End anti-Asian stereotypes in media.

Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings opens this week, the first Marvel film to feature a predominantly Asian cast. When screenwriters scripted the movie, based on a 1970s comic book character, they went so far as to write a “physical list” of racist parts of the story “we were looking to destroy” (Inverse). This highlights the long history of anti-Asian stereotypes in American pop culture — depictions that carry through to the present day.

TAKE ACTION

Support PALMS, AYPAL, the Chinese Progressive Alliance, or a local Asian American group organizing for justice.
Support the Foundation for Asian American Independent Media and other Asian media initiatives.
Consider: How are people from your racial, ethnic, or cultural background portrayed in popular media? What about people from other communities? Do these depictions influence how you think about people from other backgrounds or yourself? How might they determine people’s safety, well-being, and access to resources and decision-making power? How can we modify, add to, support, or reject these depictions?

GET EDUCATED

By Andrew Lee (he/him)

Marvel’s Shang-Chi and the Legend of Ten Rings opens this week, the first Marvel film to feature a predominantly Asian cast. When screenwriters scripted the movie, based on a 1970s comic book character, they went so far as to write a “physical list” of racist parts of the story “we were looking to destroy” (Inverse). This highlights the long history of anti-Asian stereotypes in American pop culture — depictions that carry through to the present day.

In the original comics, Shang-Chi’s father is Fu Manchu, an evil magician plotting to take over the West. According to a description written by the creator in a 1913 novel, Fu Manchu possesses “all the cruel cunning of an entire Eastern race, accumulated in one giant intellect, with all the resources of science past and present … Imagine that awful being, and you have a picture of Dr. Fu Manchu, the yellow peril incarnate in one man” (Inverse).

Yellow peril refers to the long-held white American fear that “Asians, in particular the Chinese, would invade their lands and disrupt Western values, such as democracy, Christianity, and technological innovation” (BGSU). The fear of the yellow peril presented by Asian people was borne out of labor competition between white and Chinese workers, eugenicist fears about “race-mixing,” and supposed “moral degeneracy” (Association for Asian Studies).

When such depictions are criticized, we’re often told that they were mere “products of their time.” This is always a bad-faith retort for two reasons. First is that Asian people, including Asian people in America, are not some sort of recent invention. We had been here for generations when the first Fu Manchu book was published, and it was as hateful in the early twentieth century as it is today. 1913 also saw the passage of the California Alien Land Law to ban Asian people in California from owning or leasing land (Immigration History). Anti-Asian beliefs fuel anti-Asian practices.

The second reason why the “product of their time” rebuttal falls short is that such stereotypes don’t suddenly disappear. Stereotypical depictions of Asian sex workers led some to make jokes mocking the deaths of six women in the Atlanta shootings (Variety). A 2013 General Motors ad called China “land of Fu Manchu” where people say “ching ching, chop suey” (SCMP). The myth of the yellow peril continues to this day. Today, nine out of ten Americans view China as “a threat” (Pew Research) though China is, in fact, the United States’ largest trading partner (Forbes). The American right crows about “kung flu” and the “China virus.” One in four Americans has seen someone blame Asian people for Covid-19 (USA Today). Eight out of ten Asian-Americans report that violence against us is increasing (Pew Research).

The fact is that Asian stereotypes — along with risks to Asian people — persist in the United States. In the words of Shang-Chi actor Simu Liu, “As a progressive Asian American man, I’ve always wanted to shatter barriers and expectations of what Asian men are and be very aware of the boxes that we’re put into — martial artists, sidekicks, exotic, or Orientalist… But I grew up watching Jet Li and Jackie Chan, and I remember the immense amount of pride that I felt watching them kick ass. I think Shang-Chi can absolutely be that for Asian Americans. It means that kids growing up today will have what we never did — the ability to watch the screen and to really feel seen” (Swift Headline).

Asian artists are dismantling stereotypes while Asian communities are organizing and standing in solidarity with other communities of color, as well. Groups around the country are organizing for health, disability, economic, and language justice.

The Black Power movement inspired student activists to coin the phrase and political category “Asian-American.” This wasn’t merely a demographic self-identifier, but a way to join diverse Asian immigrant movements together in a political struggle against white supremacy (Time).

A picture of Richard Aoki man holding a sign reading “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power” has been resonating with a new generation of activists (Huffington Post). It’s not a picture with an uncomplicated legacy, especially since Aoki — the only Asian American person in Party leadership — was revealed to be an FBI informant (NBC News). But building on a history of struggle, inter-racial solidarity, and deconstructing negative stereotypes and the violence they facilitate are all steps in creating a world where all of our communities have safety, power, and dignity.

Key Takeaways

The original Shang-Chi character was the son of Fu Manchu, one example of the idea of the yellow peril.
The yellow peril myth described Asian people as immoral foreign invaders.
Permutations of the yellow peril myth and other anti-Asian stereotypes persist to this day. Artists and organizations are working to build safety and community in the place of stereotypes and fear.

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Nicole Cardoza 8/4/21 Nicole Cardoza 8/4/21

Support Asian American athletics.

Last Thursday, American gymnast Sunisa Lee won the women’s all-around title in the Tokyo Olympics. She overcame injuries and personal tragedies to win her gold medal, which means the United States is now tied with the Soviet Union for most total wins in the category (CNN). Her win has been overshadowed by her teammate Simone Biles’ decisions to withdraw from the event to focus on her mental health (CNN). As an Asian American athlete, Lee’s win was also met with outright racism.

TAKE ACTION

Follow the Asian American & Pacific Islander Athletics Alliance on Instagram and Twitter.
Follow and support the Asian American Justice + Innovation Lab.
Practice solidarity with Asian and Pacific Islander communities.

GET EDUCATED

By Andrew Lee (he/him)

Last Thursday, American gymnast Sunisa Lee won the women’s all-around title in the Tokyo Olympics. She overcame injuries and personal tragedies to win her gold medal, which means the United States is now tied with Russia for most total wins in the category (CNN). Her win has been overshadowed by her teammate Simone Biles’ decisions to withdraw from the event to focus on her mental health (CNN). As an Asian American athlete, Lee’s win was also met with outright racism.

Replies to a SportsCenter announcement of her victory (Twitter) included, “Isnt [sic] she chinese,” “Made in China,” “You wouldn’t guess she was an American based on her appearance and name, but go USA,” and “Is is legal for someone with her name to claim to be an ‘American’? I think so, but what to [sic] the Trumplicans think?” Confused non-Asian viewers presumably comprised most of the 19,300 people who viewed an article entitled “Sunisa Lee Ethnicity” (Heavy). Lee is from St. Paul, Minnesota, born to Hmong immigrants from Laos, a community displaced by the U.S. “secret war” in the country during the occupation of Vietnam (MSNBC). But many Asian athletes in the United States find they can never be American enough.

Taiwanese-American professional basketball player Jeremy Lin famously endured racist media coverage and fan commentary while playing in the NBA (MSN). A few weeks ago, Stephen A. Smith made controversial remarks that MLB player Shohei Ohtani’s use of a translator “harms the game,” as we discussed in our piece on language justice. And last Monday, the World Archery Federation shared a video with the names of South Korean women’s archery team members written out in a “chop suey” font (Yahoo, NextShark).

Racism in sports doesn’t start at the professional level, either. Asian American kids are stereotyped as good students but poor athletes. “Asian American men are often seen as effeminate or asexual,” one report stated, while Asian American women are seen as “passive” or submissive (APA). These aren’t the characteristics that come to mind when you think of aspiring athletes. As a result, sports organizations fail to provide Asian athletes mentoring, Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) kids quit sports sooner than kids of any other race, and AAPI players are “vastly underrepresented” in American professional sports (Yahoo). Seeing that there are few avenues for Asian American success in sports, parents are more likely to encourage their kids to pursue other avenues such as academics.

This is one example how the back-handed "compliment" of the "model minority myth" hurts Asian people. The model minority myth states that Asians are exceptionally hard-working, rule-abiding, and intelligent. It’s harmful because it paints Asians as a monolithic block and because it was developed as an anti-Black stereotype to be used against the Civil Rights Movement (Anti-Racism Daily). It also hurts Asian Americans, who are dissuaded from participating in sports because athletics doesn’t fit the narrative of Asians as studious nerds.

Fortunately, people are coming together to change this dynamic. This past March, the National Organization of Minority Athletic Directors and the Asian American Justice + Innovation Lab hosted a workshop exploring the intersections of Asian identity, athletics, and anti-racism (NOMAD). And in May, the Asian American & Pacific Islanders Athletics Alliance, 4AAPI, was founded to create a community for AAPI people in college athletics. “The creation of 4AAPI is long overdue in college athletics,” said 4AAPI cofounder Pat Chun. “AAPI individuals have a long and proud history of impacting college athletics and I’m proud that this community will finally have a home” (4AAPI).

Sports should be an opportunity to come together and witness athletic excellence. It's unfortunate that backwards stereotypes exclude some while souring the victories of others. The Olympics are an opportunity to reflect on the importance of changing this fact. We need to denounce racism in sports and support Asian American athletics.

Key Takeaways

Asian American athletes often face racist abuse.
At the same time, Asian American student athletes are discouraged by stereotypes and lack of support.
These attitudes are some of the many harmful consequences of the model minority myth.

Nicole Cardoza 6/25/21 Nicole Cardoza 6/25/21

End the “lunchbox moment”.

The fun of this segment is based on disgust: we see our famous celebrities shriek, gag, and embarrass themselves confronted with revolting foods. Some of the items featured were clearly specially created to evoke just such revulsion: hot dog juice, hot sauce and olive jello, the aforementioned ant pickle.

