Renea Baek Goddard
Aug 26, 2017 · 3 min read

It’s important for us as non-black people of color that we acknowledge the privileges we have when it comes to the history of racism in this country, especially considering the amount of antiblackness in our communities — I’m glad that the author pointed that out. However, I get the feeling that this article is largely centered around the experiences of light-skinned East Asians. I don’t see how Asians who are perceived as “brown”, such as South Asians, can be privy to the kinds of privileges you described in this article, nor do I think that brown Asians are perceived as closer in proximity to whiteness like East Asians are. Most of what this article is describing seems to be the effects of the “Model Minority Myth”, which specifically affects East Asians for the most part. Though the stereotype itself is racist, we still stand to benefit from being perceived as non-threatening.

When talking about East Asians specifically, you’re absolutely right that we’re often shielded from racism by the Model Minority Myth and that we have the capacity to uphold white supremacy. I especially agree with the fact that Asian communities often only mobilize in very specific situations, usually ones that directly affect our community, but are less willing to organize for other racial justice movements, even while co-opting the language of those movements.

For example: the assault on Dr. Dao on a United Airlines plane. I think it was less than a day before someone decided to make a “Chinese Lives Matter” photo. There is an uncomfortable amount of hypocrisy needed to appropriate a black resistance slogan only a few years after the entire Chinese American community protested the arrest of Peter Liang, a Chinese American NYPD officer who unjustly murdered Akai Gurley, a black man.

Assuming you’re talking about Asian Americans in general, it’s dangerous and wholly inaccurate to imply that South, Southeast, and West Asians don’t face the threat of violence and systematic oppression that most brown people in America do. I highly doubt that these groups are worried about Ghost in the Shell casting Scarlett Johansson to play a Japanese woman — remember that even though East Asians receive meager representation, we are still represented more often and receive more positive representation than other Asian communities.

However, even if you’re specifically talking about East Asian people, insinuating that the only forms of racism affecting East Asians is media representation and minor racial microaggressions seems to ignore many of the lived realities of East Asians. For those East Asians who are not first generation immigrants, who are native English speakers and Western educated, who are considered “natural-born” citizens, who are not living in low-income ethnic enclaves and can easily assimilate into whiteness & “Americaness” — then yes, maybe minor racial microaggressions and lack of representation truly are our biggest problems. But when we look past identity politics and focus on people’s (often complex) lived experiences, it’s easy to see that this narrative that East Asians don’t face “real” racism is one that centers the most privileged among us.

Several months ago, a white woman attacked an old Korean woman on the street while screaming “white power.” This may seem like an isolated incident, but similar incidents have happened numerous times (one of the most high-profile cases, of course, was the murder of Vincent Chin in 1982 at height of anti-Japanese sentiment).

Hate crimes against every marginalized group, including Asians, have been rising. Donald Trump’s rhetoric targeting China and North Korea is already fostering a comeback of Yellow Peril sentiment. Furthermore, Trump ran on a campaign of Islamophobia and anti-immigrant rhetoric that is now spurring even more hostility towards all brown people, including South, Southeast, and West Asians.

The Korean woman who was attacked was an older, first-generation immigrant who was a non-native English speaker. Compared to many of us East Asians who are financially well-off or born in the United States, she was a highly visible and vulnerable target of racism.

Of course, even the most vulnerable members of East Asian communities perpetuate antiblackness — the rally held in support of the murderer of Akai Gurley likely included a significant number of first-generation Chinese immigrants, non-native English speakers or individuals who don’t speak English at all, and Chinese people from low-income communities. And yet none of those experiences cancel out the fact that these individuals were in a position to benefit from validating and supporting violent white supremacy — even while experiencing forms of racism themselves that are much more immediate than just “whitewashing in Hollywood”.

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Renea Baek Goddard

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S. Korea → Little Rock. Journalism & anthropology student. Bylines: Autostraddle • Truthout • ThoughtCatalog • Arkansas Public Media • KUAR. Twitter: @_unpeachy