May is Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage month. It’s a time to honor and celebrate the contributions of AAPI people to our world.
San Diegans’ collective culture and economy owe a great deal to our AAPI community, from the Convoy District to Little Saigon and the Japanese Friendship Garden, the Lunar New Year celebrations to Diwali, and from the smell of lumpia wafting through Southeast San Diego to the Asian grocery stores that supplied our families during early COVID-19 quarantine when other shops ran out of supplies.
But the AAPI community is more than just good food, art and celebrations. Asian American and Pacific Islanders make up about 13 percent of our county’s population and own nearly 30,000 businesses. They are members of the fastest-growing racial or ethnic group in the United States, and play an important role in every sector of our society. And they are, much like Black Americans, brutalized by the structures that uphold White supremacy.
Recent events, like the mass shooting in Atlanta and the stabbing of two elderly women in San Francisco, have spotlighted the rise in hate crimes against the AAPI community. But, these crimes are not new — and neither is the racism driving them.
The history of Asians in the U.S. is complex; and one of exclusion, brutality and subjugation.
Chinese men were brought to California to work on the railroads. They revolutionized transportation and our economy — an achievement still celebrated in history books today. What isn’t taught in history class is that Chinese immigrants did the work deemed too dangerous for White people, which resulted in hundreds of deaths from explosions, landslides, accidents and disease. On top of suffering the indignity of life-threatening work for abusive wages, families were dismantled as Chinese women were banned from coming to America.
In the 20th century, American wars abroad often led to hatred and violence at home. During World War II, approximately 120,000 Japanese people — the majority of whom were American citizens — were locked in internment camps not unlike the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement detention facilities we see today. Violence against Asian Americans in shops and on street corners was present during both the Korean and Vietnam Wars.
During the period immediately after 9/11, there were reports of over 500 hate crimes against South Asian Americans.
These are but a few examples in a complex history that land us where we are today.
While the histories of Black and Asian oppression differ, the groups share commonalities. Just as Black people were denied citizenship in the country they built, so too were Chinese, Indian, Japanese and Korean immigrants. And just as the term “Black” strips away the richness of the diversity of the African diaspora, the beautiful and complex diversity of the Asian diaspora is similarly diminished by the term “AAPI.” It covers so much that it is extremely limiting.
“AAPI” is both a unifying term and one that results in the invisibility of some of its members. Asian people are not a monolith; neither are Pacific Islanders. For example, Asian Americans have the highest within-group income inequality in the United States. Southeast Asians suffer high rates of poverty and mental health disorders and are profoundly impacted by our criminal legal system, which often results in them being detained and deported after conviction. Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders are five times more likely to be deported for criminal convictions than other immigrant groups. Further compounding this issue, AAPI community members are often ignored in the call for immigration reform.
Similarly, AAPI people, for the most part, are left out of the conversation about criminal justice reform. Studies and even prison data routinely lump AAPI people into an “other” category. AAPI youth are overwhelmingly impacted by our judicial system, yet are largely ignored in conversations about dismantling the school-to-prison pipeline.
Conversations about justice in San Diego County focus on the impact of our criminal legal and immigration systems on BIPOC communities, but generally exclude the AAPI community; in one example, the data show that the San Diego Police Department racially profiles and disproportionately stops AAPI community members.
All justice-minded individuals, and particularly BIPOC San Diegans, have a duty to stand with our AAPI community members and include them in our push for data collection, advocacy, movement building and grassroots actions.
No longer can we be divided and duped by tactics used to uphold racist systems, like the “model minority” myth that seeks to disprove White supremacy by holding up AAPI economic and educational achievements as proof that institutional racism doesn’t hold non-Whites back. That’s a myth rooted in anti-Blackness that is weaponized against other non-White Americans.
As Black people we are told that if we just follow orders, make no sudden movements, don’t run, don’t act guilty or scared, we will be fine. But, in reality, we can “do everything right” and still be gunned down. Likewise, Asian Americans are lifted up as the model minority while simultaneously being “othered” and buried under the weight of White supremacy. Because in the eyes of White supremacy — something upon which our policing and “justice” systems are built and thrive — just being non-White means you’re a threat.
As Americans, we do ourselves a collective disservice when we disregard the traumatic experiences of AAPI community members and dismiss their truths as exploited people. We, the BIPOC community, must stop dividing ourselves by creating hierarchies of discrimination, because racial trauma is real for all who experience it.
We must not only focus on respecting the history, culture and members of the AAPI community every day, we must also make room for their place in the movement for true justice, and work alongside them to preserve their future and well-being in our collective community.
"Opinion" - Google News
May 15, 2021 at 05:09AM
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Opinion: We must stand with the AAPI community and help preserve its members' future and well-being - The San Diego Union-Tribune
"Opinion" - Google News
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