Asian-American Hate Proves There’s No Right Way to be a Minority
Originally published April 15, 2021
I won’t repeat the news stories and barrage of articles about the recent and deadly rise of Asian-American hate. The statistics are unfortunately both believable and frightening, but I find it hard to imagine how reiterating facts to “spread awareness” will help in solving the problem. Racism is not new in this country; it hasn’t been for indigenous peoples, it hasn’t been for Black Americans, and it certainly isn’t for Asian Americans. So why is it that when I bring up these events to some of my white friends, their response is a wary, “Yeah, but those people are just crazy outliers. No one’s actually racist towards Asian people.” Maybe after decades of purporting the idea that Asian Americans are the “model minority,” that they’re educated and hard-working unlike those other minorities, has led to the misconception that racism just doesn’t apply to us. Even as we’re mocked in school, overlooked in the workplace, and ruthlessly attacked on the street. There is one thing these attacks on Asian Americans has made abundantly clear: there is no right way to be a minority.
The connection between hate crimes against Black and Asian Americans is a reality we must examine if we want to truly understand racism in this country. For decades, the rhetoric spewed by inculpable racists towards Black Americans was clear: we don’t like you not because of your race, but because you’re lazy, you’re rude, you’re loud, and the list excruciatingly goes on and on. And for many, especially to those newly indoctrinated into the hateful rhetoric, this sounded like a reasonable justification. On the other side, we had a race that supposedly acted oppositely: why can’t you be more like Asian Americans, who are hard-working, polite, and stay in their lane. And that, too, was accepted so effortlessly that it even got it’s own moniker: “model minority.” There’s no doubt that Asian and Black American’s face racism differently, and certainly to different degrees. But what happens now, when Asian American hate crimes have skyrocketed in the past year since the pandemic. What happens now that Asian Americans are coming forward with their stories of being mocked, diminished, and infantilized. It’s clear now that even America’s “model minority” cannot escape the violence and hatred of those who have never and will never consider another race as equal to theirs.
Trying to find a justification to racism is an act reserved only for those distasteful enough to continue lying to the world. The clear truth is that there is no rhyme or reason. It doesn’t matter if you’re poor or rich, rowdy or quite, educated or not. In the end, racism knows no principles besides to judge based on differences, and that unfortunate reality is one every minority understands.
