Asian and Black Racism in America
I chose to analyze these artifacts since they’re so recent and Asian racism isn’t something we’re used to having trend in America this frequently. I particularly want to focus on how the protest and response to Asian racism has been different from the response we’ve seen recently with Black racism in the news and on social media.
For a long time, I think Asian racism has been on the back burner behind Black racism, in the eyes of Americans. Blacks have been a force to be reckoned with as they constantly try to battle getting equal rights and treated like those who are White. Where I think Asians are just pushing to be accepted in America, period, they haven’t even got to the point of Blacks where they are fighting for equal rights this largely, until now.
A statement that stood out to me in the reading for class, “Radicalization as a Way of Seeing” by Lyndsey P. Beutin was, “John Berger argued that the way that we see is affected by what we believe.” This statement holds true when it comes to Black racism. The media is quick to show the bad and ugly protest’ involving police, violence, and destruction, but they downplay the peaceful protest. Proof of this is the article titled, “Finding Joy in the Everyday Mundane, Tyler Mitchell’s Photographs ‘Visualize What a Black Utopia Looks Like, or Could Look Like,’” where photograpgher Tyler Mitchell captured images of Blacks that he had never seen in the media stating, “I feel an urgency to visualize Black people as free, expressive, effortless, and sensitive” after what he had captured. On the other hand, what you see in turn affects what you believe. If you always see the death and destruction, that’s going to change your view point. In the Asian communities case, former President Donald Trump has put a target on their back by referring to COVID-19 as the “Chinese virus” or the “Kung flu” which further empowered White supremacist.
I think the big devide between Asian and Black racism is how they’re “suppose to” act in America. Asians are taught that if they keep their head down, don’t make a fuss, and work, they can live the American Dream. Whereas Blacks are taught that Whites will always be above them, but if they distance themselves as far away from “blackness” as possible, they have a small chance of becoming as privileged as Whites and that’s why we use the term, “he’s the whitest black man I know.”
The point that I’m trying to demonstrate here is that yes, we know that Black racism and Asian racism are a large issue in this country, but in many different ways. Even though they both sprung from slavery and White supremacist, Blacks are at the point where they're so tired of harping the same thing, death after death, they just want change. Whereas the Asian community, although they obviously want change too, are still trying to make themselves heard after being silenced after all these years.
Instead of forming my own conclusion on this matter, I think that Peniel E. Joseph from the Washington Post says it best in his article titled, “A convergence of racial reckoning for Black and Asian Americans.” He ends his article by saying, “We are at an inflection point in American history. The coronavirus pandemic, the killing of George Floyd, Black Lives Matter protests, a racially fraught presidential election and a white-supremacist assault on the U.S. Capitol mean we are long past pretending that America is now or ever has been a truly multiracial democracy.
Building what King called a “Beloved Community” requires more than expressing uncomfortable truths. We must also recognize that anti-Asian racism is a form of white supremacy that must be rooted out, confronted and defeated if we are ever again to be recognized as not just a great, powerful and rich nation but, more importantly, a good one.”
It’ll be interesting to see if the Black and Asian communities come together even further to make a change in this country and suppress the White supremacist.
