(still under construction)
Racism is horrible rebellion against God’s repeated principles of equality in the Bible (Num. 5:15, Matt. 23:8, Gal. 3:28, etc.) and all forms are destructive sin. I have spoken about the evils of racism repeatedly in the past, and it has struck yet again tragically. It’s particularly evil when that sin results in the deaths of innocent lives. I and many others are horrified and mourn the murder of 8 people killed in Atlanta, GA on March 16, most of them Asians, in a racist crime, as well as others who have been verbally assaulted, injured or killed in past years because of the evil of racism.
Since I lived in Asia for ~25 years, I have seen and know people who have been harmed by racism more than most Americans probably do. I have also been reading and learning from the experiences of many Asians, articles and research they have written to try to increase my awareness and that of my friends of this very serious problem that is causing suffering, abuse, trauma, death and many kinds of harm to innocent people just as it is to other ethic groups.
As I have mentioned before, Harvard says different types of racism keep being invented and there are over 20 types targeting African Americans. So far I have identified at least 13 types of racism against Asians that harm and ruin lives (they are in a section below titled: “TYPES OF RACISM AGAINST ASIANS-PAST AND PRESENT”). Everyone who believes that God created each person with dignity and equality must oppose racism because God is the Father of us all. But the Bible and research both indicate that injustices racism eventually harms everyone, so even if a person doesn’t believe in the God of the Bible, all should vigorously oppose it.
Crimes of racism against Asians or any others are just one more of a host of reasons why I and all who love God insist on the importance of biblical justice and that Christians must understand and follow it as much as we can to reduce
the tragic suffering that keeps on happening.
Racism against African Americans, Asians, Hispanics, Muslims and others (including whites in a few cases), as well as economic injustice against the poor of all races, are all very real, they are sinful and cruel and they kill a lot of innocent people. They are part of what has been called the Oppression Economy, which has been churning for centuries, and it harms everyone in various ways, but some much more than others.
Media recently has focus more attention on racism, injustice and crimes against African Americans. It does happen to every community, but it is completely right and justified to focus on those who are attacked most to reduce it. We should also focus attention on the reality that racism causes suffering, injustice and trauma to people from other backgrounds, such as cruel racism against Asians/Hispanics/Muslims and others, as well as all other crimes that cause pain to any of God’s people and this latest crime is just one of many cases. The racism that affects Asians is just as real as that of others, but it sometimes happens in different ways. A few will be listed in a later post in this thread.
There are many links below about the reality of traumatic racism against Asians, some Adventist/Christian responses, and Biblical principles opposing racism, ~13 kinds of racism against Asians that have been documented by individuals and research, the fundamental roots of racism and then some helpful ways to oppose it.
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ADVENTIST/ACTIVIST RESPONSES
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Adventists 4 Social Justice has said:
“At Adventists for Social Justice, we are saddened and horrified to read about the recent acts of physical violence and harassment against Asian and Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) persons.
These racially motivated hate crimes and other injustices are products of white supremacy and systemic racism and oppression that are deeply ingrained in our society. Since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic, inflammatory and xenophobic rhetoric has significantly increased the risk of violence and harm to Asian and AAPI individuals, families, communities, and businesses.
ASJ unequivocally supports all Asian and AAPI members of our community, we must take a strong anti-racist stance against all identity-based violence and oppression. We must be at the forefront of social justice and change and amplify the need for coalition-building between all marginalized communities to fight the evil of white supremacy.
Let’s join together to condemn violence, harm and hatred.
In prayer and solidarity ✊🏾”
https://www.facebook.com/adventistsforsocialjustice/posts/2965374753718829
https://stopaapihate.org/
Asian Americans Advancing Justice left this statement on Twitter shortly before midnight –
“We are shaken by the violence in our city that has left 8 ppl dead, including members of the Asian American community. We are gathering info about what happened & the needs of directly impacted are. Now is the time to hold the victims & their families in our hearts & with light.”
Stop AAPI Hate said in part, “right now there is a great deal of fear and pain in the Asian American community that must be addressed.”
Claudia Allen, editor of “The Message Magazine” and a leader at Adventists 4 Social Justice has spoken out against this terrible crime against Asians, but also racism against everyone in general as well.
https://www.facebook.com/iamclaudiaallen/posts/948798452529829
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A FEW BIBLE PRINCIPLES AGAINST RACISM
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The Bible has moral principles against injustice of many kinds, including racism.
