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I initially struggled with whether Trump’s rhetoric helped fuel the anti-Asian violence by constantly referring to the coronavirus as “China virus” and “kung-flu.” Should the Chinese government have closed down the illegal Wuhan wet markets long ago? Absolutely. Should the Chinese government have immediately restricted outside travel while they were locking up their own COVID hotspots? Yes.
But unfortunately, people in the U.S. have a history of not being able to separate the actions of foreign governments from people whose ancestors are from those countries and currently living in the United States.
Case in point — U.S. citizens of Japanese ancestry who were rounded up and made to live in camps during World War II after the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor. And that was done by one of the most liberal presidents in history.
More recently, Muslim Americans became the target of attacks after 9/11. And this was even with President Bush giving a speech on Sept. 18, 2001 stating that the “face of terror was not the true face of Islam” — and reiterating that message in subsequent speeches and TV appearances.
Most Asian immigrants and their descendants, by virtue of them being here in the U.S., have voted with their feet for this country. They have no control nor stake in the policy decisions of their mother country any more than I have control over the foreign policy of Ireland. Most are glad to be here because of the opportunity and freedom this country provides.
Whether intended or not, Trump’s comments were incendiary against Asians in the U.S. because he never clearly stated nor reiterated the message that Asian people, and specifically Chinese immigrants, living here were good people and not to blame for COVID. And in fact, given the foreign-born Asian culture of wearing masks, they were the ones doing the most to stop COVID transmission in the U.S. from the outset.
Simply calling this out would have been a statesmanlike call of solidarity we expect from good leaders.
Given the U.S. history of racist rhetoric and policies, Trump should have thought about the actions his words might inspire — it was already evident that his rhetoric was emboldening racist white nationalist groups.
And unfortunately, what he said spurned racism that has gone far beyond empowering white racists — it’s inspired equal opportunity racism. A majority of the anti-Asian attacks in the Bay Area have been perpetrated by non-whites, including one at an Oakland gas station by a Middle Eastern man with a thick accent yelling racial insults at (and then pepper spraying) an Asian American with no accent and telling him to “go back to his country.”
It’s so ironic it’s laughable. But it really just shows you how incredibly stupid, ignorant and downright crazy racism is.
What’s worse is that those responding to Asian murders, from Atlanta police spokesman Jay Baker to San Francisco District Attorney Chesa Boudin, are discounting racist intent and writing it off as being driven by mental illness. But therein lies the problem: racism in and of itself is a mental illness, and we need to roll out a cure for it just as urgently as we need to roll out the COVID-19 vaccine.
I pray that we get past this racism and these economically hard times. And I’m glad that I haven’t heard about any recent anti-Asian crime in Pleasanton. We all just need to speak out, speak up and do the right thing. And stop the Asian hate.
Editor’s note: Frank Lynn is an IT marketer, Cub Scout leader and youth basketball coach. He said he was inspired to submit this Guest Opinion as a decade resident of Pleasanton whose wife of 20 years is a Japanese immigrant.
“Racism in and of itself is a mental illness”….. Frank Lynn:
I lived and worked in Asia Fifteen years.
During the early and mid 90’s Nancy Pelosi, Speaker of the house, was trashing China and the Chinese all over the place. I was on the other end of that trashing Pelosi was engaged in. It was not called racism in the 90’s, today it is called racism. I married Chines girl in Beijing 1992. When she received authorization to immigrate to America, I came with her, because single Asian women entering US customs were harassed insulted, and abused.
You’re buying the story without thinking it through. I haven’t yet seen evidence that there’s even an increase in reported crimes against Asians, never mind an actual increase of crimes against Asians. But to the extent there is either increased reporting or increased violence, it isn’t because Trump called the disease that started in China “the Chinese disease”. It’s because Democrats immediately started shouting that Trump would cause a backlash against the Chinese. Look around you. There’s no rabid anti-Chinese sentiment suddenly being expressed anywhere. It’s nothing like WWII or 9/11, and I can’t believe you thought they were comparable. The people making a big deal of this are pointing to isolated incidents that, even if they did reflect a trend — even that minor requirement has not been demonstrated — they don’t show even in the smallest way that the trend is caused by racism.
But the people getting up in arms don’t think they need to show racism because they’re the racists: if a person of race A attacks a person of race B, then the only possible cause is racism because “everyone knows” people of race A are racists. Stop letting them get away with this nonsense. They are the source of today’s racial divide and have no interest in healing it.
Within the year, there have been almost 4,000 reported crimes in the US, with some being physically assaulted, maimed, killed, verbally abused, pushed into train tracks, etc. — many aimed at elders, some were over age 90. A US war veteran of Chinese descent wore his Army veteran’s ballcap proudly at the bus stop and was threatened by another veteran to “take off that hat — do you want me to hurt you?”
Here is one example: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BqDjZsnLE9M
@don,
Then you are not looking. There is an obvious increase in public statistics in crimes against asians. I won’t even bother posting links because they are abundantly available.