Happy Friday, and welcome back! Food is central to many cultural traditions across the world and throughout history. How we relate to one another is often evident in how we respect each other's cuisines. Today's topic is just one of many ways we can ostracize people without thinking. Andrew shares more.

Thank you for your support! This daily, free, independent newsletter is made possible by your support. If you can, consider making a donation to support our team. You can start a monthly subscription on Patreon or our website, or give one-time using our website, PayPal, or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza).

– Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Demand actively anti-racist policies in schools.
Vigorously oppose racism from teachers and school administrators.
Support the Xicanx Institute for Teaching and Organizing, New York Collective of Radical Educators, Abolitionist Teaching Network, Teachers 4 Social Justice, and the Institute for Teachers of Color so teachers and students of color can thrive.

GET EDUCATED

By Andrew Lee (he/him)

Earlier this month, Kim Saira started a petition that now boasts over 40,000 signatures (change.org). Saira’s petition wants to fight anti-Asian racism through an unusual venue: by opposing one of the sections on The Late Late Show with James Corden, “Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts.”

In this recurring segment, a celebrity sits opposite Corden around a spread of apparently revolting foods. Each takes turns selecting one that their opposite will have to consume should they decline to answer an embarrassing question. Justin Bieber swigs a shrimp-and-chili-pepper smoothie in lieu of admitting which country is home to his least favorite fans (YouTube). Instead of eating bull penis, Kim Kardashian discloses that her then-husband Kanye West’s most annoying habit is falling asleep in public (YouTube). Alicia Keys chooses to take a bite of an ant-covered pickle instead of saying which city she most dislikes performing in (YouTube).

The trouble is that other dishes are just normal, non-Anglo food: cow tongue, which appears in Korean BBQ and in tacos as lengua; chicken feet, a dim sum staple; or durian, a popular Southeast Asian fruit with a strong aroma. Some of these are presented in the least appetizing way possible such as the cow tongue, which appears unseasoned and whole. Others, like Chinese century eggs, are evidently grotesque enough as they are for Corden and guests to theatrically dry heave in disgust (Inkstone News).

Nobody is obligated to enjoy every food and there are some that each of us might emphatically refuse to taste. But dramatizing the “grossness” of Asian foods for popular entertainment is a low blow, especially given that so many immigrants in the United States are mocked for the food they eat. It’s repugnant coming from a celebrity with a large audience and influence, since that media plays a key role in giving permission to react with disgust to “exotic” dishes.

“The story of being bullied in the cafeteria for one’s lunch is so ubiquitous that it’s attained a gloss of fictionality,” writes Jaya Saxena. “It’s become metonymy for the entire diaspora experience; to be a young immigrant or child of immigrants is to be bullied for your lunch, and vice versa.” In my case, I got to hear about how disgusting all of my fourth grade classmates thought it was that I brought kimbap instead of a sandwich for lunch one day. That this is a common and widely recounted experience makes Corden’s display of Asian foods for shock, disgust, and amusement especially repulsive.

But no food is inherently disgusting, even if it’s a new dish from an unfamiliar culture. The “lunchbox moment” – that experience that many children of color have when they're shamed by their peers for what they brought for lunch – doesn't just happen, it's learned and perpetuated through pop culture. Although it exists for many, it’s anything but universal. One Indian girl growing up in South Dakota, for instance, found her white classmates reacted to Indian food “with either genuine curiosity or ‘at worst boredom’” (Eater).

That’s because disgust – especially the over-the-top enactments of it that are the bread and butter of the “Spill Your Guts” segments – is something we’re taught and something we teach each other. That’s not to say if, when left to our own devices, we’d find each and every new food wonderfully appealing. But we are taught that expressing public revulsion at some things is permissible and even encouraged (immigrant lunches, cow tongues), but that being disgusted at other things is a sign you have no class or taste (French haute cuisine, your mother-in-law’s signature dish). Public disgust at things that seem foreign isn’t just a matter of taste but a political act, and not a very good one at that.

That’s why 40,000+ people have signed onto the Change.org petition against “Spill Your Guts.” “In the wake of the constant Asian hate crimes that have continuously been occurring, not only is this segment incredibly culturally offensive and insensitive, but it also encourages anti-Asian racism,” it reads. “So many Asian Americans are consistently bullied and mocked for their native foods, and this segment amplifies and encourages it” (Change.org). On Instagram, @intersectional.abc is making videos showing how delicious some of the show’s “gross” foods actually are (Instagram). And we can all rethink the instinct to reject or disrespect new or unexpected foods or cultural practices.

Key Takeaways

In “Spill Your Guts” segments, James Corden and guests have to eat “gross” foods or answer uncomfortable questions.
Many of these dishes are just non-Anglo foods that Corden and guests react to with horror and disgust.
We can choose to react to unfamiliar foods or practices with respect instead of revulsion.

7/22/2020 | Don't Americanize other cultures.

11/25/2020 | Question your understanding of "authentic" food.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 6/10/21 Nicole Cardoza 6/10/21

Support immigrants beyond food.

It’s hypocritical to consume Asian or Asian-American cultural products and then refuse to defend Asian communities in the U.S. – or worse, exhibit open hostility against them. At the same time, we shouldn’t predicate supporting immigrant communities on enjoying their food, especially since the reason why so many Asian immigrants work in restaurants is itself a product of American racism.

Happy Thursday, and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily. June is Immigrant Heritage Month. In its honor, today Andrew takes us through the history of Asian immigration and the relationship between food and belonging that persists today.

Thank you for keeping this independent platform going. In honor of our anniversary, become a monthly subscriber on our website or Patreon this week and we'll send you some swag! You can also give one-time on Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), PayPal or our website.

– Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Learn how the “lo mein loophole” in racist immigration laws led to the creation of Chinese restaurants in the U.S.
Read about the history of Asian-American radical organizing.
Support organizations that advocate for Asian immigrant wellbeing, like Asian Defense Fund, Sisters in Self-Defense, Soar Over Hate, and PALMS.
Donate to mutual aid funds that support immigrant communities near you, like Oakland Workers Fund, Restaurant Worker Mutual Aid Boston, and Pittsburgh Restaurant Workers Aid.

GET EDUCATED

By Andrew Lee (he/him)

After a publicized wave of anti-Asian attacks, a catchy phrase popped up on protest signs and social media accounts: “Love us like you love our food.” From anime to K-dramas and from sushi to sesame chicken, non-Asian Americans now love the culture from various East Asian countries – or what they imagine it to be, at least. Many of those who enjoy consuming East Asian food, music, and movies are nowhere to be found when Asian people’s lives are on the line. If you love a certain kind of food you should love the people who make it.

1882’s Chinese Exclusion Act banned almost all Chinese people from entering the United States; it was repealed only in 1943, when the U.S. began allowing a whopping 105 Chinese immigrants per year. The American Federation of Labor, today one half of the AFL-CIO union coalition, was headed in the 19th century by Samuel Gompers, a raging racist who once asked, “Can we hope to close the flood-gates of immigration from the hordes of Chinese and the semi-savage races?” (NPR). San Francisco forced Japanese students to use segregated schools. A Japanese and Korean Exclusion League had members nationwide (History) President Theodore Roosevelt used a State of the Union address to disparage “undesirable immigrants” from China. With Chinese immigrants already banned, the 1917 Immigration Act banned immigration from almost the entirety of the rest of Asia (Al Jazeera).

But from 1915, Chinese people were able to secure a visa to work as restaurant employees. Chinese people previously worked largely in laundries, since racist attitudes prevented their employment at white businesses. After this change to immigration law, the number of Chinese restaurants quadrupled. That’s not to say it became easy for Chinese restaurant workers to immigrate: they had to find a way to convince immigration authorities they were major investors in a “high grade” eatery. Upon arrival, Chinese restaurant workers were legally prohibited from residing in all-white neighborhoods (Menuism). Regardless, Chinese people pooled money and used family and community ties to acquire merchant visas and began forming the Chinatowns of today. Wealthy white people began taking “slumming tours” of growing Chinatowns to gawk at their “depravity” and eat Chinese food (NPR).

Today, restaurants are the most common immigrant-owned business in the U.S. (CNBC). Facing “discrimination in hiring because they often speak limited English or because of their immigration status” are factors that contribute to the fact that today, “immigrants are for more likely to start their own businesses than U.S.-born residents” (NJ, AP).

Many respond to anti-immigrant sentiment by listing all of the good things immigrants give to the United States: “railroads,” “beef,” “perspectives, ideas, and sweat” (Huff Post), or “ethnic” restaurants, food trucks, and buffets. This frames immigration as an instrumental good, valuable only insofar as it provides benefits to the American-born. In this narrative, American citizens are full-fledged human beings while immigrants are just a potential American asset, like highways natural gas, or fighter jets.

But you should be active in the movement against Asian people getting stabbed (ABC) and spit on (Yahoo) and killed (CBS) whether you like General Tso’s chicken or not. We don’t think Polish people should have civil rights because of the quality of pierogies or that the wellbeing of Swedish-Americans depends on our passion for the IKEA food court. Anglo-Americans don’t get safety in the United States because we all love their pot roasts. Anglo-Americans’ rights and liberties aren’t contingent on the rest of us being pot roast aficionados because the United States was created to secure the rights and liberties of English colonists. In a way, this is fortunate, because, in my opinion, pot roast just isn’t that good.

LeRon Barton wrote, “I have come to the unfortunate realization that Blacks aren’t meant to be people, just vessels of entertainment in our society. We are looked at as hollow and only possessing culture that is meant to be enjoyed, eventually poached, and finally discarded” (Good Men Project). Similarly, immigrant communities and communities of color in general have been forced into precarious or menial jobs by racist and xenophobic attitudes and practices. Many immigrants’ salaries depend on serving white Americans. Their wellbeing as people should not be based on their ability to serve the enjoyment of white America, as well.

