Why We Need to Dig a Little Deeper and Stop Using ‘Stop Asian Hate’
I would like to acknowledge that I am a Black woman living in a visibly Black body, and I do not claim to know the experiences of those in the AAPI community. I am not personally a part of the AAPI community, but I aim to be an ally to those who are; for, as a Black queer feminist, I believe that all racially/ethnically-marginalized people need to be united in the liberation struggle because we all need to be free. I also write this from a U.S. perspective. And lastly, I recognize that the term Asian/Asian American has typically been used by some people to describe the experiences of East Asian Americans; but I use it to encompass the experiences of people descended from all parts of Asia, understanding that these parts have different histories and struggles.
When I say stop using ‘Stop Asian Hate,’ it is not because I don’t think Asian hate exists, but because ‘Stop Asian Hate’ only addresses the more-surface problem of physical violence and attacks against Asian Americans and Asian migrants that has been more prevalent since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Identifying only physical attacks against Asian Americans as ‘Asian Hate’ manages to negate the many ways in which the AAPI community has been targeted, policed, excluded, and discriminated against by the state, such as with limiting AAPI immigration through the Chinese Exclusion Act and the Page Act, Japanese Internment camps during World War II, military occupation and imperialist land appropriation of islands in the Pacific, and the sexual and labor exploitation of women in various contexts. With a discriminatory and inequitable history that includes the aforementioned, even if physical attacks against Asian people in the U.S. were to stop today, the conditions in which they live would not end today. Black people know very well that the idea that hate is limited to physical violence is a liberal one, for it absolves the state and its actors from their racist, misogynist, oppressive, and genocidal ideals, and keeps the rest of us oppressed as a result. We instead need to address the root problem at hand, that is, systemic racism and prejudice against Asian diasporic people in the United States.
Secondly, I would like to address the sort-of resentment that appears to be present in the Black community — and I’m not saying that all Black people feel this way, but I think that some do, which is hindering a stronger coalition between Black and non-Black AAPI people and feeds into our division. My Black siblings: I know that you are constantly aware of Black people facing and dying from state-sanctioned violence. It is always a topic of conversation on the news, social media, and in our personal lives. And I know that it is tiresome, and even at times, isolating. And I have felt firsthand that we sometimes lack the allyship that we need to fight and survive— a fight that we are too tired of fighting. And we absolutely should call out those who claim to be allies and could be better ones. However, we absolutely should not take whatever anger and resentment that we might feel out on the AAPI community during their time of need. We should instead meet AAPI people with support and solidarity. We deserve to be seen, they deserve to be seen, and we should fight to make sure that both communities are seen and heard. But if we fight against each other, we’re just performing the nation-state’s hateful work for free.
So, if we truly want to stop systemic racism against Asian people, we have to start questioning why certain individuals believe the things that they do and how/if we can change those ideas. We also have to hold these individuals accountable when they harm other people on the basis of hate. For example, with the Spa Killings in Atlanta, call them what they are: Murders. The intentional murders of Asian women. The intentional murders of Korean and Chinese women by a white terrorist man who clearly hated women. An act of domestic terrorism in a country that claims that the American Dream of safety and security is attainable and realistic for everyone. These were, without a doubt, hate crimes; to not name these crimes as such both denies AAPI people of their humanity and of their identity as people of color. Once we expose racist violence and those who act on it for what they really are, only then can we begin to ‘Stop Asian Hate’; because if I have shown anything, it’s that this hatred is long and ongoing, but brews slowly until it bubbles violently.