BobB. Please post the links. I don’t seem to be able to find them.
Precedence setting Chinese:
United States V. Wong Kim Ark, 169 U.S. (1898), was a landmark decision of the U.S. Supreme Court which held that “a child born in the United States, of parents of Chinese descent who, at the time of his birth, are as the decision requires. subjects of the Emperor of China, but have a permanent domicile and residence in the United States, and are there carrying on business, and are not employed in any diplomatic or official capacity under the Emperor of China”, automatically became a U.S. citizen at birth, this decision established an important precedent in its interpretation of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution.
Any child born in the United States is a U.S. citizen from birth, with the sole exception of children born to a parent or parents with diplomatic immunity, since such parent is not a “subject to the US law”
For the full story, Google Wong Kim Ark, born 1873, at age 21 denied entry into the U.S.
Who’s doing most of the attacks on asians (per capita) in California? It must be those pesky Caucasian females.
BobB. Again, please post the links. They are not abundantly available as you said. Help us understand.
For those interested, here’s a few links that go into detail regarding the increase in Anti-Asian violence/discrimination since the pandemic began:
Pew Research group came out with a survey which found 31% of those Asians surveyed reported anti-Asian slurs/attacks through 7/1/2020:
https://www.pewresearch.org/social-trends/2020/07/01/many-black-and-asian-americans-say-they-have-experienced-discrimination-amid-the-covid-19-outbreak/
Psychology today also posted their results:
https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/blog/intersectional-health/202103/addressing-the-surge-anti-asian-american-violence
From the group STOP AAPI Hate – they conducted their own survey and found a 150% increase in anti-Asian incidents in 2020 vs. previous years. Also notable is the fact that overall, hate crimes against other groups actually decreased over the same time period:
https://secureservercdn.net/104.238.69.231/a1w.90d.myftpupload.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/210312-Stop-AAPI-Hate-National-Report-.pdf
TheHill.com wrote an article describing an increase in escorts for elderly Asians in urban areas as a result of anti-Asian violence:
https://thehill.com/changing-america/respect/equality/539083-attacks-on-elderly-asian-americans-cause-advocates-to-stand
There are many more, but if one wants to search for their own links, just type in “anti asian hate ” and follow the links. It’s pretty simple.
More links:
From CSUSB, (Cal State University, San Bernardino), which has a research institute devoted to the study of hate crimes, released their own report on 3/21/21 and found dramatic increases in anti-Asian crimes from 2019 to 2020:
https://www.csusb.edu/sites/default/files/FACT%20SHEET-%20Anti-Asian%20Hate%202020%20rev%203.21.21.pdf
One other note – many of these reports state that these surveys only deal with reported incidents. It’s very well known that the Asian-American community has a tendency to NOT report incidents of hate, so in all likelihood, these surveys are an UNDERCOUNT of the actual number of incidents.
John, it would appear you aren’t looking very hard for links. We’ll add to those shared already. https://www.npr.org/2021/03/11/975592502/asian-americans-experience-far-more-hate-incidents-than-numbers-indicate
And from the National Library of Medicine there’s this: https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7286555/
And of course there’s Berkeley, right in our own backyard. https://greatergood.berkeley.edu/article/item/why_are_asian_americans_being_attacked_and_what_can_you_do_about_it
And then there’s this coming again from Berkeley: https://news.berkeley.edu/2021/03/17/berkeley-expert-in-times-of-crisis-anti-asian-violence-is-an-american-tradition/
So you see, John, it’s there if you are sincere about finding it. Or you can adopt the head-burying-in-the-sand approach, assume because it has’t touched you or your friends and family directly, it isn’t real. Only it is. Abundantly.
@Don supplied the most articulate and cogent response in this thread. I am tired of the default cry of racism whenever two people of different descent have any type of disagreement or dispute. Racism is not a white problem, an Asian problem, a black problem, or any one type of [insert race here] problem. The sooner we all stop crying wolf when someone hurts our feelings and start treating everyone with respect the sooner we can move off of the conflated racism narrative and get back to loving thy neighbor. I miss the days when rugged individualism was accepted, when debate was considered healthy and necessary, and when living in harmony could be achieved by talking openly about differences.
In sum, I offer this recommendation from Stephen Covey’s Habit number five: Seek first to understand then to be understood. Perhaps if we all took a moment to listen more, talk less, and reflect (instead of bicker) we would find ourselves celebrating differences and uniting around the things that matter and the things that lift us.
Vivat Jesus!
When groups of people are targeted and viciously killed/attacked specifically because of their race, religion, gender, or sexual orientation, I consider it a hate crime. It’s obvious to me that most of these random violent acts against Asian elders who are being attacked/killed, is a result of racism and hate. These cowardly attackers spew racist remarks, attack and run; they are not taking purses or wallets.
Yes, using the default word of racism whenever two people of different descent having disputes is wearing to hear, but not in the cases noted above. Racism is the correct definition.