Key Takeaways

Non-Asian people who consume Asian products should support Asian communities under attack in the U.S.
Non-Asian people who don’t use Asian products should also be in solidarity. Support for an immigrant community shouldn’t depend on them serving you things you enjoy.
Many immigrants work in the restaurant industry because of our racist history.

2/15/2021 | Advocate for Black immigrants.

12/9/2020 | Amplify mental health resources for immigrants.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 6/1/21 Nicole Cardoza 6/1/21

Travel ethically for inclusivity and belonging.

The travel industry, one of the most profitable, fastest-growing industries globally, is worth $8.9 trillion (World Travel and Tourism Council). In 2018, Black travelers spent $63 billion on global tourism, an enormous leap from $48 billion in 2010 (Mandala Research). Additionally, in 2001, the United States Travel Association (USTA) identified African Americans as the fastest-growing segment in the travel industry. With these numbers, it’s clear that Black travelers are ready, willing, and able to spend their money on experiences in their chosen destinations, yet we are treated like we don’t belong.

Happy Tuesday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! This Memorial Day weekend brought the most people to than airport in a single day since COVID-19 (Washington Post). Half of the U.S. population is now vaccinated, and many are eager to get their hot girl summers started. This resurgence is sure to transform the travel industry.

And this gives us new opportunities to create a space that's more inclusive for all travelers. Reneé shares her perspective of traveling as a Black woman, and offers ways that we can create safer opportunities for us all.

Our free, daily newsletter is made possible by our passionate team of readers that give one time or monthly to help sustain the work. If you want to support, give monthly on Patreon. Or, you can give one-time on our website or PayPal. You can also support us by joining our curated digital community.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Note: Please be sure to abide by all coronavirus precautions and best practices if you are considering traveling during this time.

Prioritize booking travel with companies led/represented by people of color and committed to equity and inclusion.
Consult Ethical Traveler to understand which countries are most ethical to travel to based on their infrastructure and dedication to human rights, the environment, and social welfare.
Honor the Indigenous communities that have stewarded the land you visit. Use Native Land to learn more about Indigenous communities across the world.
Know the difference between cultural appropriation and cultural appreciation, and make a point to respect cultural practices.
Speak up when you see or hear of discrimination against people of color while traveling.

GET EDUCATED

By Renée Cherez (she/her)

When we think about travel, we imagine a worry-free time without interrupting the “real world.” Unfortunately, this level of unadulterated escapism does not ring true for Black travelers.

A quick Google search of the terms ‘traveler’ or ‘solo female traveler’ and pages of young white women against picturesque backdrops of the turquoise ocean with pink sand or famous landmarks like the Taj Mahal appears. Absent are the faces of Black travelers who are most certainly traveling to destinations both near and far. Over the last decade, with the help of social media, the Black travel movement (a movement that encourages Black people – particularly Black millennials – to travel both domestically and abroad to build community while also immersing in other cultures) has grown to unprecedented numbers.

Over the last few years, more and more Black travelers have been vocal about the anti-Black racism they’ve experienced while traveling in various parts of the world. Black professionals who often fly first-class are notoriously assumed to be in the “wrong line” when they’re on the priority line solely based on their skin color (LEVEL).

Black women have to research their destination and whether or not they will be safe from racialized and gender-based violence. White supremacy has made it so that the sexualization of Black women is worldwide, causing many Black women to experience unwanted advances abroad from men who assume they are prostitutes. Ugandan-American Jessica Nabongo, the first Black woman documented to travel the world, shares her experience with safety as a Black woman:

“...[women] of color are in more danger because a lot of people think we are prostitutes… My fear is always that if something happens to me in a European city, no one will care. I could be running down the street screaming in Italy, and onlookers won’t care because I’m Black. I think this is true no matter where in the world we are.”

Jessica Nabongo, world traveler, for the New York Times

For years, Airbnb branded itself as a way for travelers to stay at or with locals in new places; however, said locals have discriminated against Black travelers on several occasions (Fast Company). Whether it was kicking them out without reason or not responding to their inquiries on their accommodations availability (Fortune).

Also worth noting, 15% of Black travelers stated racial profiling played a role in their destination travel decisions (Mandala Research).

In the travel industry, people of color have played a supporting role in the tourism space. In contrast, white travelers have been the lead actors, not only as travelers but also in leadership positions at marketing agencies and press trips, travel media outlets, and tourism boards. Black people, wherever they are in the world, have been painted as the “gracious host,” “the safari guide,” and “the individuals who need ‘saving’ from white volunteers” but are rarely represented as “the adventurers in far-off lands.”

This lack of representation plays a significant role in the anti-Black racism Black travelers face on the road. For example, if locals from a country have limited real-world experience with Black people, they can only rely on what they’ve seen in the media. This misconception is likely to affect Black travelers negatively. A solution to this is simple: real diversity and inclusive initiatives rooted in anti-racism with a commitment to amplifying Black travelers.

Racism in the travel industry stretches beyond the average Black traveler but impacts the entire industry. Black travel agents make up a mere 6% of agents, while white travel agents make up 72% of the space (Data USA). Luxury travel is primarily represented by white travelers, erasing the Black travelers, journalists, and creators who create luxury travel content. In the PR industry, white professionals make up 87.9% of the space, while Black professionals make up 8.3%, Latinos 5.7%, and Asians a measly 2.7% (Harvard Business Review). With the absence of diverse voices, the stories, reporting, and content created from these trips lack the nuance that Black, Indigenous, and people of color (BIPOC) can provide.

And this is particularly tense for the Asian community experiencing increased levels of anti-Asian racism because of COVID-19. The attacks earlier this year coincided with the Lunar New Year, which is one of the busiest travel times both across Asia and for the Asian community in the U.S. In an article for National Geographic, several travelers shared their hesitations on traveling in the future. But even before the pandemic, Asian people have been notably absent from executive positions and marketing campaigns (Washington Post).

Tourism boards must create marketing campaigns that reflect the diversity of the world, not the status quo. People of all kinds should be represented and celebrated in advertisements, not just light-skinned, slim, able-bodied, cis-gendered people. Diverse advertising in the travel industry has a two-fold result: it allows non-white travelers to feel welcome while showing locals that we, too, travel and deserve respect. Recent research shows travelers who identify as ethnic minorities (64%) and LGBTQ+ (67%) say the companies they book their travels with must be committed to inclusion and diversity practices (Accenture).

Like most industries, the travel industry is undergoing a reckoning. Black travelers and industry professionals demand real representation in the industry from the highest levels in leadership to the entry-level positions. Anti-racist policies must be adopted in the travel industry on a global scale to ensure Black travelers and Black locals are treated with the utmost care and respect post-COVID-19.

Key Takeaways

In 2018, Black travelers spent $63 billion on global tourism and are currently the fastest-growing segment in the travel industry.
Over the last few years, more and more Black travelers have been vocal about the anti-Black racism they’ve experienced while traveling in various parts of the world. It’s not uncommon that Black women are presumed to be prostitutes solely because of skin color.
People of color deserve to be seen, heard and respected in the travel industry, including marketing, executive leadership, and business ownership.

10/30/2020 | Don't be racist this Halloween.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 4/7/21 Nicole Cardoza 4/7/21

Forget what you know about MSG.

As a former waiter in an Asian restaurant, I know very well how many people claim to be sensitive to monosodium glutamate or MSG. Customers would demand that their meal be MSG-free to avoid the headaches or nausea or weakness they swore they would suffer afterward (Mayo Clinic). Often, they informed me of their MSG-adverse status in the same way they might disclose a life-threatening allergy: not as a preference but as a serious, permanent condition with dire consequences. The MSG-avoidant are real and numerous and often quite militant. I have seen them and served them noodles.

Happy Wednesday! And welcome back. The stigma surrounding MSG is part of the broader anti-Asian sentiment that's been carefully cultivated in the U.S. In order for us to dismantle it, we have to take it apart and analyze all the cogs and wheels that have kept it running. That's why I appreciate today's analysis from Andrew.

Yesterday's newsletter seemed to resonate with many of our readers. I just learned about Rachel Cargle's lecture called "Unpacking White Feminism" which is well-worth watching, along with EVERY educational resource she offers. Also, the posts I referenced were removed from Instagram after I scheduled yesterday's email. I think the content still offers much to learn from.

This newsletter is a free resource and that's made possible by our paying subscribers. Consider giving $7/month on our website or Patreon. Or you can give one-time on our website or PayPal. You can also support us by joining our curated digital community. Thank you to all those that support!

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Read about the history of anti-Asian prejudice and violence in the United States.
Look at the “Know MSG” campaign, which aims to demystify and debunk myths about the common seasoning.
Buy or download “Chinese Protest Recipes” to learn Chinese recipes including some using MSG. All proceeds benefit Color for Change.
Inform yourself about the impact of racism on Asian restaurants during COVID.
Learn about the large variety of non-Asian foods that contain MSG.

GET EDUCATED

By Andrew Lee (he/him)

This isn’t just anecdotal evidence. According to one industry group, four out of ten Americans avoid MSG (Washington Post). That means more people stay away from MSG than caffeine, gluten, or GMOs. The cluster of symptoms afflicting the MSG-sensitive is so well-known that its name is even enshrined in the Merriam-Webster dictionary: “Chinese restaurant syndrome” (CNN).

I’m generally against sweeping statements about what foods other people should or should not ingest. If you’d like to only eat a paleo diet, or Cool Ranch Doritos, or foods starting with a certain letter depending on what day it is (MSN), that’s really none of my business.

With all that being said: if you think you suffer from “Chinese restaurant syndrome,” your actual ailment might be inadvertent racism.

