Asian Hate and Violence Against Women is Not New
I was (and still am) sick to my stomach when I heard the news of the Atlanta shootings. I feel that way about any shooting - they are far too frequent and no less tragic each time (there has since been ANOTHER shooting in just a week). But what incenses me about this one in particular, is that it was clearly a targeted attack against Asian women, but the police boiled it down to the attacker having a “bad day.”
A bad day. The attacker was “fed up” with his sexual addiction and was at the “end of his rope” so he decided to go out and kill innocent people. I guess the next time my sweet tooth kicks in after a bad day, I should go shoot up my local patisserie. That’ll solve it.
This type of language excuses the attacker for his actions and is an example of systemic racism. It protects these white male attackers, whereas attackers of colour are quickly labelled “terrorists” or “foreigners.” It is the same language that is used when men rape women and it is supposedly the woman’s fault. Such as the case of Brock Turner, it is always argued that the men’s futures shouldn’t be ruined by this one “lapse in judgment,” whereas the women are traumatized forever. But nobody cares about that. They only care about what she was wearing.
Unfortunately I didn’t find this attack to be surprising, given America’s penchant for guns and the rise in hate crimes in the past year. Disgusting, deplorable, and horrifying, but sadly not surprising. This, also combined with the fact that people in power (such as Trump) and portrayals of Asian people in media has essentially facilitated such behaviour and fuelled lies and stereotypes about Asian people for a very long time.
Violence against Asian people, and especially women, is not new - it’s just ignored. It wasn’t just Covid that kicked this off. Covid and lockdown just amplified an underlying issue that has never been solved. I don’t know any Asian person who hasn’t had some unprovoked racial incident just for looking the way they do, whether at home (in Western countries that is) or abroad. We are treated as invisible until we are punching bags.
Asian women in media are usually portrayed as hyper-sexualized, subservient, and disposable. They are sexual objects for the man’s taking, a docile and dutiful maid, or maybe a bland and personality-less doctor (when they are on the other side of the spectrum of one-dimensionality). This is damaging and has now led to the deaths of several Asian women. On top of this, a lot of the other attacks are notably being done to elderly Asian people - people seen as weaker and unable to protect themselves. Utterly sickening.
Racism doesn’t have to be outright violent acts either. A lot of people would never consider themselves racist. They’ll say, “I’ve never called anyone names. I’ve never attacked anyone.” But they most certainly will still see Asian people (and other people of colour) through a lens of prejudice and stereotypes. This is unconscious bias. It exists.
An example of this is when Professor Robert Kelly’s children gatecrashed his BBC interview on North Korea, and his wife ran in the room to grab them and pull them out. I was living in London, UK at the time and working in media. My entire team was white and every single one of them thought the wife was the nanny. Nobody questioned this. I asked the woman sitting next to me why she thought the wife was the nanny. The answer I got was, “I didn’t really think about it.”
And that’s the problem. It was just assumed and never questioned. Most people go on living their lives this way. Most people don’t stop and question their prejudices and preconceived notions. Especially people sitting in positions of privilege. This woman was very nice and nobody would describe her as racist, but she had unconscious bias. Usually when this is pointed out, people react in defence, which doesn’t lead to any sort of learning.
When people believe they are not racist, they don’t do anything about it. They hold onto these notions that may seem completely innocent, but can fundamentally change the lives of people of colour. For Asian people, this may result in the “bamboo ceiling” at work. Years of working harder than everyone else and doing all the right things may not result in that promotion. I have been told that I haven’t gotten jobs because it was thought I was a subservient Asian girl. Or in the realm of dating, the most disgusting things get said to Asian women - and men don’t seem to think it’s at all inappropriate. I also once had a white woman say to me, “I’m afraid I’m going to lose all the white guys to Asian girls who will do anything for them.” (Perhaps I’ll blog about this another time, as there’s much to be said on this).
These are more nuanced examples of what has now been coined “micro-aggressions.” The answers aren’t simple for how to solve these problems. But there must be better education. Media must change. And Asian voices must be listened to. For too long, Asian people have been seen as a “model minority” and as a result, considered invisible because they seem comfortable, successful, and obedient. People will point to the richest of rich Asian people rolling around the city in their Ferraris and argue that they’re doing just fine. These fringe people do not represent the whole. We are not all the same. This does not justify brutalizing a community of people.
For many Asian communities in western countries, there is always an underlying force that tells us we don’t belong. I was in New York, probably the most multi-cultural city in America, and I had to repeat myself several times that I am Canadian. People would insist I wasn’t. Another time, I was on a tour in Amsterdam and the guide asked me where I was from and when I answered “Canada,” he replied multiple times, “No you’re not.”
This denial of identity, this denial of belonging, and this denial of acknowledgement reinforces the notion that Asian people aren’t important, that they are less-than. And yes, of course lots of Asian people have their own prejudices and are also racist. That’s a whole other topic I’ll write about another day. But something that we all need to do, but especially people of privilege and power, is to take a deep look at our views and prejudices and ask ourselves how we got there. And for those who can’t answer these questions, perhaps more simply ask yourself why you think Asian people don’t matter.
