Hyper-visibility
It has been a strange time of hyper-visibility for violence against Asian Americans. Both before and since the shootings in Atlanta last month, there have been a number of incidents of violence against Asian Americans have been getting a lot of coverage. It is easy to feel more afraid, and hard to know if Asian Americans are actually less safe or if it just feels that way.
For the first few months of the pandemic, I made the decision not to venture further than a block or two away from my house. I wasn't afraid exactly, I just had a strong feeling that I didn't want to be too far from my house in case something happened.
The fear is not new - I've known my entire life that my race as well as my gender put me at greater risk for verbal and physical violence that could occur, out of the blue, at any time. But the hyper-visibility of the current moment only underscores the hyper-invisibility of lifetimes before.
The violence isn't new but people's reactions to it are, and in some ways have been more overwhelming. Being an Asian American woman feels like a full time job in and of itself right now, even to have time to read all the articles about it!
And Co-Creating Inclusion has seen an uptick in leads - I'm not sure if this is a coincidence or a direct result of the newly recharged "woke wave" as a result of Atlanta.
And then there is the Derek Chauvin trial for the murder of George Floyd, in broad daylight, in front of many witnesses that we are hearing from this first week in court, a reminder of the brutal and historically rooted yet ever present culture of white violence in this country.
Black, indigenous and other people of color in this country (and many others across the globe) have always been targeted and have never been safe. The carefully designed and operationalized "model minority myth" provides a certain degree of privilege and protection for Asian Americans and others who are willing to assimilate - that is to blend in and conform to dominant culture - but this is used specifically as tool for anti-Blackness in ways that ultimately hurt us all.
Assimilation is a privilege but it also comes at the cost of denying parts of one's own identity in order to be "safe." Meanwhile, the Asian American community is itself not a monolith. Certain Asian communities in this country experience some of the deepest levels of poverty, and experience oppression and marginalization from other Asian communities. Positive stereotyping is also harmful and dehumanizing. And ultimately, this “conditional privilege” also harms Asian people who will be perpetually othered as foreign and who will always, ultimately, be put in their place by white supremacy as well.
White supremacy harms everyone, although it does not harm everyone equally, but liberation for all of us, including white people, is intertwined with dismantling all systems of oppression and working towards equity, inclusion and justice. As an Asian American myself, I believe that I can best work towards my liberation and that of my kids by working in solidarity with Black folks to dismantle anti-Blackness. Until Black lives matter, mine won’t either.
Banner photo by Marko Bugarski on Unsplash.
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