MSG critics largely cite one single study contesting its safety. In this experiment, scientists injected mice with incredibly high doses of MSG soon after birth and found they grew up with health problems (Men’s Health). There are a number of common food ingredients that might be harmful when injected into baby mice, but that doesn’t mean they’re unhealthy for people to eat. Aside from the newborn mouse injection study, almost all the evidence for MSG’s terrible side effects comes from decades of personal reports.

The problem is that “Chinese restaurant syndrome” is only ever reported after eating Chinese food. Nobody gets it from tomatoes or Campbell’s chicken noodle soup or KFC. Sufferers of “Chinese restaurant syndrome” aren’t stricken after eating mayonnaise or potato chips or cheese or beef jerky.

All of the foods just listed contain MSG (Healthline). MSG is chemically indistinguishable from glutamate (FDA), a common amino acid found in almost every living being on the planet. If you feel tired and nauseated after eating a bite of Chinese food but not after eating a few Doritos, the culprit isn’t MSG. If you spend life avoiding Asian immigrant-owned businesses but not hot dogs, we aren’t talking about a medical problem but rather a social one.

Ever since Asian immigration to the United States started in the mid-nineteenth century, white supremacist narratives have associated Asians with disease. The founder of the New York Tribune wrote that Chinese immigrants were “uncivilized, unclean, and filthy beyond all conception” (Time). In 1906, Santa Ana, CA burned down its own Chinatown over fears that one resident had leprosy (LA Times). Last year, a man attacked a Thai woman on a train, yelling “every disease ever has come from China” (CNN). Much American coverage of the initial COVID outbreak in Wuhan centered on the “bizarre and unusual” livestock for sale in the “unsanitary” Huanan Market (FAIR), the equivalent of a Western farmers’ market.

Asians have long been thought to be an invasive, unclean element bringing exotic diseases into the American heartland. This belief is an element in anti-Asian violence, in moral panics over MSG, and in the idea that it’s only white-owned restaurants who can sell the “clean” versions of Asian food (Gothamist). As natural diets and “clean” living gained popularity after the 1960s, it’s no surprise that an “allergy” to a scary-sounding chemical provided a convenient vehicle for a very old racist narrative.

But at a time when both Asian restaurants and Asian people in America, in general, are under attack, it’d be nice if some non-Asian Americans forgot what they “knew” about MSG.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

MSG critics largely cite one single study contesting its safety.
Ever since Asian immigration to the United States started in the mid-nineteenth century, white supremacist narratives have associated Asians with disease.
The “Chinese restaurant syndrome" terminology could easily be applied to unhealthy foods from other cultures, but is specifically reserved for Asian cuisine.

RELATED ISSUES

7/22/2020 | Don't Americanize other cultures.

10/13/2020 | Support Chinatown during COVID-19.

1/13/2021 | Honor Mahjong.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 3/18/21 Nicole Cardoza 3/18/21

Stop the “lone wolf” narrative.

But, most urgently, it pushes the "lone wolf" narrative: that this individual acted alone for personal reasons and wasn't motivated by a larger narrative. This attempts to detach this specific instance from the larger role that white supremacy plays in acts of violence and terrorism in the U.S. As a result, it doesn't call for accountability for the system that nurtured and developed that hate in a white supremacist society. Although the individual should be held responsible for their actions, so should the government that fostered discrimination and bias against the Asian community since its start, from the Chinese Exclusion Act, to Imperialism in the Asia-Pacific, and platforming a president that persistently called coronavirus “Kung flu” and the “Asian virus” (Anti-Racism Daily).

Happy Thursday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! Tuesday evening's attack on the Asian community was another clear and blatant act of white supremacy. And still, law enforcement and the media attempted to mitigate the harm by diminishing a violent act of terror to "a good boy" who "had a bad day". Today we analyze how white supremacy persists through the coddling and protection of violent acts of terror.

This newsletter is a free resource made possible by our paying subscribers. We'd love you to consider making a monthly recurring donation on our website. You can also give one-time on PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). Thank you for all your support!

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Center your education about reporting on the victims and communities harmed, not the perpetrators. Avoid media platforms that share more about the perpetrator than the wellbeing of the community harmed.
Sign the petition and in solidarity with Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta, which is dedicated to the civil rights of the Asian American community.
Donate directly to support the victims and their families and to support crisis interventions, created by Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta.
Continue to report Asian hate crimes to Stop AAPI Hate to more effectively address anti-Asian violence.

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

Watch recordings of interviews on Instagram with Michelle Kim and Dr. Jenny Wang to understand more about the rise of anti-Asian violence and racism.

On Tuesday evening, March 15, a gunman shot and killed eight people and wounded another at massage parlors in the Atlanta area (NYTimes). At least six of the victims are Asian women. Four of those were identified as Korean. The names of the victims available as of writing (12:30 am EST) are Delaina Ashley Yaun, Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, and Paul Andre Michels (NYTimes). Each of them still deserves to be here, and we grieve for their loss.

This was the latest of a surge of violence against the Asian community over the past few months. Read our recap in an earlier newsletter. According to the latest report from Stop AAPI Hate, which has been measuring the rise of anti-Asian hate crimes since March 2020, women are 2.3 times more likely to report hate incidents, and 35% of all violence happens at businesses (Stop AAPI Hate). This attack is all the more heartbreaking because it was taken out against members of the immigrant community and sexually motivated, which makes this not just a racially-charged attack, but one rooted in misogyny and racial fetishization. Read more in a previous newsletter.

As the world woke up to the news Wednesday morning, a series of new articles explained more about the perpetrator, 21-year-old Robert Aaron Long, who was arrested and charged with murder. Friends described him as “nerdy,” “from a good Christian family,” and “very innocent-seeming and wouldn't even cuss” (Newsweek). The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported that he has a “sexual addiction,” leading others to report that his mental health might have influenced his decision-making (AJC). Police officers stated that “yesterday was a really bad day for [Long], and this is what he did,” and that he “he gave no indicators that this was racially motivated.”

This rhetoric is problematic for several reasons. By centering his religious faith, nerdy background, and lack of cussing, the press and law enforcement imply that he's aligned with whiteness’s key characteristics and consequently impervious to harm. This narrative has been used frequently to excuse violent acts carried out by white men, often against women and people of color. It aims to solidify that things like Christian faith, proper language, and academic performance grant power and privilege, and those that don’t align with these markers are “less than” in society. Related: White Supremacist Ideas Have Historical Roots In U.S. Christianity (NPR).

Not only that, it attempts to center the "innocence" of the perpetrator over the innocence of the victims. This further minimizes the pain that marginalized groups experience, and takes up space that could be used to tell their stories. Author and advocate Michelle Kim names other reasons why, in this case, families of victims might not feel comfortable speaking up, further exacerbating the issue (Twitter).

It also contributes to the mental health stigma in our society. It insinuates that people with mental health conditions are dangers to our society. Remember, racism and misogyny is not a mental health condition. This stigma doesn't just affects us on an individual level by discouraging people from seeking help and sharing their experiences with their friends and family. It creates a systemic narrative that mental health is so dangerous it needs to be policed, enforcing our criminal justice system’s role in health and well-being instead of social services that offer more preventative, healing support. Read more in the Washington Post.

This isn’t new – this is the same narrative we've heard after white terrorism events throughout our history. In an article from last summer, we outlined how quickly the rhetoric changes to protect white domestic terrorists. Dylann Roof, a far-right extremist who shot nine Black people in a church in South Carolina, idolized the Confederacy, was portrayed in the media as “mentally ill” and "misunderstood" (Al Jazeera). Kyle Rittenhouse, a white teenager who killed two people during protests in Kenosha last year, was called a "hero" and "innocent," and a "bullied teenager" who became a huge fan of the police (Huffington Post). Each of these issues, too, were discarded as single acts of individual errors than a result of systemic decisions – like our unwillingness to admonish the Confederacy, our lack of gun control, the tensions between communities and law enforcement stoked by our President – that fostered them. It should come as no surprise that, in 2020, reports indicated that white supremacists posed the greatest domestic terror threat to the U.S. (The Guardian).

And the first days of 2021 brought that to life, when hundreds of these "lone wolves" rallied together to attempt a violent insurrection at the nation's Capitol. A new report indicates that local and federal law enforcement often fail to address violence caused by white supremacists. Video evidence shows several members of the insurrection causing violence in their communities years before the event, and they weren’t charged (NYTimes). Elizabeth Neumann, an assistant secretary for threat prevention in the Department of Homeland Security who left last year, stated that “the Proud Boys are just the guys-that-drink-too much-after-the-football-game-and-tend-to-get-into-bar-fights type of people — people that never looked organized enough to cause serious national security threats.” The lone wolf narrative protected these violent extremists and enabled them to cause harm on a national scale.

It’s important to note that this convenient narrative is reserved for members of the white community. A study found that overall, terror attacks by Muslims receive 357% more press attention (The Guardian). But the narratives differ, too. Researchers analyzed news coverage of mass shootings in Las Vegas in 2017 and Orlando in 2016. The Orlando shooting, carried out by someone that identifies as Muslim, was allotted more coverage despite the fact that it produced nine fewer fatalities than the Las Vegas shooting. In addition, newspapers were more likely to frame the Orlando mass shooting as “terrorism” and link it to the global war on terrorism. In contrast, most articles for the Las Vegas shooting attempted to humanize Stephen Paddock, the white perpetrator (Taylor & Francis Online). Similarly, the concept of “Black on white crime” is a grossly fictionalized narrative used throughout history to validate the enslavement and incarceration of Black communities, which influences both policy and media to this day (Southern Poverty Law Center). The Huffington Post has side-by-side comparisons on how white suspects are often treated better than Black victims in headlines.

