Lara Coiro / Contributing Writer
The recent shooting in Atlanta, Georgia which killed eight people– six of them Asian women– has brought national attention to the rise of extremist violence against Asians in the United States.
Hannah Kosoff, historian for FIU’s Asian American Union said that recent events have just “exposed the true colors” of the country. Kosoff is a freshman studying broadcast journalism.
FIU President Mark Rosenberg sent out an email on March 19 condemning the racist attack.
“As we try to make sense of the senseless, we are committing to amplify our message of diversity, equity, inclusion, and belonging for all whom we encounter. We are working on ways to bring attention to these crimes and discuss what we can do as a university community.” read the email.
Rosenberg urged the FIU community to attend a virtual teach-in sponsored by the Center for Humanities in an Urban Environment, the Division of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion, and the Asian Studies Program. The event, “I’m Not A Virus”, was held on March 30.
“A good way to show support is by making it known that they’re here for us. […] By accurately spreading awareness, it will show everyone what’s going on and help a lot of people like me, or other Asians, feel supported.” Kosoff said, explaining what FIU can do for its Asian students at this time.
Katherine Wong, a sophomore majoring in communications says an email from Rosenberg is simply not enough in addressing the attacks against the Asian-American community.
“I face prejudice every single day at FIU just because of my last name alone,” said Wong. “A lot of microaggressions and it’s very unfair that I am treated this way because of my last name and the color of my skin.”
Recently, the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University surveyed police departments in sixteen major cities and found that hate crimes against Asian-Americans had more than doubled between 2019 and 2020.
Many would attribute this recent uptick as a result of the racialized rhetoric used to discuss the COVID-19 pandemic. Researchers from the University of California, San Francisco, found that anti-Asian hashtags actually spiked after President Donald Trump first tweeted about the “Chinese virus”.
But many Asians living in the U.S. would tell you that this type of racism came long before COVID-19.
There was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, which fully outlawed the immigration of Chinese laborers to the U.S.
There were also the Japanese internment camps during World War II, when the U.S. government forcefully took Japanese-Americans from their homes and jobs in response to the Pearl Harbor attack.
In addition, there has been the over-sexualization of Asian women in American media.
The racist rhetoric surrounding COVID-19 is only another element to anti-Asian attitudes.
“It flamed some of the long-lingering issues of racism targeting Asians and Asian-Americans that have been there for a long time and never been fully addressed and tackled. So, a lot of these are old stereotypes that get revived,” Dr. Mitzi Uehara Carter told PantherNOW.
Carter is a professor of anthropology in the department of Global Sociocultural Studies, as well as the Asian studies program.
“The political rhetoric that zooms in on Asians and blames them for bringing a virus to the country, that’s a scapegoat technique where people are taking their fears– their own legitimate fears– and placing them on vulnerable people,” Carter said.
Kosoff said that the prevalence of anti-Asian sentiment has historically been downplayed.
“In the past, people really thought of Asians as the model minority, as if they hadn’t been through oppression or going through problems,” said Kosoff.
But recent events, such as the Atlanta shooting, have heightened a sense of fear in Asian communities. A string of vandalisms to Asian restaurants have occurred across the country, with shop-owners claiming they are fearful for their lives and safety.
“We are not as privileged as people like to think,” Kosoff said.
Carter also brought up the “model minority myth” or the success of particular groups, often applied to Asian-Americans.
Throughout the 1960s this myth was utilized to avoid addressing systemic racism facing Asian Americans, as well as drive a wedge between Asians and Blacks.
The model minority myth makes it so many can’t recognize the class, gender, and ethnic divides among the Asian population in the U.S. Instead, Asians are overly homogenized. With these misconceptions operating in American culture, Carter emphasized that Asians are granted little protection in society.
The shooter, Robert Aaron Long, claimed that the shooting was not racially motivated, but rather a response to his “sexual addiction”. Long specifically targeted Asian massage parlors.
The hypersexualization of Asian women in the United States can be traced back to the Page Act of 1875.
“[The Page Act] targeted East Asian women, specifically Chinese women, and it was based on this idea that these women were prostitutes. They assumed that these women would be a danger to white men because of their hypersexuality. That comes from an orientalist ideology that has been in place even since the years of Marco Polo– this idea of Asian women being hypersexual [or] exotic,” Carter said.
These stereotypes are still prevalent today, Carter added.
“We have to really go through these stereotypes and look at the legacies that are staying in power today,” said Carter. “That doesn’t just disappear, it’s sedimented in many ways in our culture today.”
Kosoff stated that FIU’S Asian Student Union was working to inform the student body on specific issues facing the Asian community.
“A good thing that you can do is showing appreciation for the culture and trying to get involved with activities […] that support this sort of thing,” Kosoff said in response to what non-Asian students could do to show solidarity. “[Asian Student Union] is a club for literally everyone. It actually encourages people from all sorts of different backgrounds to join in.”
Carter also encouraged students to join a reading club and utilize available online resources to educate themselves on Asian history in the United States, specifically recommending the five part PBS documentary entitled Asian-Americans.
“When you hear someone saying something, express outrage,” Carter said. “Especially if it’s done by someone of your same ethnic group, stand up and say something. White supremacists who have left white supremacist organizations have said that this is very powerful. If a white person is spewing something out against a non-white person, if another white person comes in and says something– that takes the power out of [the situation].”
A student-led vigil will be held on April 6th at 1 PM in the Graham Center ballrooms to remember those lost in the Atlanta shooting, as well as all Asian American and Pacific Islander lives who have been lost to hate-crimes.
PantherNOW would like to remember the eight lives lost on March 14th: Delaina Ashley Yaun (33), Paul Andre Michels (54), Xiaojie Tan (49), Daoyou Feng (44), Soon Chung Park (74), Hyun Jung Grant (51), Suncha Kim (69), and Yong Ae Yue (63).
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