuries of dehumanization and slavery that is still very present in the assault on Black civil rights evidenced through systemic & structural racism, police brutality, and modern segregation. As the author Frank Chin wrote, about the divide between Black and Asian people “Whites love us because we are not Black”. That searing and poignant statement shows the root of racial resentment that has long been used to maintain White supremacy, and one that contributes to many of the same themes of discrimination and microaggressions that exist in our own community. It has contributed to Anti-Asian racism in the Black community and Anti-Black racism in the Asian community. And yet, despite attempts to sow racial resentment, there is a long history of Asian and Black solidarity that is becoming more and more prominent today.
The next thing we would like to tackle is the myth of the Asian monolith. Growing up, I was told several times by White classmates that I wasn’t “really Asian”. Many were surprised when I identified myself as Asian. The number of times I heard “but Indian isn’t Asian, right?” followed by the classic “and you’re basically White” always frustrated me. On every standardized test, I was required to check Asian along with every other East Asian, South Asian, Southeast Asian, Pacific Islander, and some Middle Eastern students. And yet I wasn’t considered Asian enough by my peers and I couldn’t necessarily relate to my fellow Asian students who were not South Asian. I could barely relate to my fellow South Asians. Often, Asians and Pacific Islanders are reduced to a single term though they make up over half the world’s population. And often, the rich culture of Pacific Islanders is completely swallowed by the term Asian; we seem to forget that the beautiful kingdom of Hawaii, full of indigenous peoples, was almost completely wiped out due to modern colonization. Or that just 40 years ago, many Southeast Asian Americans migrated here as refugees, where they faced hostility and racism after escaping genocide and violence. Or that huge disparities exist between say Bhutanese, Laotian, and Cambodian immigrants versus well established East Asian or South Asian immigrants. Or that being Asian does not mean we all look the same or speak the same language or practice the same religion.
Instead, the diversity in Asian and Pacific Islander communities is impossible to cover in one article. This fact sheet from the Pew Research Center begins to scrape the statistical surface of the diverse subgroups that are represented among Asian Americans and this fact sheet by the US government highlights some demographic details about Pacific Islanders, but even these are just a start. Neither tell the stories of immigration journeys, of diverse traditions and celebrations, of indigenous people’s history in the Pacific Islands, or of all of the contributions that Asian American and Pacific Islander people continue to make to our society. While I can’t speak from a Pacific Islander perspective, from my personal perspective, being Asian means being proud of the heritage that makes you unique. It means embracing a diaspora of people who may not look like or sound like you at all, but who somehow in some beautiful way share continental roots with you. Whether you are trying to reach back to a time before colonial history that may have distanced you from your culture or whether you are already deeply connected with your cultural/ethnic background: being Asian American is a celebration of a diverse people who have been integral to this country’s history and who will continue to be a part of this country’s future, remaining in solidarity with our Black & Brown brothers and sisters.
Please Consider Supporting COVID-19 Relief Efforts in India:
Support COVID-19 Relief in India (Thank you to our friend Michelle for sharing with us!)
Additional Resources
Asian American and Their Origins: Key Facts