Mariah Viktoria Candelaria
ASA 2, A01 (Vrindavani)
Week 1
Something that has been prevalent to me amid this time of panic and uncertainty is the rise of racism against Asian Americans. As Professor Valverde’s Fight the Tower (2019) explores her harrowing and life-threatening experiences of a woman of color in academia, it is seemingly evident that racism against Asian-Americans previously took the form of micro-aggressions and bullying rather than the blatant experiences individuals face today. Therefore, while it has always been an issue in America, it has never affected the Asian community to the capacity it is currently. With violence and xenophobic acts fueling this divide, more and more images/videos of Asian-Americans as young as toddlers and as old as great-grandparents have been victims of these inhumane circumstances.
It is interesting to follow how the U.S. government, and specifically Donald Trump, has been reacting to the news of coronavirus spreading. By adding to the anti-Chinese sentiments and refering to the virus as the “Chinese Virus,” he effectively displaces the blame from his prior inaction while providing further ammunition to racists. Additionally, it is interesting to see the lack of negative portrayals toward Italians, as the most largely affected country of COVID-19.
While it is disheartening and concerning to see our community become the targets of racism and xenophobia, it is also important for us to recognize our prior privileges and show solidarity to other communities of color that experience this level (if not higher levels) of harmful, violent racism on a daily basis. Asian-Americans have been notorious for not standing in allyship or exacerbating the racist division of/with the Black and Latinx communities. It is immoral for us to 1) try to compare our struggles with theirs and 2) expect them to forget previous instances of anti-Black/anti-Latinx actions within our own cultures. How can we, as a community, band together with other communities of color while still acknowledging the different privileges and disadvantages each have? Is there any way to subvert the stereotype that Asian-Americans don’t care enough about other communities in order to gain some more solidarity in light of more recent events of targeting?
References
Reinstein, J. (2020). A Man Who Allegedly Tried to Kill an Asian American Family Because of the Coronavirus Could Face Hate Crime Charges. Retrieved from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/juliareinstein/man-attempted-murder-asian-american-family
Trump, D.J. (2020). Retrieved from https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump
Valverde, K.L.C. (2019). Fight the Tower: Asian American Women Scholars’ Resistance and Renewal in the Academy. Retrieved from https://online.vitalsource.com/#/books/9781978806405/cfi/4!/4/4@0.00:23.2
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