#StopAAPIHate: More Than Just a Hashtag

Recent atrocities mark the tip of the iceberg in a long history of racist exclusion

Asian Americans are often forced to face a flurry of racially charged predispositions that range from “jokes,” to microaggressions to full-on racist attacks. We are considered to be a monolith and are labeled as such. More often than not, we are considered to be outsiders that don’t belong in this country.

Despite the daily onslaught Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) face, there is little coverage about these hate crimes in the media. 

Save for the shooting in Atlanta last month that killed eight people—including six Asian American women—the media has been largely silent on this subject. As such, the Pew Research Center found that only 56% of U.S. adults believe that Asian Americans have experienced an increase in violence over the past year. Amongst the AAPI community however, well over eight in 10 adults believe that they are experiencing an uptick in hate crimes.

Over time, stereotypes, prejudices and racially charged acts have accumulated and festered into the current spike in hate crimes against the AAPI community. Yet, it is imperative to note that the sentiments behind these recent atrocities are nothing new. 

These days, racism against AAPI takes form in more subtle ways. But it wasn’t too long ago that AAPI folks were directly marginalized by governmental institutions. 

In the mid-1800s, Yellow Peril, a xenophobic movement against Chinese Americans, led to the Chinese Exclusion Act. This was the first statute that banned immigrants based solely on race. In 1942, President Roosevelt created Executive Order 9066 to incarcerate Japanese Americans. In 2008, multiple studies confirmed that Chinese and Filipina healthcare workers experienced racist attacks during the SARS crisis.

Clearly, racism against AAPI is not some newfound dilemma. Rather, it is a systemic and institutionalized practice that has been used in both implicit and explicit ways to marginalize AAPI voices and bodies.

Yet there is a clear disparity between the truth and people’s perception of it. While 56% of the U.S. population may believe that racist attacks are a real problem, the remaining 44% clearly believe in a completely different narrative that directly opposes historical evidence.

A few alternative portrayals of the AAPI experience have become popularized. Mainly, Asian Americans are labeled as hardworking and smart, and are thus able to “pull themselves up by their bootstraps” toward success. Often referred to as the model minority myth, this principle is used by its proponents to deflect and deny racist acts toward AAPI folks.

The model minority myth also tends to group all AAPI persons into one category, which of course is unfounded. 

Asian cultures are incredibly beautiful and diverse, making it a great disservice to lump us into a singular category. The underlying problem with this model minority myth is that it neglects the racist history that AAPI folks have suffered and the implications that we still feel to this day.

NBC News found that over 3,800 racially motivated incidents have been reported since the genesis of the pandemic. Time Magazine reported that in New York City alone, hate crimes against AAPI folks have increased by a staggering 1,900%.

The deeper we dive into the problem, the worse it gets. Elderly Asian Americans have borne the brunt of these racist attacks. A 91-year-old man was thrown to the ground in Oakland, CA. An 84-year-old man, Vicha Ratanapakdee, was fatally pushed in San Francisco. A 61-year-old citizen, Noel Quitana, was slashed with a box cutter. An AAPI mayor in the Bay Area had her car graffitied with anti-AAPI rhetoric two weeks ago. Angelo Quinto, a navy veteran suffering from a mental health crisis, was murdered by police in December. The list goes on.

This begs the question: when is it enough? Was it 100 years ago when Chinese Americans were first excluded from immigrating to the United States ? Or was it when our former President used xenophobic language to single out and hurt Asian Americans?

In the midst of multiple crises in which Black and Brown folks are continually oppressed by law enforcement officers and Asian American folks can’t walk down the street without being worried about whether they can make it home safely, where do we draw the line?

For too long, we have stood on the sideline while our communities have suffered. The people impacted by these hate crimes aren’t strangers. They are our grandparents, our aunts and uncles, our parents and our siblings. We must be proactive in our efforts to curb racism for all persons of color. Signing petitions, donating to the appropriate funds and spreading awareness are all exemplary starts. 

However, I’d argue that real change comes from within. This is perhaps the most difficult part—confronting inner prejudices that you, your friends or your family may have. Having difficult conversations is, well, difficult. But it’s far from impossible. 

Uplifting Black, Brown and AAPI voices is imperative for social healing. If we are able to understand the plights that marginalized communities face, then we can collectively work towards healing our communities and dismantling systems of oppression. 

This can only happen when we listen to the stories of others, understand and empathize with them, and actively try to be a collective voice in solidarity. The solution is right in front of us. It is just a matter of if we are willing to take the first step.