In the latest attack Tuesday night, one man might have pulled the trigger, but white supremacy doesn't act alone. He was encouraged and supported by a white supremacist culture that normalizes violence against communities of color and enables white men to carry it out. We need to hold not just individuals but our society accountable for this violence – including ourselves, and the role we play in perpetuating white supremacy.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Tuesday evening, eight people were killed in shootings at massage parlors in Atlanta, GA, contributing to the rise of violence against Asian communities over the past year.
Reporting of white male suspects tends to emphasize qualities that support their innocence and distance them from collective accountability.
This type of reporting allows for violence and terrorism by white supremacists to go unchecked, as evident in the recent attack on the Capitol.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 2/8/21 Nicole Cardoza 2/8/21

Address anti-Asian hate crimes.

Happy Monday, and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily! A rise in violence against the Asian community this past week prompted me to revisit this article from July, where I outlined the rising anti-Asian sentiment prompted by COVID-19 and the previous administration. I've included it below, with the addition of new sources to follow and the latest ways to take action.

Thank you all for your support. This newsletter is made possible by our subscribers. Consider subscribing for $7/month on Patreon. Or you can give one-time on our website or PayPal. You can also support us by joining our curated digital community.

Nicole

Ps – be sure to sign up for 28 Days of Black History.

TAKE ACTION

If you or someone you know experiences an anti-Asian attack, report it at stopaapihate.org.
Raise awareness and learn more by following the hashtag #StopAAPIHate on social media.
Ensure your company has implemented anti-discrimination policies that protect Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders using this PDF.

GET EDUCATED

By Nicole Cardoza (she/her)

Over the past week, a series of attacks against the Asian community, particularly in the San Francisco Bay area, have led calls for justice. In SF, an 84-year-old man from Thailand, Vicha Ratanapakdee, was tackled to the ground. He ultimately died from his injuries (Yahoo). In Oakland, a 91-year-old man was senselessly knocked over. According to the Chinatown Chamber president, there have been 20+ robbery/assault incidents reported in the neighborhood over the past week (ABC7). These acts of violence match others that have sparked in cities across the country, as reported by @nguyen_amanda on Twitter. Despite the severity of these attacks, many major news sources have not yet reported on them.

The onset of COVID-19 in early March set off a dramatic spike in anti-Asian racism. The Stop AAPI Hate Reporting Center, organized by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council, has tracked over 1,900 self-reported acts of anti-Asian incidents from March 13 – June, and hundreds more from California and Texas since (A3PCON). 58% of Asian Americans feel it’s more common to experience racism now than it was before COVID-19, and 31% have been subject to slurs or jokes because of their race or ethnicity (Pew Research). A recent Pew Study reports that since COVID-19 about 40% of U.S. adults believe “it has become more common for people to express racist views toward Asians since the pandemic began” (Pew Research).

Former President Trump played a role in this, applying his divisive approach to conversations around COVID-19. He chose to refer to it as “Chinese virus,” or “kung flu,” consistently. Press noted he used “Chinese virus” over 20 times between March 16 and March 30 (NBC News). And there’s a long history of North America and its leaders using false narratives to associate Asian Americans with diseases to "justify" racial discrimination and violence.

In the late 19th century, many Chinese and Japanese people immigrated to the U.S. and Canada for the gold rush, along with immigrants from the UK and Europe. Their labor was indispensable for the growth of infrastructure alongside the West Coast, but they were also paid terribly compared to their white American counterparts (The Conversation).

As Chinese communities began to grow, white communities turned against them, fearing they would take their jobs and disrupt their quality of life. They ostracized them by blaming Chinese people for diseases – like syphilis, leprosy, and smallpox – growing in the region. This was entirely untrue; poverty, not race, is more accurately correlated with the spread of diseases.

Despite that, Canada created a Royal Commission on Chinese Immigration and concluded that "Chinese quarters are the filthiest and most disgusting places in Victoria, overcrowded hotbeds of disease and vice, disseminating fever and polluting the air all around,” even though they knew themselves it wasn’t accurate (The Conversation). This spurred violence and hateful rhetoric, but political changes, too: the U.S. passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, and Canada followed with their own Chinese Immigration Act in 1885. These were the first law for both countries that excluded an entire ethnic group (AAPF).

To see the same type of discrimination and violence rise yet again is terrifying. For our original piece last summer, I interviewed my friend Katie Dean, an educator currently working in the tech space, to get her thoughts. Dean, who has been self-isolating since March, expressed her frustration for the violence her community is experiencing.

"
Right now, who I actually am, doesn’t matter. When I walk out into the world, I am judged by my face. And currently the face of an Asian person, to some, is synonymous with COVID-19, the virus that has taken loved ones, the virus that’s brought the global economy to a crashing halt, the virus that has exacerbated every conceivable racial and socioeconomic disparity. And this hurts, on a profound level.

Katie Dean for the Anti-Racism Daily

Our country needs to take more direct action to protect the AAPI community. In just the past month, President Biden signed a memorandum to combat bias incidents toward Asian Americans, issuing guidance on how to better collect data and assist with the reporting of anti-Asian hate incidents (NBC News). But the work truly starts with each of us. We must continue to raise awareness and admonish this violence in our own communities.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

A rise in anti-Asian sentiment only further stresses the need for accountability from individuals and the government alike
The onset of COVID-19 in early March set off a dramatic spike in anti-Asian racism.
The U.S. and Canada have a history of accusing Asian Americans of disease as one of many ways to discriminate and incite violence against them.

RELATED ISSUES

10/13/2020 | Support Chinatown during COVID-19.

11/4/2020 | Understand intergenerational trauma.

11/22/2020 | Stand against hate crimes.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 1/13/21 Nicole Cardoza 1/13/21

Honor Mahjong.

Barely a week into 2021, a Dallas-based company called The Mahjong Line was met with outrage on social media for appropriating mahjong, a Chinese tile-based game that dates back to the 1800s (Stanford News).

Happy Wednesday and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily. I appreciate your readership. I missed a lot of news during last week's insurrection at the Capitol, but not today's story. I emailed Kayla to see if she'd want to cover it, but turns out she had already sent us a pitch! We've written about cultural appropriation a few times on the newsletter, so keep those stories in mind as you read.

Also, yesterday we discussed abolishing the death penalty. Later that day, two executions scheduled for this week (Cory Johnson and Dustin John Higgs) have been halted by a federal judge.

Our work is made possible by our paid subscribers. You can financially contribute by making a one-time gift on our website or PayPal or subscribe for $7/month on Patreon. Thank you all for your support!

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Be a responsible consumer and shop at stores that do not appropriate mahjong and other cultures.
Learn about mahjong’s history and hand carved tiles here.
Educate yourself on why cultural appropriation is harmful here.
Support local businesses in Chinatowns - where mahjong is sold and played - by donating to either Send Chinatown Love or The Longevity Fund.

GET EDUCATED

By Kayla Hui (she/her)

Cultural appropriation is the act of using objects or elements of a non-dominant culture (when white people use objects, clothing, elements from Black, Indigenous, and other communities of color) in a way that doesn’t respect the original meaning, give credit to the original source, or reinforces harmful stereotypes (Anti-Racism Daily).

Developed in the Qing Dynasty, the strategy-based game has been played and preserved by Chinese people for centuries. Mahjong consists of 144 tiles made up of three suits that have been carved with Chinese symbols. When Kate LaGere, co-founder of the company wanted to “refresh” the artwork of the traditional tiles because the designs were “all the same” and “did not mirror her style and personality,” she along with her two coworkers, Annie O’Grady and Bianca Watson gentrified the game. Rather than learn the Chinese numbers and symbols, the three white women replaced traditional Chinese glyphs with bubbles, thunderbolts, and bags of flour. By making the game palatable to a white gaze, they made the game harder to understand, and contributed to the erasure of Chinese culture and history.

On their website, they failed to mention and credit the game’s origins to the Qing Dynasty. And instead of giving proper credit to Chinese people, they attempted to justify their actions by differentiating between “American” mahjong and “Chinese” mahjong. In the 1920s, Joseph Babcock popularized mahjong in the states by creating new rules so that Americans could adapt (National Mahjongg League). Although variations of gameplay exist, any variation of mahjong is cultural appropriation because it neglects mahjong’s original rules. By placing the word American in front of mahjong, it creates an illusion that mahjong was created and developed in the United States.

If changing the Chinese glyphs and calling mahjong American wasn’t gentrified enough, people can choose which mahjong set they want to purchase based on a quiz that asks for the ideal vacation day and theme song, another classic example of minimizing the game and colonizing it to make the game more suitable for white people.

There are multiple reasons why the cultural appropriation of mahjong is harmful to the Chinese community. First, appropriation fails to acknowledge and give proper credit to the game’s roots. Failing to credit the game’s Chinese origins erases its history and cultural significance.

Secondly, appropriation “makes things cool for white people, but too ethnic for people of color” (Everyday Feminism). By using the words “refresh,” The Mahjong Line insinuated that mahjong needed rebranding in order for the game to be enjoyable or played. Words like “rebrand” and “refresh” are codes for gentrification and colonization and further erase the game's Chinese heritage.

The appropriation is further exacerbated when members of the dominant culture – white people – profit off of a culture that is not theirs. This causes harm to businesses of those appropriated communities. In choosing to sell exorbitant and appropriated mahjong sets, Kate, Annie, and Bianca have harmed Chinese businesses that have worked centuries to preserve the game’s craftsmanship. Although handcrafted mahjong is still being made today, the craft is dying due to the cheaper pricing of manufactured sets. By selling mahjong in the first place and upcharging these sets to $425, The Mahjong Line is contributing to cultural extinction.

