AAPI Community Punished for Not Confirming to 60s Social Norm in 2021
California State University, Northridge (CSUN) junior Kenny Uong utilizes public transportation daily. He mentions that he occasionally experiences racial discrimination, mainly from white people, and spoke about an incident of racism at a CSUN’s public transit project meeting.
“I’ll always remember a public transit project meeting that was held at CSUN in August 2019,” Uong said. “Someone called me an ‘ignorant Oriental’ for supporting the transit project.”
San Francisco Chronicle columnist Jeff Yang told NPR that the use of the term oriental “ feels kind of freighted with luggage.” He continued by saying, “You know, it’s a term which you can’t think of without having that sort of smell of incense and the sound of a gong, kind of, in your head.” It’s a word that exoticizes stereotypes about the AAPI community.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) have recently undergone multiple forms of malice, physical assault, and discrimination because of their ethnicity and individuality. It’s them stepping outside the Americanized norm of being seen as “model minority” figures and attempting to combat centennial stereotypes which usually results in repercussions.
According to The Washington Post, the term “model minority” originated in the 1960s, during a time when many social movements were addressed to the U.S. war in Vietnam, the environment, as well as racial and gender equality. Sociologist William Peterson, also during that time, highly esteemed Japanese Americans for overcoming discrimination, concluding that Black people were deemed as problematic minorities. Peterson also asserted that the Japanese Americans’ ability to endure racial discrimination compared favorably with Black Americans — rhetoric that has scorned the AAPI community for decades, and recently to the point of violence.
“Like the Negros, the Japanese have been the object of color prejudice,” Peterson wrote in a 1966 article published in the New York Times. He continued by saying, “When new opportunities, even equal opportunities, are opened up, the minority’s (referring to Negros) reaction is likely to be negative. The history of Japanese Americans, however, challenges every such generalization about ethnic minorities.”
People from the AAPI community have been discriminated against and harassed by white Americans and individuals who are either Black, Indigenous, or any other People of Color (BIPOC) for many years. According to USA Today, unsubstantiated rhetoric from former U.S. President Donald Trump exacerbated discrimination against the community by blaming China for the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic, opening a door for violence and ridicule against Asians.
Oranicha Jumreornvong was approached and spat on in February by a random man, according to an article posted online by Jumreornvong on TheLily. He called out “Chinese virus” and began to follow her. The man then began to physically assault her. Knees go weak at a kick. Jumreornvong is dragged across the ground while her nails bled against the rough pavement. She cried out for help, but spectators just watched in awe while her perpetrator went off with her phone.
“I was dragged across the ground; my nails bled against the rough pavement as I tried to crawl away,” Jumreornvong said in her personal essay. “I cried out for help, but passersby stood in silence as the assailant escaped with my phone.”
AAPI students from Jumreornvong’s medical school petitioned to condemn anti-Asian hate crimes after receiving news about Jumreornvong’s attack incident, along with a shooting at an Atlanta spa that left eight people dead, six of whom were Asian women. However, her medical school replied with a message of exclusivity which stuck out to Jumreornvong.
“Importantly, our effort to provide safety for our members of the AAPI community must not compromise the safety of BIPOC folk.”
In essence, the AAPI community continues to be ostracised and discriminated against across the country. Dylan Sherry, a senior at CSUN, mentioned that although he doesn’t look Asian, he undergoes racial slurs from white people and the BIPOC community whenever they learn of his ethnicity. “It’s interesting. I don’t necessarily look Asian, but after some have learned of my Japanese-Hawaiian heritage, I’ve been called chink, gook, et cetera, et cetera,” Sherry said.
“Yeah, I’ve been called Asian slurs before.”
Christmas time is usually when a family joins together, sometimes from far places, which the Sherrys do annually. Every year around the holiday, the Sherrys travels to Tallahassee, Florida, to visit the father’s side of the family. Even in public places in the state of Florida, Sherry and his family endure racial discrimination. And with recent information about the AAPI community underfire, Sherry has also become concerned about the safety of his mother whenever she’s in Florida because of the spa shooting that occurred in Georgia.
“My family travels to Tallahassee, Florida, for Christmas every year to visit my dad’s side of the family, and I’ve honestly grown concerned for my mom in that setting,” Sherry said. “Sadly, just by having more stereotypical Asian features, she has a target on her back.”
Chris Torres is another junior student at CSUN who has undergone racial stereotypes from the BIPOC community. One incident that Torres could recall was at his high school. And although he expresses his relationship with the person as a high school friend, Torres drew recognition to the unintended stereotype attributed to his ethnicity.
“One of my best friends I met in high school is Black,” Torres said. He continued by saying, “And the way we met is pretty funny. We were in the same math class and asked me if I had an A in the class. I said, ‘No, I’m failing actually.’ He was shocked because I’m Asain,” Torres said. “The stereotype with Asians being good at math just doesn’t include me,” he finished saying with a light chuckle.
There may perhaps be a sense of humor about Torres’s story. However, it’s important to bring to light the representation of the AAPI community and how they are not seen as inclusive with the BIPOC community. They are people who are perceived as modeled after minorities who are consistently discriminated against, harassed, or physically assaulted because of their ethnicity and individuality.
