What Do You Call a Calendar Full of ‘Bad Days’?
/
Atlanta spa shootings (Source: CNN)
In spite of this, Asian Americans woke up Wednesday morning, March 17, and went about the motions of daily life.
Many of us got ready for long shifts at restaurants and stores where we’re both blamed for the virus yet are still tasked with reminding customers how to wear a mask properly, if at all. We logged into Zoom meetings and made small talk while getting the kids ready for school. We texted our parents just to check-in, all the while trying to ignore the looming specter of white male rage that never really seems to be satisfied despite how much the most vulnerable among us suffer.
One Hate Crime Among Many
We cannot ignore the rise in hate crimes any longer. And we cannot ignore that most of the hate and vitriol has been directed at women, our elders, undocumented families and individuals, and those who undertake survival sex work just to have a shot at an “American Dream.”
The National Asian Pacific Women’s Forum found that in the past two years, “more than 68 percent of reported incidents of anti-Asian harassment and violence” had women as victims.” Additionally, one in six AAPI voters said that they or a family member have directly faced racism related to COVID-19, with women reporting two to three times more incidents than men.
On Wednesday morning, March 17, in San Francisco, 76-year-old Xiao Zhen Xie was attacked in broad daylight by a white man in his early 30s. Yet, in the broader narrative nationwide, she’s one of the lucky ones. She’s alive. She fought back and beat her assailant with a stick, but at what cost?
In a video that’s since gone viral, Xiao Zhen Xie wields a stick and holds an ice pack to her face where this man has struck her. She’s shouting in Cantonese that “he, in one swift hard fist hit me” as she gestures to her swollen face. Even without understanding Cantonese, the trauma in her voice is palpable as a first responder attempts to placate her.
San Francisco assault victim Xiao Zhen Xie (Source: KPIX)
For many AAPI nationwide, we’re not just contending with the long-simmering hate or the recycled dog whistles like “kung flu” and “China Virus,” we’re also facing the clear and persistent gaslighting by law enforcement that “these are not hate crimes.”
As Xiao Zhen Xie understandably shouts, cries, and processes her own trauma, it’s hard to understand why the white man in his 30s is the one being tended to and put on a stretcher as the 76-year-old Chinese grandmother he just attacked is merely given an ice pack.
At a news conference in Georgia, Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Department said of the mass murderer who targeted businesses predominately run and operated by Asian women: “Yesterday was a really bad day for him and this is what he did.” No condolences. No acknowledgment of the collective trauma we endure. It’s just a young white man’s “bad day.”
How a Melting Pot Can Burn
In the past year, many of us have woken up to the fact that the Asian achievement narrative derived from statistics is largely meaningless if it can all be undermined when we’re scapegoated for a pandemic.
As with any marginalized community in the U.S., we applaud more nuanced representation of our culture. Yet, we must contend with the fear that many AAPIs, particularly women, have of simply walking on a sidewalk alone. In the same month that we celebrate the critical acclaim of films like Minari, real-life immigrants and AAPI Americans experience hate and violence on a daily basis.
But now is not the time to turn inward. Yes, we must protect our elders. But we must also protect our undocumented families, our sex workers, and our working poor. We must also protect the right to vote at a time when blatantly white supremacist lawmakers are intent on restricting the rights of minorities in voting booth.
In our grief and trauma, we must remember to distinguish crimes of poverty and gentrification-based displacement from those committed out of hatred with the expectation of impunity.
It’s counterintuitive to turn against the homeless, Blacks and other non-white Americans out of vengeance. The effect of many robberies and assaults may be the same, but we must take note of how quickly the police and media establishment often rush to coddle a white terrorist before they acknowledge a hate crime has been committed.
“We cannot ignore the rise in hate crimes any longer.”
The Path Forward
We may have an administration that acknowledges the mounting hatred against Asians, but that doesn’t change the lasting legacies of racialized misogyny, sundown towns, state-sanctioned violence, internment camps, colonial war crimes, and blatant xenophobia.
In our resilience, we must make room for grief. There will likely be more acts of hate to come. We will have to rely on one another and our allies. We will be guided by younger generations who won't tolerate the atmosphere of hatred their parents had to endure.
The past year has taught us that we must learn from Black and Brown liberation. We must remember that white supremacy is at its most fragile when we show true solidarity across race, class, and gender lines. We must continue marching, voting, and organizing because our lives depend on it.
How to Support AAPI Americans
Donate to The Atlanta's Shooting Victims' Family Fund on GoFundMe
Make a Donation to Asian Americans Advancing Justice (at a national level and for their Atlanta chapter specifically)
Report a hate crime to the FBI.
Support Red Canary Song, a grassroots collective of Asian and migrant sex workers organizing transnationally.
Call your Congress representatives. Call your town and city councilors, mayors, and state legislators to strengthen pending hate crime legislation and to openly denounce the white supremacists in their ranks. Make your voices heard. If they won't listen, remember to vote them out.
Constante Quirino
Constante G. Quirino is a writer and stylist based in Philadelphia. While primarily a fashion journalist, his writing ranges from personal narratives, historical analyses, to comedic monologues and prose poetry. He is co-author and co-editor of President Elpidio Quirino: Statesman & Survivor, released for Elpidio Quirino’s 125th birthday celebration, with print on demand available.
More articles from Constante G. Quirino