For BIPOC communities, barriers like racism and xenophobia hamper their ability to earn income from their cultural items. For example, BIPOC may face language barriers or lack the institutional power to earn an income (Everyday Feminism). Because of white supremacy, white people exploit culture and turn culturally specific tools into profit.

Back in the 1920s and 30s, mahjong became culturally important in Chinatowns. It allowed Chinese people to form and build a community at a time when they were excluded because Americans saw them as “perpetual foreigners” (Stanford News).

When I saw mahjong - a game that has been a significant part of my identity, culture, and upbringing - gentrified, it rendered feelings of anger and frustration. Every year, my father’s side of the family hosts a family reunion, and there, I get to observe and play with my goomas (aunts in Chinese) and cow cows (uncles in Chinese). It is because of Chinese mahjong artisans that has allowed not only my family, but other Asian communities to play and enjoy mahjong today.

Deniers of appropriation will say that anyone can play or learn mahjong. The problem is not that the game cannot be enjoyed by everybody. The problem is that it cannot be sold, produced, and branded by just anyone, especially by groups of people from cultures where mahjong did not originate from.

Although the company issued an apology on their Instagram account on January 5, their attempt to apologize fell short. Rather than own up to their actions and apologize, their “we launched this company with pure intentions” was only an attempt to justify their actions. They also continued to use “American” in describing mahjong and failed to acknowledge or describe in any detail, steps to “rectify” the situation.

Toward the end of the company’s statement, the owners wrote, “we are always open to constructive criticism and are continuing to conduct conversations with those who can provide further insight to the game’s traditions and roots in both Chinese and American cultures.” Despite this comment, they have disabled their comments and mentions on Instagram, silencing the communities they harmed.

Kate, Annie, and Bianca were not alone in aiding in the appropriation. They had help from a branding company called Oh Brand Design and Plavidal Photography. Plavidol Photography has issued a formal apology on their Instagram and Oh Brand Design released a statement on their website and announced their terminated relationship with The Mahjong Line.

The appropriation perpetrated by The Mahjong Line adds to the long history of cultural appropriation that has been perpetuated in this country. We see this appropriation manifest itself in the form of sexualized “Indian and Asian” halloween costumes, non-Black people wearing braids or other protective hairstyles, white women wearing Indian saris, qipaos, and other traditional dresses to prom, and more (Centennial Beauty, BuzzFeed News, The Washington Post).

Mahjong is more than just a tile-game, it is the long standing symbol of Chinese culture and community. It is abundantly clear that through The Mahjong Line’s actions, they have contributed to further colonization and cultural erasure. As we continue into 2021, we must leave cultural gentrification behind and support Chinese mahjong artisans who have worked to preserve a tradition that has been around for generations.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

Support Chinese mahjong retailers and artists working to preserve mahjong’s craftsmanship.
The Mahjong Line, a Dallas-based company owned by three white women appropriated and gentrified Chinese mahjong.
Using elements, objects, or practices of BIPOC communities in a way that doesn’t respect the original meaning or give credit to the original source is cultural appropriation.
Cultural appropriation is harmful to the community whose culture is being appropriated. It fails to give credit to the creator, reinforces negative stereotypes about a group, and allows white people to profit off a culture that is not theirs.

Related Issues

7/13/2020 | Respect the roots of Black hair.

7/16/2020 | Respect AAVE.

8/6/2020 | Don't do digital blackface.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 12/9/20 Nicole Cardoza 12/9/20

Rethink transracial adoption.

Supreme Court confirmation hearings for Amy Coney Barrett publicized her large family, including two Haitian adoptees. In response, Dr. Ibram X. Kendi wrote that historically, white families used adoption to “civilize” “savage” Black children. “And whether this is Barrett or not,” he tweeted, there is “a belief that too many White people have: if they have or adopt a child of color, then they can’t be racist.” Conservatives were outraged at the “attack” on Barrett’s children, arguing that no one who invited children of color into her home could be racist (Newsweek).

Good morning (or afternoon or evening) and welcome back to the Anti-Racism Daily. Today we're honored to have Andrew here to share his perspective on transracial adoption. This came up in questions when we wrote about Amy Coney Barrett back in October (see related issues section for context) and I'm glad we have a voice to share more with us today. Looking forward to hearing your thoughts.

Thank you for your generous support! Because of you, we can offer this newsletter free of charge and also pay our staff of writers and editors. Join in by making a one-time gift on ourwebsiteorPayPal, orsubscribe for $7/monthon Patreon. You can also Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). To subscribe, go toantiracismdaily.com.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Support the Adoptee Citizenship Act to ensure no internationally adopted person fails to receive US citizenship.
Follow Nodutdol, Raha Feminist Collective, About Face, and Code Pink to learn how to oppose US military intervention and exploitative practices that create orphans for the adoption system.
Help transracial adoptees build multiracial communities by reaching out across racial or cultural lines.
Recognize that white Americans benefit from military and economic practices that create adoptees. Follow @ROAR_Magazine, @inthesetimesmag, and @democracynow to learn more.

GET EDUCATED

By Andrew Lee (he/him)

But this isn’t just about one judge. While this summer’s protests brought racial injustice into the consciousness of many white people, some of them still believe that transracially adopting (that is, adopting across racial lines) a non-white child is the ultimate act of allyship.

This issue is personal for me because I’m a Korean person adopted into a largely white family. I think it’s important to question the idea that international, transracial adoption is a pure act of white allyship. This isn’t because I wish I stayed in an orphanage, or because I’m against multiracial families, or because I think that people who can’t or don’t want to have biological children should be prohibited from raising kids. However, like many other transracially, internationally adopted people, I’ve realized that there’s a lot more at stake in these adoptions than we first think.

About 200,000 Korean children like me have been adopted by families in the United States (NBC News). Scores of adoptees come from countries like Guatemala, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, and Thailand (Considering Adoption). The narrative is that our birth families don’t want us, so their adoptive parents do us a service by taking us in. In this story, birth families and countries are irresponsible, while adoptive families and the United States are charitable humanitarians.

There are a few problems with this. First, international adoption has been loosely regulated. In some countries, parents place their children in an orphanage temporarily when they can’t make ends meet, later returning to reclaim them (CNN, Firstpost). Some have found their child has been adopted to a different country in their absence. In other cases, adoptive parents fail to correctly register their kids for US citizenship (The Intercept). Their children find out years later that they’re actually undocumented immigrants subject to deportation to countries don’t remember (NBC News). The demand for adoptees is so strong that the welfare of actual adoptees can be an afterthought.

The second problem with the humanitarian view of adoption is that countries that send children to the United States are often poor as a result of the American government’s actions.

There’s a reason Americans don’t get adoptees from France or England. While South Korea isn’t a poor country today, adoption from the country started right after the Korean War, when it was one of the poorest (Brookings). During the war, American forces deforested nearly the entire peninsula with napalm (Truthout). Some women survived by having sexual relations with American occupying forces. Their mixed-race children were the first Korean American adoptees (USA Today).

Afterwards, adoption of full-blooded Korean children like me followed, as efforts to economically outcompete the communist North came at the expense of setting up a welfare system for single mothers (The Korea Herald). Adoption from South Korea, wrote adoptee Maija E. Brown, created “a paternal attitude between Korea and the US where white Americans rescued Asian orphans, while concealing the US responsibility in the Korean War” (University of Minnesota). In the words of Ju-Jyun Park, adoption from South Korea is one of the ways in which “the war lives on as a material fact” (The New Inquiry).

The Democratic Republic of the Congo, another source of adoptees, has seen autocracy and war since the United States helped overthrow democratically elected Prime Minister Patrice Lumumba in the 1960s (Guardian). Today, conflict is driven by the reserves of valuable metals like coltan, essential to the production of computers and cellphones (Dissent). Just as in Korea, US policies created the conditions to ensure vulnerable children couldn’t be supported by society, and then swept in as these children’s “savior.”

Even domestic transracial adoptions have problematic aspects. How else could you describe a system that literally offers Black children at a “discount” rate compared to white children (NPR)? (For more on the complications that can arise with the domestic adoption industry, check out this report and this article.)

This is why a color-blind savior attitude towards adoption just doesn’t cut it. If you transracially adopt a child, recognize that systemic racism doesn’t disappear because you “don’t see race.” That child will need a multiracial community to provide the resources and resiliency to survive in a white supremacist society, skills that no white parents will be able to provide, no matter how good their intentions.

In the words of transracial Korean adoptee Jenn Hardin, racial justice means we have to “explore the dark history of Korean adoption, the parts that don’t fit the ‘save the orphans’ narrative that so many refer to because it’s all they know” (Medium). We should question the transfer of resources and children from poor countries to rich ones. We should rethink a system that deprives poor women of color in poor countries of the social support and reproductive care that would stop their countries’ orphanages from filling up with potential adoptees.

It’s time to rethink transracial adoption.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

About 200,000 Korean children have been adopted by families in the United States (NBC News). Adoption from the country started right after the Korean War.
The countries that send children to the United States are often poor as a result of US military and government actions. In the Democratic Republic of the Congo, US policies created the conditions to ensure vulnerable children couldn’t be supported by society, and then swept in as these children’s “savior.”
A color-blind savior attitude towards adoption is not allyship. Systemic racism doesn’t disappear because you “don’t see race.” Transracially adopted children need a multiracial community to provide the resources and resiliency to survive in a white supremacist society, skills that white parents cannot provide, no matter how good their intentions.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 11/4/20 Nicole Cardoza 11/4/20

Understand intergenerational trauma.

The body always remembers. Like other children of Vietnamese war refugees, I understand how hardships and inconceivable loss leave marks. Psychologists in the 1990s found roughly half of Holocaust survivors were still suffering from post-traumatic stress disorder (Dialogues in Clinical Neuroscience). Emerging studies show that, in communities of survivors, trauma may also be passed onto subsequent generations through epigenetic changes, where the mechanism by which our body reads DNA – not DNA itself – is altered (Stanford University). This intergenerational transfer can also be behavioral; parents with severe anxiety may model detrimental patterns of thinking and feeling.

