Written by Reina Wong and edited by Alice Shu
Disclaimer: This article is mainly focused on the East Asian community but briefly mentions microaggressions and/or cultural appropriation regarding other communities.
A Brief History of Asian Racism in the U.S.
Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, reported cases of harassment and xenophobia targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have increased. On May 6, 2020, an Asian man was attacked in a hardware store in California, his assailant screaming about “bringing that Chinese Virus over here.” The assailant also used derogatory slurs and reportedly said “Go back to China”, “F**k you, Chinaman”, and F**k you, monkey”. In March 2020, the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON), an organization that advocates for the rights and needs of the AAPI in the greater Los Angeles area, and its STOP AAPI HATE reporting center accepted over 650 incident reports of harassment, shunning, and assault in one week.
However, there has been a long history of racism against the Asian-American community. During the Long Depression of 1876, anti-Chinese sentiment boiled through the West Coast, Chinese immigrants accused of stealing jobs, even though they made up less than 0.1 percent of the U.S. population. In 1882, Sinophobia began when Congress passed the Chinese Exclusion Act, which was the only act to target immigration and naturalization based solely on a race for the next sixty years and was repealed in 1943. The Geary Act was passed in order to extend the Chinese Exclusion Act and required Chinese people in the U.S. to have a Certificate of Residency as proof that they had entered the country legally. Asians who were already in the country needed to register to receive their certificates.
Between 1910-1940, Chinese immigrants at Angel Island were incarcerated and forced to endure invasive and embarrassing medical tests and detailed interrogation, with questions varying from “What are each of your family members’ birth dates?” to “Who lives four streets down in the second house from you?”. These questions were pulled from their new identities which the immigrants had to memorize. Answering questions incorrectly resulted in further confinement and eventually deportation.
In 1930, the Watsonville Riots occurred, where a mob of white male farmers attacked Filipino farmworkers. These white men tormented the Filipino community by dragging men out of their homes and throwing them off of bridges.
Racism towards Japanese-Americans occurred as well. During WWII, more than 120,000 people of Japanese descent were forced into internment camps. In 1982, Vincent Chin was beaten to his death as revenge for jobs lost to the Japanese auto manufacturing industry.
These extremities symbolize multiple years of racial antagonism and anti-immigration aggravation and even though some of these events are not as well known, such as the Vincent Chin murder, there are microaggressions that are publicized throughout social media nowadays that are disrespectful and derisive.
Additional examples of racism towards the AAPI community include:
The fox-eye trend
Mocking accents and language (“ching chong”/ “ling ling” / “chinks” )
Saying all Asians look the same
“Yellowface” and “Yellow Fever”
Islamophobia
The same things that many Asians are ridiculed for are mimicked by mainstream media for being “exotic”, despite it being discrimination against other racial groups. Prejudiced acts via cultural appropriation is a serious dilemma in the AAPI community, including cutting kimonos, qipaos, also known as cheongsams (traditional Chinese dresses), non-Hindus wearing bindis, hijabs and other headscarves as a fashion choice, wearing chopsticks in your hair, using significant terms in our language (Barkada Wine Bar in Washington D.C.), or getting random black henna tattoos.
Our cultures are not a trend. Racism within the AAPI community is not talked about enough and it happens more than we think. Before you use something from a culture that isn’t yours, ask yourself some questions, like “Do I know the meaning of this object?” or “Have I educated myself on the significance of the object in the culture?”. Call out your friends and family if you hear them say or do something offensive, and explain and teach them why their words or action are offensive. If we continue to take action against racism, then one day we can hopefully achieve understanding.
Sources
Cover Photo by Zhu Liang on Unsplash
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5. PrettyLittleThing (2019, November 7). PrettyLittleThing X Little Mix | PrettyLittleThing [Video]. YouTube. URL https://youtu.be/YhJafClxx-o
6. Donaghue, E. (2020, July 02). 2,120 hate incidents against Asian Americans reported during coronavirus pandemic. Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://www.cbsnews.com/news/anti-asian-american-hate-incidents-up-racism/
7. Sten, P. (2020, September 04). America's long history of scapegoating its Asian citizens. Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/09/asian-american-racism-covid/
8. Tanglao, L. (2020, August 05). Bar Axing Name Over Cultural Appropriation, But Filipino Community Says Issue Runs Deeper. Retrieved September 09, 2020, from https://www.huffpost.com/entry/barkada-wine-bar-dc-changing-name-cultural-appropriation-filipino-community_n_5f24a57fc5b68fbfc883333d
9. ". (2020). 90's Y2K Vintage Festival Outfits by FeelingVagueVintage on Etsy. Retrieved September 17, 2020, from https://etsy.me/1lAbSCD
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