1) GOD SAYS ALL ARE EQUAL
God is love and the Bible repeatedly tells us He created each of us equal
“Native-born Israelites and foreigners are equal before the Lord.” Numbers 15:15
“all of you are equal as brothers and sisters.” Matthew 23:8
“you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Gal. 3:28
2) RACISM IS A REJECTION OF CREATION PRINCIPLES
The Bible teaches that God created Adam and Eve, the parents of all human beings in the beginning at creation.
“Haven’t you read the Scriptures?” Jesus replied. “They record that from the beginning ‘God made them male and female.’” Matthew 19:4
Dr. Yuval Noah Harari, who has a Ph.D. in History from Oxford University wrote that “American democracy…would not have lasted 250 years if the majority of presidents and congressmen failed to believe in human rights.” And this belief in human rights has been grounded in America’s government documents like the Declaration of Independence in the belief that creation is true. He writes:
“Is there any objective reality, outside the human imagination, in which we are truly equal? Are all humans equal to one another biologically? Let us try to translate the most famous line of the American Declaration of Independence into biological terms:
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.’
…According to the science of biology, people were not ‘created’. They have evolved. And they certainly did not evolve to be ‘equal’. The idea of equality is inextricably intertwined with the idea of creation. The Americans got the idea of equality from Christianity, which argues that every person has a divinely created soul, and that all souls are equal before God….So here is that line from the American Declaration of Independence translated into biological terms:
‘We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men evolved differently, that they are born with certain mutable characteristics, and that among these are life and the pursuit of pleasure.’https://uncommondescent.com/intelligent-design/evolutionary-biology-rewrites-the-american-declaration-of-independence/
3) RACISM IS WICKED REBELLION
Racism is very serious rebellion against God’s standard of equality which insists that every person has fully equal rights to life, liberty, a decent life and justice. Whenever we see racism, in the media, in news, in movies, in jokes, or if it’s friends and family engaging in it, we should confront it, oppose/resist it and do all we can to stop it.
4) RACISM IS A REJECTION OF SABBATH
Sabbath is explicitly a memorial which points to creation (Exodus 20:8-11). So racism is also a rejection of the Sabbath and it’s call to remember our Creator who made us equal.
5) INJUSTICE AFFECTS EVERYONE
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said, injustice that happens ANYWHERE is a threat to justice EVERYWHERE. The Bible teaches similar principles, that if we do not protest when evil is done to others, in time it will happen to us too. The whole cycle of godliness, sin, rebellion and then slavery/captivity in Israel teaches this. In Hosea 8:2-4, 11, 12 God says enemies will harass people when they don’t follow God’s laws, and that includes God’s laws about racism.
Dr. McGhee gave a TED talk about how racism hurts minorities first, but it eventually ends up hurting everyone and lists several examples.
When we don’t confront evil that we are aware of when it happens to others, eventually it will happen to people from our own community, and sometimes to people we love and care about or ourselves. God is always willing to restore us to godliness when we confess, and this brings freedom. But injustice of any type eventually hurts everyone.
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ASIANS ACTIVE IN FIGHTING INJUSTICE
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Asians have been very active in fighting injustice in history, and are great partners of people who fight injustice. As this site says:
We Fight Racism
We live in a world committed to making Asian Americans seem foreign and exceptional….But we are victims of American racism. Most importantly, we are freedom fighters. Asians have historically been at the forefront of decolonial, educational, and cultural movements. We owe Asian American Studies programs, an ongoing literary legacy and voting rights to Asian Americans working toward social justice. Asian Americans can claim the Third World Liberation Front, the Kearny Street Workshop, Caaav, 18 Million Rising, EBAYC and Viet Unity as the fruit of our labors for a racially just world. And our movements are dope. Asian American political campaigns at the height of the civil rights movement were always coalitionary, or working in solidarity with other communities of color. Moreover, they had significant female leadership. They were guided by powerful women like Pat Sumi, Evelyn Yoshimura, Carmen Chow, Wilma Chan and of course Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs Resistance is in our history. It is in our blood.
Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’ – Here Are 5 Ways Racism Hurts Us https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
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TYPES OF RACISM AGAINST ASIANS-PAST AND PRESENT
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These are at least 20 types of racism that injure, harm and kill African Americans. There are also at least 13 types of racism that cause suffering, trauma and death to Asians as well. And it’s gotten much worse in 2020-21 Racism against Asians has risen over 1900% in the last year.