Hello and happy Wednesday. Many of us are waiting expectantly for the U.S. Presidential election results. Yet regardless of who wins, we have to acknowledge the harm that political decisions create. As Georgina emphasizes in today's newsletter, the body keeps the score. Whatever we choose to rally for after this election, healing needs to be at the top of the list.

Because what we do know about this election is that racism is not a dealbreaker for how our country shows up at the polls.

This is the Anti-Racism Daily, where we send one email each day to dismantle white supremacy. You can support our work by giving one time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza). You can also donate monthly or annually on Patreon. If this email was forwarded to you, you could subscribe at antiracismdaily.com.

TAKE ACTION

Advocate for bilingual mental health support: support and donate to grassroots organizations such as Viet-CARE or sign up to volunteer.
Participate in and share the Asian, Pacific Islander, and South Asian American (APISAA) therapist web directory with your peers and connections – you never know who may need it.
Follow @asianmentalhealthcollective and @asiansformentalhealth to broaden your understanding of the individual mental health needs of immigrants and their children.
Encourage compassionate dialogue about mental health.

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By Georgina Quach (she/her)

Intergenerational trauma is manifest amongst Southeast Asian refugees of the Vietnam-American war – a conflict that accounted for three million Vietnamese deaths and more than two million Laotian and Cambodian deaths. A 2015 follow-up study of Cambodian refugees in America found that 97% met the criteria for PTSD (Psychiatric Services). Despite the en masse resettlement of Boat People to the United States after the war, Southeast Asian communities face an ongoing struggle for access to culturally sensitive healthcare.

After the war ended in 1975, the southern capital, Saigon, had fallen to the North Vietnamese communists, who forced thousands of South Vietnamese civilians – including my family – to surrender their homes and possessions. Facing persecution and incarceration in one of the severe “re-education” camps, thousands of Vietnamese fled by makeshift boats to safer states. Many civilians confronted pirate attacks, starvation, drowning and rape, so their children could have a chance at freedom and a future. This generation of Southeast Asian refugees, known as the "Boat People,” constituted the largest mass resettlement of refugees in America. Over 1.1 million arrived between the 1970s and 1990s (SEARAC). Their stories are punctuated by loss, separation, and survival, reminding us that a psychological battle within the Vietnamese diaspora persists long after the physical wounds have healed.

Due to the lack of a unified resettlement infrastructure at the time, Boat People were scattered across isolated areas in the US. Without long-term support, they were expected to achieve economic self-sufficiency and independence quickly (SEARAC). Access to higher education and healthcare for these communities is still blighted by institutional inequities. But these issues have largely been overlooked and masked behind the Asian-American model minority myth, which we covered in a previous newsletter. Past traumas have been compounded by the rise in deportations amongst Vietnamese and Cambodians under Trump’s administration. Between 2017 and 2018, Cambodians saw a 279% climb in deportations (ICE).

Suppressed below the surface, traumatic memories endure not only within survivors, but also within the second generation that they helped save.

Along with ache for the homeland, a paralyzing fear of being judged and rejected by their newfound society can be passed from refugee parents to children. Paul Hoang, founder of the mental health nonprofit Viet-CARE, says children often inherit refugee parents’ anxieties around police (LA Times). In his memoir Sigh, Gone, Phuc Tran grapples with entrenched racial tensions that afflict many Asian-Americans. Despite all his efforts to “fit in” when his family moved to Pennsylvania, Tran was constantly reminded that he wasn’t like everyone else. Sitting inside a McDonald’s to eat – rather than hiding out in the car – could attract racist slurs, or the discomforting attention from Vietnam veterans. "That was my inheritance. The anxiety of being stared at," Tran writes.

While all of us minority settlers have a unique humor and voice, we often feel that we can only speak our mind within family homes. Outside those ethnic walls, the immigrant and the refugee are racially straitjacketed – an ‘othered’ status that even our children struggle to shed.

Therefore it is vital to offer emotional, long-term support that recognizes the complex journey of Southeast Asians, unique from other immigrant groups. Southeast Asian refugees still face many structural barriers to mental healthcare access, including language barriers. In my family, older relatives need my parents to accompany them to hospital appointments.

45% of Southeast Asians have limited English proficiency (SEARAC), and 95% of Cambodian refugees who had seen a psychiatrist had used an interpreter supplied by the provider or clinic (Psychiatric Services). Patients with limited English proficiency experience a lower quality of care, higher rates of medical errors, and worse clinical outcomes than those who are English proficient (American Medical Association Journal of Ethics). This highlights the need for tailored communication methods – fundamental to accessible, effective therapy.

Additionally, while 21% of Vietnamese Americans report depression and anxiety (compared with 10% of whites), mental health remains stigmatized in these communities (UC Irvine Center). In Orange County, home to the largest Vietnamese population outside Vietnam, specialists have observed that Vietnamese Americans take a “morality view” of mental health, where mental illness reflects a person’s character (LA Times). We don’t even have a word for “depression” in the Vietnamese language.

However, in recent years, more Vietnamese and Khmer-focused counseling organizations have gained momentum. Orange County Health Care Agency provides funding for community groups like the Cambodian Family to ensure accessible health knowledge and support. The Nhan Hoa Comprehensive Health Care Clinic, designed for underserved Vietnamese Americans, started a mental health program in 2006 after seeing a need for Vietnamese-targeted programs in the county.

Healing the traumas of our ancestors has implications for the wider community, and our nuanced appreciation of self-care and therapy. I have embraced the responsibility – and honor – of voicing my historically marginalized community. Archiving the “boat people” journey has sparked difficult conversations with my older relatives about intergenerational trauma, which, in turn, helps me preserve and convey Vietnamese stories, in all their complexity.

Georgina Quach is a British-born Vietnamese journalist. Coming from a family of refugees, she gravitates towards the history of movements and exploring ideas of home. Core to her current scholarship granted by The Guardian, her ultimate aim is to foster greater diversity within our newsrooms and media landscape, whilst helping the hardest-to-reach communities get access to independent, fact-checked and inclusive news. She graduated from Oxford University with a BA English Literature degree, and her thesis was on 18th century witchcraft in the West Indies. You can find her on Twitter at @georginaquach and read her writing at georginaquach.com – which also serves as her ever-expanding archive of stories from Vietnamese refugees and camp fieldworkers.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The Vietnam-American War and Khmer Rouge Regime resulted in trauma that lasts across generations. A 2015 study found 97% of Cambodian refugees in America met the criteria for PTSD, though many still struggle to access culturally competent healthcare (Psychiatric Services).
After the Vietnam-American war, thousands of Vietnamese, known as “Boat People,” escaped the country on boats to flee communist persecution.
Funding bilingual and bicultural therapy will help ensure all refugees have access to healthcare services regardless of their English proficiency.

9/16/2020 | Fight for paid sick leave.

9/13/2020 | Understand representation in vaccine trials.

9/6/2020 | Protect the aging population from COVID-19.

9/3/2020 | Support mental health response services.

PLEDGE YOUR SUPPORT

Nicole Cardoza 10/13/20 Nicole Cardoza 10/13/20

Support Chinatown during COVID-19.

Happy Tuesday,

We're continuing our ongoing coverage of COVID-19 by analyzing the impact of anti-Asian racism on small businesses, mainly restaurants, in Chinatown. Jami shares stories and insights from the communities impacted and outlines how we can help.

Speaking of help, thank you all for helping our work grow. Thanks to you and Jami, we're bringing on an influx of new writers to offer fresh perspectives. If you haven't already, consider making a contribution. You can give on our website, PayPal, Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe monthly on Patreon.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Support your local Chinatown. If you’ve never been, do some research to find out the perfect place to order from. Don’t be constrained by what’s available on apps—to find the best food, you’re probably going to have to make a phone call.
Read the stories in Resy’s extensive “Welcome to Chinatown, USA” series. Each is a love letter to a food or restaurant in Chinatowns across the country.
Broaden your understanding of Chinese American history and culture beyond just food.

GET EDUCATED

By Jami Nakamura Lin (she/her)

Like many other Asian Americans, when I first heard about the novel coronavirus ravaging Wuhan, China, I was afraid. Our fear was not just of the potential reach of the disease, but of what being Asian American, particularly Chinese American, would mean in a country prone to xenophobia, racism, and hysteria. I remembered the white college friend who, upon greeting me, would say, “Eww, don’t touch me—you probably have bird flu.” For him, this was a recurring bit; for me, it was a bite.

His “joke” recalled all those old stereotypes associated with the Chinese in America—that we carry disease, that we are dirty—that the coronavirus brought again to the forefront. (I wrote at length about coronavirus, fear, contagion, and Asian America in another essay.)

“The outbreak has had a decidedly dehumanizing effect, reigniting old strains of racism and xenophobia that frame Chinese people as uncivilized, barbaric “others” who bring with them dangerous, contagious diseases and an appetite for dogs, cats, and other animals outside the norms of Occidental diets. These ideas [are] perennially the subtext behind how Chinese people are viewed by the Western gaze.”
-Jenny G. Zhang in Eater

In those early months, fear arrived in the United States long before the virus did. This fear was wielded as a weapon, as evidenced by all stories of Asian Americans being spat on, jumped, shouted at, as we wrote about in a previous newsletter. But beyond those individual stories, you can just look at what happened to Chinatowns across the country.

