Americans love Asian culture and contributions. ‘But you do not value our lives.’
When I woke up to the news of the multiple murders in Atlanta, I was overwhelmed with emotions: sorrow, anger, confusion, outrage. But I was not surprised. In a country where anti-Asian American violence has spiked 150 percent to over 3,800 instances in the past year, and where violence against women and sex workers is endemic, this series of shootings was merely the highest profile acts of violence in recent history.
The killer, a 21-year-old white man, is not a lone wolf, any more than a member of the KKK or Proud Boys would be. He is a symptom, a manifestation of all the anti-immigrant, anti-woman, anti-sex worker sentiments of America. He is white supremacy and misogyny personified. To ignore that is to snip a weed without pulling it up at the root. The media and the police need to do a better job of calling out racist terrorism for what it is, instead of spending its energies and sympathies humanizing the murderer, focusing on his alleged sex addiction and how he “had a bad day.”
For those of you quick to shout, “It can’t happen here!” or “This is not who we are!” I hate to tell you that this is PRECISELY who we are. The blame can’t be placed solely on the recent racist incitement and lies about the “China Virus” from those in positions of power. America, since its inception, has been built on the exclusion, exploitation, and violence against immigrants, people of color, African Americans, and indigenous people, not to mention women, and LGBTQ+ people. This is the America where the Chinese built the railroads but were erased from the history of that monumental achievement and then banned from coming into this country. This is the America where 120,000 Americans of Japanese descent were imprisoned during WWII. This is the America that colonized and oppressed the Philippines for a half century. It is American mouths that spew “Chink” & “Jap” & “Gook.” It is American fists that beat old men and women in Chinatowns. It is American hands that shot and killed innocent women and men in massage parlors in Atlanta.
Meanwhile, you love us for our food, our movies, our martial arts, our anime, our labor, and all the scientific, literary, artistic, and cultural contributions Asian Americans have made to this country. But you do not value our lives. You listen to demagogues who spread lies, hate, and xenophobia. You insult us. You vandalize our homes & businesses. You beat us. You kill us.
As an Asian American, I’ve been somewhat inured to the daily microaggressions and small acts of casual racism encountered by folks like me. As someone in the hospitality industry, I work within the confines of the power dynamics of the server and the served. Most times I cannot call out that racism and othering. We suck it up and we go on.
When Breonna Taylor and George Floyd and Ahmaud Arbery and countless others were murdered last year, I looked inward and was grateful for the privilege that I’ve never feared for my life when stopped by the police, due simply to how I looked and where I stood in the American racial hierarchy. Asian Americans have been seen as the “model minority” for the past 40+ years. We’re supposed to be smart, hard-working, quiet, subservient. We’re not supposed to make waves. Many of us took that label to heart, we kept our heads down and pursued our American dreams, escaping notice as the politics of race in America, always framed in terms of “black” and “white,” roiled around us. For many of us, we adopted all the trappings of whiteness as we slipped through the cracks of a racist society. But this safety and acceptance is an illusion.
This is perhaps the ultimate genius of white supremacy — the ability to divide marginalized communities against each other, blinding us to the system that keeps us in check, making us fight each other for scraps. We speak out and defend our own communities against violence and oppression but so often we do not show up for others. This is a cycle we must break. While anti-Asian violence is in the spotlight, we must remember that Black lives are still taken daily. That anti-Muslim, anti-gay, anti-trans violence has not abated.
This is the America we live in. But this is not the America of my dreams. This is not the America of the “American Dream.” We have to do better. We have to hold to account those who would intimidate, hurt, and murder us. We must call out racial violence and white supremacy for what it is. Most of all we must work in ally-ship with one another to protect all our fellow human beings, putting our words, our actions, our money, and even our lives on the line if necessary.
Dan Wu is a Chinese immigrant, owner of Atomic Ramen, and community activist & organizer.
This story was originally published March 18, 2021 at 8:49 AM.