“Over the course of the pandemic, racist and violent attacks on the Asian community have increased by 1,900 percent, according to the Queens Chronicle. (You can read about more in a full report released by the Asian American Bar Association of New York.)”
61 Ways to Donate in Support of Asian Communities
https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-to-help-asian-communities-2021.html
There are ~100 anti-asian racist actions a day now.
Many kinds of racism in this list are structural. But this also impacts the actions of individuals and how people treat Asians and this is what most often makes it into the news. This ranges from verbal insults on up to race based violence and killings. There is racism and injustice by the government and institutions towards nearly everyone in the middle class and poorer classes of society (and it also harms the rich). But these are some ways that America, esp. its government and institutions, was and continues to be racist against Asian Americans.
RACISM #1) INTERPERSONAL RACISM AGAINST ASIANS (verbal racism, physical violence, and sexual violence)
You may not know how serious the issue of interpersonal racism against Asians in America is. But there have been:
“3,800 incidents of hate, discrimination or attacks on Asian Americans from March 2020 through February 2021.” https://www.usatoday.com/story/life/2021/03/17/violence-against-asians-on-the-rise-how-be-ally-to-community-amid-racism/4730202001/
Vice-President Kamala Harris has spoken out specifically about racism against Asians and condemned “xenophobic attacks.”
“Hate crimes and violence against Asian Americans and Asian immigrants have skyrocketed during the pandemic. That’s why our Administration has taken actions to address these xenophobic attacks. We must continue to commit ourselves to combating racism and discrimination.”
A) VERBAL: Many racists have called Asians chinks, yellow and other derogatory terms and words hurt and demean.
“Lisa Lee was at a grocery store in Philadelphia near the end of March when, she said, an older white man saw her and started shouting, “Go back to China!” When she told him that she wasn’t from China, the man responded, “Then go back to the Philippines or wherever you came from.” Lee, a Philadelphia-based artist, said she now leaves the house only if she has a white male friend to accompany her. “After the pandemic, I felt like can I really survive here? Can I really work here?” said Lee, who is originally from South Korea.
Many Black and Asian Americans Say They Have Experienced Discrimination Amid the COVID-19 Outbreak
“As an Asian-American, I’ve been conditioned to a certain kind of unspoken racism. This pandemic has unmasked how vicious it really is. An Asian woman pressed an elevator button with her elbow. A man in the elevator asked, “Oh, coronavirus?” She said, “Don’t have it, but trying to be prepared.” As he was leaving the elevator, he said, “Don’t bring that Chink virus here.”
An Asian woman walked into a park and a group of mothers screamed for their kids to get away from her.
A man spat on an Asian man waiting for the subway.
A man spat on an Asian woman walking to her gym.”
The Slur I Never Expected to Hear in 2020. https://www.nytimes.com/2020/04/12/magazine/asian-american-discrimination-coronavirus.html
“In July, Tara Bokum and her friends were picnicking outside when a man approached them and yelled, “Go back to your own country.”
She says racism is learned. As a kindergarten teacher, she observes first-hand that children will repeat what adults say. “They absorb it and they give it off, whether you want them to or not…”
Full Frame: Racism Against Asians in the U.S.https://america.cgtn.com/2020/11/01/full-frame-racism-against-asians-in-the-u-s
“In the context of individual forms of discrimination, about a third of Asian Americans say they have personally experienced racial or ethnic slurs (32%) and people making negative assumptions or insensitive or offensive comments about their race or ethnicity (35%).”
DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA: EXPERIENCES AND VIEWS OF ASIAN AMERICANS
https://legacy.npr.org/assets/news/2017/12/discriminationpoll-asian-americans.pdf
See also:
WORDS MATTER–Asian American Leaders Urge Action Against Hate Crimes
B) DISRESPECTFUL THINKING:
I lived in Korea/China for 25 years. While there I saw many missionaries come over to share the gospel. That’s admirable and very important. But some of them when they came over tried to impose American culture on Korea and thought that pretty much everything America was better than Korean ideas. They didn’t have the understanding or training to separating sharing the gospel from imposing their culture on Koreans. When you think that the views of your culture are always superior, that’s another kind of racism, and it is often directed at Asians, but also other cultures too. God and Ellen White say that God has given valuable insights to people of all ethnicities and we can learn valuable insights from them all.