Before the first cases ever arrived in New York City, fear of the virus made Chinatown business drop 50-70% (NYTimes), a number that replicated in Chinatowns across the United States (Eater) and in other Western nations. And it wasn’t just Chinatown—other restaurants owned and operated by Asian Americans started declining as early as December or January (KQED). The timing was especially poor: this happened around the Lunar New Year when Chinese restaurants pull in most of their business.

“At New Year’s, we had our 121st Golden Dragon Parade celebration, and only like 10 percent of the people showed up. The virus didn’t have anything to do with Chinatown, but it being associated as an Asian thing by the president, people just got that phobia about it.”
-Glenn SooHoo, owner of a small business in Los Angeles’s Chinatown (National Geographic)

“It was a fall-off-the-cliff kind of decline,” the owner of Hang Ah Tea Room in San Francisco told NPR’s Bay Area affiliate KQED. Several restaurants have closed permanently; others are unsure how long they can survive. The loss of some of these restaurants would mean losing pieces of our history and culture. Hang Ah Tea Room is the country’s oldest dim sum house, and one hundred years after its opening, the owner had to lay off over half his staff, most of them new immigrants (KQED).

But Chinatowns have faced very similar xenophobia before. During the 19th century, their residents were blamed for smallpox outbreaks. “The city health officer ordered the fumigation of every house in Chinatown,” writes Melissa Hung (San Francisco Chronicle). “Yet the epidemic raged on. Unable to account for the epidemic’s severity, he doubled down on his belief that “treacherous Chinamen” had caused it.”

The first Chinatown developed in San Francisco during the influx of Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush in the 1800s. “These men were bachelors who needed sleeping quarters, clean clothes, and hot meals after long days of grueling labor; this [led] to a proliferation of housing, laundry services, and restaurants in burgeoning, Chinese-centric neighborhoods,” writes Rachel Ng (National Geographic). But, she adds, they also grew out of necessity, as they were not welcome in many other places. “After the abolition of slavery, Chinese immigrants provided a cheap source of labor, leading to resentment from the white working class.”

After the Gold Rush, Chinese immigrants found all kinds of work, most famously on the railroads. (Learn more about their work on the transcontinental railroad through the Smithsonian’s online exhibit Forgotten Workers). But anti-Chinese sentiment grew among white Americans, and in 1882, President Arthur signed the first Chinese Exclusion Act, barring almost all Chinese from entering the country (Chinese Historical Society of America). It was America’s first race-based immigration law.

Such stereotypes and discrimination have also shaped how many Chinese restaurants run and what kind of food they serve today. White Americans usually don’t view Chinese food as fancy or refined; they’re not used to paying a higher price point (NPR). Therefore, Chinese restaurants often use a high-volume, low-margin business model. Without a high volume of patrons, they are hit extra hard. Additionally, most restaurants in Chinatowns are small businesses, some owned and operated by generations of a single family. Few used apps like GrubHub before the coronavirus, so they were at a disadvantage when the pandemic struck (Fortune).

📰 Read about the model minority myth in our previous newsletter.

If all our Chinatowns make it through, it will be because of the resilience of the community. “Chinatown has a history of surviving adversities, with several indications the neighborhood will weather this one, too,” writes Melissa Hung (San Francisco Chronicle). Even during these difficult times, the community has banded together. Feed and Fuel Chinatown, an initiative from San Francisco’s Chinatown Community Development Center, delivered over 120,000 free meals to people living in public housing or SROs throughout COVID-19 (Chinatown CDC).

In August, Chicago’s Chinatown had “signs of a modest rebound,” said Kevin Pang (Resy). “Outdoor seating has been installed in Chinatown Square, and virtually everyone wears face masks.” When I went, it wasn’t nearly as busy as pre-pandemic, but neither was it a ghost town. There were signs of life. So when you choose to order food, remember to support the restaurants coronavirus hit first and hardest. Support our Chinatowns.

KEY TAKEAWAYS

The coronavirus revived our country’s long history of anti-Chinese racism.
In Chinatowns across the country, restaurant business dropped 50-70%, even before the shutdowns (Eater).
The first Chinatown developed in San Francisco during the influx of Chinese immigrants during the Gold Rush in the 1800s.
In 1882, the president signed the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first race-based immigration law (Chinese Historical Society of America).

8/16/2020 | Think before eating out.

7/27/2020 | Support Asian Americans through COVID-19.

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Nicole Cardoza 9/8/20 Nicole Cardoza 9/8/20

Reject the model minority myth.

Happy Tuesday, everyone! In today's Anti-Racism Daily, Jami unpacks the "model minority myth" and its lasting impact on the racism and discrimination marginalized groups experience.

And remember, this is a work in protest. Especially when everything feels overwhelming and hopeless. Each action we take brings us one step further to the equitable future we all deserve. Keep going ✊🏾.

Thank you all for your contributions. To support our work, you can give one-time on our website, PayPal or Venmo (@nicoleacardoza), or subscribe for $5/mo on our Patreon.

Nicole

TAKE ACTION

Unpack who you consider “Asian American.” If you think things like “there are so many Asian Americans at this college,” what kinds of Asian Americans are you actually talking about?
Take time to learn more about the history of Asian Americans in your community, particularly refugees and the recently immigrated.
Resist media rhetoric that portrays recent protests as destructive and violent, instead of as actions in response to the destructive, violent anti-Black practices in our policing and government.

GET EDUCATED

By Jami Nakamura Lin

After our recent article on affirmative action (Anti-Racism Daily), several readers were curious about the myth of the model minority. As an Asian American, this myth has followed me all my life; I was exposed to its pervasive narrative long before I ever heard the term. As a child, I heard flippant “of course you did well on this test— you’re Asian!” comments from friends at school, and dismissive comments about other people of color from elderly relatives at home, who believed that since we had made it, everyone else should have, too.

But these types of remarks reflect just the surface of the myth. The core of the model minority myth is the idea that Asian Americans were “able to rise to ‘honorary white’ status through assimilation, hard work and intelligence… [the myth is used] to put down and dismiss other communities of color; especially Black folks and Black political resistance,” explains the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance (APALA). The term “model minority” was coined by white journalist William Pettersen in a 1966 article called “Success Story, Japanese-American Style” (New York Times Magazine). He praised Japanese Americans for their triumph over adversity while explicitly comparing them with what he called the “problem minorities,” by which he meant first and foremost Black Americans.

Pettersen’s article did not appear out of a vacuum, but amidst major events that were shaping the face of America. In 1965 Congress passed the Immigration and Nationality Act, which replaced a restrictive national-origins quota with one that prioritized family members and the highly educated (House of Representatives Archive). This act replaced the immigration laws of 1917 and 1924, which had banned virtually all immigration from Asia (Densho). An unintended outcome of the 1965 law was a dramatic increase in immigration from non-European countries—especially Asian ones (History). (I can see how these laws have shaped my own family’s journey: my Japanese and Okinawan great-grandparents moved to America during the decades prior to the laws’ implementation, while my Taiwanese father and his family came in 1971, six years after the passage of the Immigration and Nationality Act).

Secondly, the model minority myth appeared during the 1960s civil rights movement. “Numerous politicians and academics and the mainstream media contrasted Chinese with African Americans,” writes historian Ellen D. Wu (LA Times). “They found it expedient to invoke Chinese “culture” to counter the demands of civil rights and black power activists for substantive change.” These people believed that East Asians’ success meant that it should be possible for Black Americans to achieve success without dismantling the system. There’s no racism, the myth tries to sweetly convince: anyone can succeed in America, as long as you’re compliant and hard-working. It elides the differences in the experiences in communities of color, and particularly the trauma, disenfranchisement, and dehumanization that Black people have faced in this country since 1619 when the first slave ship arrived (The 1619 Project).

Another problematic outcome of the myth is that it also presents Asian America as a homogenous monolith, ignoring the wide diversity within. In 2017, the poverty rate among Japanese Americans (the group Pettersen originally called the “model minority”) was 3.8%, the lowest of all Asian ethnicities, while the rate among Burmese Americans was 28.4% (AAPI Data). But the model minority myth centers East Asians and the wealthiest Asian Americans, while rendering the rest—North, West, South, and Southeast Asians, struggling Asian Americans—invisible. We ignore the communities and the cultures that were colonized and that were most affected by our interference in the Vietnam War and the Secret War (LA Times).

The myth can be hard to denounce, partially because some Asian Americans (particularly wealthy East Asians, who benefit the most) wholeheartedly buy into it. And why not? The myth presents us as being responsible for our own success, as being people who fought against adversity and won. This can ring true to us, for as descendants of recent immigrants (or immigrants ourselves), we often do remember the struggle and discrimination we’ve faced. But we cannot allow ourselves to have tunnel vision at our own experience while ignoring the differences between our own experiences and those of Black Americans. The myth can be seductive, making us feel like we earned everything, deserve everything, which leads to us aligning ourselves with whiteness instead of being in solidarity with other people of color. Today, this is most visible in wealthy East Asians’ lawsuits against affirmative action, steps that align them with whiteness instead of in solidarity with other people of color (as Allen Chang outlines in his thorough article at Vox).

While most people today don’t throw around the terms “model minority” or “problem minority,” the stereotypes behind the myth are still pervasive today, seeping into our culture in insidious ways. When the media decries the recent “violent protests,” besides ignoring the role of the police as instigators (NY Times), they further the narrative that if Black people just protested in the right way, they would achieve their goals. History has proven otherwise. We cannot believe this rhetoric. We cannot use the supposed success of Asian Americans to lay blame at the feet of Black Americans instead of at the towering, crushing heel of systemic racism.

key takeaways

Critical race theory is a school of thought that analyzes how racism persists in social and political systems
The Trump administration aims to remove diversity trainings that use critical race theory, which impacts the federal government and conversations on race as a whole
Trump has fueled racism and divisiveness to maintain and gain power.

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