As an Asian American person and a psychotherapist working with Asian and Asian Americans, I have been thinking a lot about white supremacy and its impact on our individual and collective bodies, minds, and hearts.
To get us on the same page, white supremacy is the system that values whiteness, white bodies, and all that is associated with it (aesthetics, manners of speech, opinions, achievements, behaviors, food, etc) as superior than all other races, cultures and bodies.
Some thoughts on how we can move towards healing and liberation:
1. We need to understand the position white supremacy has put Asian people in.
For many of us, our position as both victims and perpetrators, or at the very least participants, in the system of white supremacy can be very confusing. It’s a difficult reality to hold. It causes cognitive dissonance.
To alleviate this dissonance, some of us might be more attached to our oppression and resist acknowledging our relative privilege in this system. Some of us might feel deep shame and guilt that propel us into action, disavowing or minimizing our own oppression and dehumanization. And, for some of us, the dissonance is paralyzing, keeping us silent and on the sidelines.
The Racial Triangulation of Asian Americans (work by Claire Jean Kim) has helped me understand our position within white supremacy and why we feel confused, misunderstood, and unseen.
It is intentional and a result of our oppression.
2. We need to awaken to white supremacy and really, deeply explore and come to terms with how white supremacy has affected us.
White supremacy goes beyond being asked where we are from. It is in the air we breathe.
It is the omnipresent narrator that tells us we are less than, that we don’t matter and that renders us invisible. It dictates how we feel about ourselves, the doubts and fears we have, how safe we feel to speak up, how at ease we feel walking, hiking, running, if we are heard or not, if we feel seen or not, how connected we feel to your body, who we find attractive, if we feel attractive, what opportunities are available to us, how hard we have to try, how much trauma, anger, rage and despair we hold, and even what we long for….
To be co-conspirators in the movement to dismantle white supremacy for the long haul, we need to understand, feel into, and acknowledge how destructive white supremacy has been for us individually and collectively.
In writing this, my hope is to normalize some of the feelings and questions you might be having.
And, that in spite of the role we have been placed in the white supremacy system, we can begin to re-imagine who we want to be as Asian Americans and how we want to show up for ourselves and others.
Below are some reading and listening resources that I believe can be helpful in this process:
- Asian — Black Solidarity Movements for Liberation by the Smithsonian Asian Pacific American Center, Webinar Series, “We are not a stereotype: Breaking down Asian Pacific American bias”
- The difference between being “not racist” and anti-racist by Ibrahim X. Kendi, Author and Historian on TED2020
- Asian Americans Are Still Caught in the Trap of the ‘Model Minority’ Stereotype. And It Creates Inequality for All by Viet Thanh Nguyen
- Reclaiming Silence #asiansforblacklives. Conversation with therapists of East Asian descent in the USA, unpacking “SILENCE” as an ancient cultural value, the multilayered ways it manifests in our experiences & the Asians For Black Lives movement
- Racism, Anti-Asian Racism and Covid-19 by Professor Jennifer Ho is professor of ethnic studies and director of the Center for Humanities & the Arts at the University of Colorado Boulder, and president of the Association for Asian American Studies
- Asians Do Therapy. Podcast episode 3: Healing from Racism with Dr. Anneliese Singh (she/they)
- Asians Do Therapy. Podcast episode 4: Asians and White Supremacy with Dr. Jenjee Sengkhammee (she/her)