C) VIOLENCE:
Racist acts of violence have risen a great deal in the last year.
“Since the start of 2021, the Asian American community has suffered a series of violent, racist attacks. An 84-year-old man named Vicha Ratanapakdee was murdered in San Francisco. A 91-year-old man was viciously shoved to the ground in Oakland’s Chinatown. A 64-year-old grandmother was assaulted and robbed in San Jose, California. 61-year-old Noel Quintana was slashed in the face with a box cutter on the subway in New York City. And just last night, six Asian women were killed in shootings at several massage parlors in Atlanta.
61 Ways to Donate in Support of Asian Communities
https://nymag.com/strategist/article/where-to-donate-to-help-asian-communities-2021.html
https://www.npr.org/2021/02/10/966498602/unpacking-the-surge-in-violence-against-asian-americans
In one incident in March, a group of African American teenagers on a commuter rail in San Francisco used their backpacks to attack a mask-wearing Asian American, saying he had COVID-19, the disease caused by the coronavirus….
One of the most horrific anti-Asian hate crimes came in March when a teenager stabbed an Asian American man and his two young children at a supermarket in Midland, Texas. The suspect reportedly carried out the attack “because he thought the family was Chinese and infecting people with the coronavirus.” “In the cities where anti-Asian hate crimes increased, they increased significantly to the extent that there were almost as much anti-Asian hate crime as we had for all of last year or significantly more,” Levin said.
https://www.voanews.com/usa/race-america/us-watchdog-tracks-over-2100-anti-asian-incidents
D) SEXUAL VIOLENCE
Media has portrayed Asians, esp. Asian women as sexual fetish objects, stereotyping them as being hypersexual as well as docile and subservient, and also inferior. These portrayals feed a lot of sexual slavery and sexual violence towards Asian women.
“stereotypes about Asian American women emerged in the 1800s, and have since been reinforced again and again during the Korean and Vietnam Wars, in American soldiers’ treatment of Asian women, and in depictions in popular culture, like that of the geisha in Madame Butterfly. Over time, Asian American women were painted as subservient, docile, and the focus of objectification and colonization, rather than people deserving of genuine understanding and engagement.
Patricia Park writes,
“The perception of sexualized Asian women was informed by a long tradition of the Western male writing and controlling that perception, leaving the women with no agency and no control over their own representation. Asian women in the media have been few and far between; what few there were often had no choice but to take on the archetypal roles of Asian females.”
The central problem with this stereotype is that it dehumanizes Asian American women and reduces them solely to sexual objects. That dehumanization, in turn, perpetuates violence toward these groups, and condones it.
“Dehumanization creates a climate that makes violence excusable,” says Morgan Dewey, the development coordinator for the National Network to End Domestic Violence. “Forty-one to 61 percent of Asian women report experiencing physical and/or sexual violence by an intimate partner during their lifetime. This is significantly higher than any other ethnic group.”https://www.vox.com/22336317/atlanta-georgia-shootings-racism-misogyny-targeting-asian-women
RACISM #2) THE LONG HISTORY OF RACIST AMERICAN IMMIGRATION LAWS AGAINST ASIANS
The West and America have a long history of engaging in racism towards Asians, starting with the 1882 Chinese Exclusion Act. By 1924, with the exception of Filipino “nationals,” all Asian immigrants, including Chinese, Japanese, Koreans, and Indians were fully excluded by law, denied citizenship and naturalization, and prevented from marrying Caucasians or owning land. Racist laws and crimes have happened throughout American history as these sites show.
The long history of racism against Asian Americans in the U.S.
https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/the-long-history-of-racism-against-asian-americans-in-the-u-s
The very first law limiting immigration based on race was aimed at — you guessed it — Asians, Chinese folks more specifically. The policy was called The Chinese Exclusion Act and it was a signed into United States federal law in 1882. It was exactly what it sounds like, a law that barred Chinese people from entering the United States. Why? Because Americans blamed high levels of unemployment and declining wages on Chinese workers
The Chinese Exclusion Act was followed by countless other American policies restricting Asian immigration. The Page Act barred “undesirables” generally, and Chinese women specifically, because they were assumed to be “prostitutes”. Then there’s my all time favorite, the Asiatic Barred Zone Act that limited immigration from a broad part of the Asian continent because we were (get ready for this) “homosexuals,” “idiots,” “feeble-minded,” “criminals,” “epileptics,” “insane,” alcoholics,” “mentally or physically defective,” “polygamists,” and “anarchists.”
Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’ – Here Are 5 Ways Racism Hurts Us https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
RACISM #3) RACISM IN THE JOB MARKET AGAINST ASIANS
Approximately 30 percent of Asian-Americans and Pacific Islanders reported that they had endured discrimination in the workplace, the highest reporting percentage of any racial group. Blacks were second at 26 percent. https://theundefeated.com/features/why-we-must-talk-about-the-asian-american-story-too/
In the context of institutional forms of discrimination, a quarter or more of Asian Americans say they have been personally discriminated against because they are Asian when applying for jobs (27%), and when being paid equally or considered for promotions (25%).
DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA: EXPERIENCES AND VIEWS OF ASIAN AMERICANS
https://legacy.npr.org/assets/news/2017/12/discriminationpoll-asian-americans.pdf
A study published in the Administrative Science Quarterly Journal found that when Asian people “whitened” their names on resumes, they got called back for jobs 21% of the time compared to only 11.5% of the time if their names remained unchanged.
Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’ – Here Are 5 Ways Racism Hurts Us https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
RACISM #4) HOUSING RACISM
The federal department of Housing and Urban Development (HUD) did a study in 2012. They found if an Asian and a white person walk into a real estate agent’s office with the same economic profile, the Asian person will only be shown only half the number of homes for sale.
Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’ – Here Are 5 Ways Racism Hurts Us https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
In the context of institutional forms of discrimination, a quarter or more of Asian Americans say they have been personally discriminated against because they are Asian…when trying to rent or buy housing (25%).
DISCRIMINATION IN AMERICA: EXPERIENCES AND VIEWS OF ASIAN AMERICANS
https://legacy.npr.org/assets/news/2017/12/discriminationpoll-asian-americans.pdf
RACISM #5) ANTI-ASIAN RACISM BLAMES ASIANS FOR DISEASE
Several Asian American doctors have made a video to stop the racist claims that COVID-19 is a Chinese virus. Many of them are trying to help people beat the virus on the front line. They should be respected and thanked, not harmed by racist thoughts.
https://www.instagram.com/tv/B-zopEKgJ2G/?utm_source=ig_web_button_share_sheet
Historian Erika Lee says race-based discrimination , particularly towards Asians, traces back hundreds of years to when Asians first arrived in America. “One of the persistent myths or charges about immigration has been immigrants don’t assimilate. They bring crime. They bring disease,” Lee said. The novel coronavirus is “being seen as something that has is somehow some sort of genetic or biological to to Chinese people, to Chinese culture. “
Full Frame: Racism Against Asians in the U.S.https://america.cgtn.com/2020/11/01/full-frame-racism-against-asians-in-the-u-s
Chinese immigrants have long been scapegoats for disease, considered a people whose “habits and manner of life are of such character as to breed and engender disease whether they reside,” as one San Francisco health inspection officer wrote in 1873. And it wasn’t just San Francisco; public health departments up and down the West Coast accused Asians of bringing everything from leprosy to malaria to the area.
In the early 1900s, officials quarantined San Francisco’s Chinatown, convinced that its Asian residents had seeded a bubonic plague outbreak.
Jeung, an Asian American history professor at San Francisco State University, foresaw the current wave of racism as soon as he heard about COVID-19. “Whenever an epidemic comes from Asia, Asians are scapegoated and are met with interpersonal violence and racist policies,” he said.
The long Western legacy of violence against Asian Americans
https://www.hcn.org/articles/race-racism-the-long-western-legacy-of-violence-against-asian-americans
Another issue now is the COVID-19 virus. DON’T call it a Chinese virus. It’s not. Viruses just don’t have nationality. To call it a Chinese virus is racist. Similarly, what is called the Spanish flu, actually got started in an American military camp in Kansas most likely, and calling it a Spanish flu was a racist way to distract attention from that. That same distraction tactic is likely happening with the COVID-19 virus.
Former NBA star Jeremy Lin, who recently returned to China to finish the Chinese Basketball Association season, tweeted: “Can you honestly tell me there is ZERO anti-Chinese sentiment in all his characterizations of the virus? Can you honestly tell me Asians aren’t being unfairly physically attacked today in the US? Is it that hard to use coronavirus or COVID-19? We playin the blame game in a crisis.”
Stop AAPI Hate, says there have been 673 reports of coronavirus discrimination towards Asian Americans across the country since March 18 https://theundefeated.com/features/why-it-is-not-the-chinese-virus/ https://nextshark.com/nextshark-incident-report-racial-attack-asians/
America’s long history of scapegoating its Asian citizens
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/article/asian-american-racism-covid
RACISM #6) ANTI-ASIAN RACISM IN EDUCATION
There is racism against Asians in education. It has been especially serious historically, but it also exists now as well.
“Throughout their history, Asian Americans have confronted a long legacy of exclusion and inequity in relation to school policies and practices, particularly during periods of changing demographics, economic recession, or war.
The Congressional Exclusionary Act restricting immigration based on race and the Japanese American Internment during WWII said.
“Our children should not be placed in any position where their youthful impressions may be affected by association with pupils of the Mongolian race. —San Francisco School Board, 1905
School superintendent, Aaron Altmann, advised the city’s principals:
“Any child that may apply for enrollment or at present attends your school who may be designated under the head of ‘Mongolian’ must be excluded, and in furtherance of this please direct them to apply at the Chinese School for enrollment.”
Asian Americans Then and Now
https://asiasociety.org/education/asian-americans-then-and-now
Another kind of racism in education is that when Asian students do well, it’s often attributed to their culture. But when they make big mistakes, it is attributed to them personally. My daughter had some experiences of this. It’s a double standard that puts all the blame on the individual while robbing them of the recognition of their success from their hard personal work. It’s difficult and painful to experience.
RACISM #7) ANTI-ASIAN RACISM ON TV:
With the stunning exception of ABC’s Fresh Off the Boat, Asians are almost never on screen, let alone in starring roles.
…Recently, social media has made it easier to notice that even when Asian roles are written into films, white people are cast to play us. This phenomenon is called yellowface.
In 2016 alone, we saw Scarlett Johansen, Tilda Swinton and Emma Stone cast in roles to play Japanese and Chinese women….
If you’re wondering why this matters, Michael Brody, the chair of the media committee of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry, has said children are affected when they don’t see themselves represented on TV.
In a study published by academic journal Communication Research, researchers found watching TV with limited or negative exposure of your communities causes a decrease in self esteem. Seeing ourselves reflected — and reflected positively — in media matters.
And Asian Americans see ourselves in films and on TV less than any other racial/ethnic group in America.
Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’ – Here Are 5 Ways Racism Hurts Us https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
RACISM #8) GROUPING ALL ASIANS TOGETHER
Each Asian culture has a very unique history, heritage, traditions, language and more. When people group them all together, it’s just as ignorant as grouping all European or Western nations together as if they were the same. But this has been done repeatedly in history.
“In spite of historic, linguistic differences, distinct Asian nationalities have been grouped together and treated similarly in schools and in the larger society. The grouping of Asian Americans together, then, makes sense in light of historic links from the past to the present.
Asian Americans Then and Now
https://asiasociety.org/education/asian-americans-then-and-now
RACISM #9) AMERICA USES BRAIN DRAIN RACISM
“Have you ever wondered why most Asian countries are impoverished with huge gaps between the rich and the poor, yet Asians in America seem to do so well? Wonder no more!
America has a habit of cherry picking only highly skilled technical workers to come to its shores. In former presidential candidate Senator Marco Rubio’s words, an extension of H1B1 visas opens the gates for only “the smartest, hardest-working, most talented people on this planet.”
At the same time, it’s difficult for poor Asians to immigrate and be successful in the United States. The Obama Administration has deported upwards of 250,000 Asian people who are parents and children. These folks often work for little to no pay, contrasting the model minority myth.”
Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’ – Here Are 5 Ways Racism Hurts Us https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
RACISM #10) ASIAN AMERICANS WERE PUT IN INTERMENT CAMPS, NOT GERMANS
When America was at war with Japan and Germany, large numbers of Japanese were put in internment camps, while only a few Germans were sent to those camps. There was a very obvious and painful racist double standard used against Asian Americans in comparison to German Americans.
RACISM #11) THE MODEL MINORITY MYTH IS USED AGAINST US
“The model minority myth is a response to how Asians were historically excluded from citizenship. first as a WWII tactic to secure an allegiance with China against Japan, then as a means of quelling a national juvenile delinquency crisis, Chinese youths were stereotyped as those with “unquestioned obedience” and a “high moral sense.”
Today, this stereotype is used to justify legislature that would create a more even playing field for all marginalized communities including Cambodian, Hmong, Vietnamese and Pacific Islanders who have lower levels of educational attainment than their Chinese counterparts…
According to Takeo Rivera, a doctoral candidate at UC Berkeley, the model minority myth has myriad effects. One being that even though it’s positive, it also
“produces the conditions for dehumanization and violence, and with de-individuation comes the sense that such lives are less capable of feeling, and of grief.”
Which is one reason we always hear about the American lives lost during the Vietnam War, but never about the millions of Southeast Asian civilians who died in the same conflict. The model minority myth enables America to justify our dehumanization, institutional exclusion, and low levels of upward social mobility. “
Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’ – Here Are 5 Ways Racism Hurts Us https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
RACISM #12) USING THE ATOMIC BOMB IN JAPAN WAS RACIST
Many military and political leaders acknowledge that there was no need to use the atomic bomb against Japan. It was used as a warning to other nations not to mess with America and because the Japanese citizens were not valued or seen as having equal rights to life as Americans or westerners. In other words, it was a bombing based on racism.
The REAL REASON AMERICA USED NUCLEAR WEAPONS AGAINST JAPAN
University of Maryland professor of political economy, Gar Alperovitz, exposes a historical fact:
“Though most Americans are unaware of the fact, increasing numbers of historians now recognize the United States did not need to use the atomic bomb to end the war against Japan in 1945. Moreover, this essential judgment was expressed by the vast majority of top American military leaders in all three services in the years after the war ended: Army, Navy and Army Air Force. Not only did most top U.S. military leaders think the bombings were unnecessary and unjustified, many were morally offended by what they regarded as the unnecessary destruction of Japanese cities and what were essentially noncombat populations. Moreover, they spoke about it quite openly and publicly.”
General (and later president) Dwight Eisenhower – then Supreme Commander of all Allied Forces, and the officer who created most of America’s WWII military plans for Europe and Japan – said:
“The Japanese were ready to surrender and it wasn’t necessary to hit them with that awful thing.” Ike on Ike, Newsweek, 11/11/63,
Admiral William Leahy – the highest ranking member of the U.S. military from 1942 until retiring in 1949, who was the first de facto Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, and who was at the center of all major American military decisions in World War II – wrote (pg. 441):
“It is my opinion that the use of this barbarous weapon at Hiroshima and Nagasaki was of no material assistance in our war against Japan. The Japanese were already defeated and ready to surrender because of the effective sea blockade and the successful bombing with conventional weapons. The lethal possibilities of atomic warfare in the future are frightening. My own feeling was that in being the first to use it, we had adopted an ethical standard common to the barbarians of the Dark Ages. I was not taught to make war in that fashion, and wars cannot be won by destroying women and children.”
But their views didn’t matter as much as that of the secretary of war and secretary of state, the most powerful positions in the US government regarding starting/stopping wars. They were military men, and supposed to just follow orders. Many scholars have said that the real reason the atomic bomb was used was:
1) To let the world know that America was the new empire and not to mess with them because they had an atomic bomb.
2) To stop Russian expansion in Asia so America could have greater influence
3) “US decision to drop atomic bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki in 1945 was meant to kick-start the Cold War rather than end the Second World War, according to two nuclear historians who say they have new evidence” New Scientist 2005:
http://www.newscientist.com/article/dn7706-hiroshima-bomb-may-have-carried-hidden-agenda.html
RACISM #13) AMERICAN RACIST WARS FOR EMPIRE/GREED/GEOPOLITICAL CONTROL IN ASIA
Many wars have been waged for empire in Asia by America and the west over centuries. Jason Kim Ph.D states “if there is one thing that unites all Asians, it’s the way America has used us to increase its own political power.” This fact is exemplified by the land wars America has waged across Asia. The American War in Vietnam killed estimates of up to 4 million people in that peninsula alone and an additional 1 million in the region. The Korean War took up to 3 million lives.
Asian Americans Aren’t ‘Basically White’ – Here Are 5 Ways Racism Hurts Us https://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
Dr. Martin Luther King gave a brilliant speech about racism and the Vietnam war. If you have never read Dr. King’s speech on the Vietnam War, this is one of the most essential readings to show how racism, militarism and economic oppression are inextricably linked.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AJhgXKGldUk
https://kinginstitute.stanford.edu/king-papers/documents/beyond-vietnam
Americans memorialize the tens of thousands who died in the Korean and Vietnam wars and others. This has been improved to include respect for a few Asian American soldiers who have American citizenship in recent years. But still, almost nothing is said about the 3 million Koreans who died, the 3-4 million Vietnamese who died and millions of others who died because of these wars for empire, most of them very innocent and completely uninterested in geopolitical land grabs for greed.
Americans have been talking for over a century about controlling nations in Asia for greed.
SDA pioneers like AT Jones wrote strongly against that as immoral and wicked extensively.
“…the people who are now being subjugated by the United States have abundantly proved that they fully comprehend the language of the Declaration of Independence. Is it then self-evident to them that they have not the same natural rights that other people have, and that government, as regards themselves, does not derive is just powers from their consent?…
The doctrine that only self-governing people are created equal and have the same unalienable rights, is not only not a self-evident truth, but it is not true at all. It is clearly contrary to the Word of the Creator…It plainly says the God is no respecter of persons. It makes the same requirements upon all. It says that the Son of God came to the earth and died for all—for the individual of black or brown skin and uncivilized manners, just as truly and as fully as for the individual of white skin and civilized ways. Deny that all men have equal rights by creation, and you destroy the equality upon which all men are placed by the law and the gospel of God. If all men have not equal rights by creation, then their Creator has shown Himself respecter persons, contrary to His Word.”…
The question before the American people is one of justice. The Declaration of Independence was an appeal to justice…The question of the justice of foreign conquests, therefore, is the primary question involved, if it is to be even pretended that former American principles have not been completely abandoned…
Turning therefore to the speech of Senator Beveridge in justification of the Government’s present attitude in this matter, what do we find? Hardly have we begun its perusal before we come to these words:—
“Just beyond the Philippines are China’s illimitable markets.”
What is the nation going to do with China’s “illimitable markets?” We know what England did—she found China only a good market for opium and she was obliged to force the Chinese to buy that. The Chinese people are very poor. Will this nation force another Chinese market?
…The people of the Philippines “are not capable of self-government. How could they be? They are not of a self-governing race. “They are as a people, dull and stupid,” and “incurably indolent.”
We have heard of white people in America who were dull, stupid, and indolent, but we have never heard that for this reason they ought to be deprived of the right to vote.
…In conclusion, we quote from this speech some statements which contribute especially to its significance. Note this:—
“If this be imperialism, its final end will be the empire of the Son of Man.”
And that it is imperialism, and meant to be such, is plainly admitted:—
“Pray God the time may never come when mammon and the love of the ease shall so debase our blood that we will fear to shed it for the flag and its imperial destiny.”
And this imperialism is to end in setting up the “empire of the Son of Man!” That was the way Constantine’s imperialism was to end, and Charlemagne’s. And there are other statements to the same effect.
…The scheme of foreign conquest into which the nation has gone is now before us in full outline, showing its salient and characterizing features. The nation must taken hold the Philippines because they are valuable….In a word, we must have all this because it means riches to us. This is the consideration urged upon the American people; and in what way does it differ from the consideration which moves to any act of robbery, from seizing territory down to robbing a bank or plundering a house?
If you don’t think many if not most of America’s wars have been waged for greed, read many military and political leaders who fully acknowledge this.
The whole Vietnam war was completely unnecessary as even CIA and CFR files acknowledge. They agree that Ho Chi Minh was working with US soldiers in the OSS Deer team against the Japanese. Maj. Archimedes Patti, part of Deer Team, gave Ho Chi Minh a copy of the Declaration of Independence. Later, OSS members accompanied Ho into Hanoi. On September 2, 1945, with Maj. Patti standing next to him, Ho declared Vietnam’s independence from France and quoted several passages from the US Declaration of Independence as an inspiration.
Ho asked several times for support from America to help build a democracy like America had through his friends in the OSS and Patti and others encouraged a constructive relationship with Ho and the new Vietnamese government. But Truman had no opposition to colonization and pleasing the French was a far higher priority for him than a tiny Asian country’s hopes for democracy. So he fully supported the French in their attempt to brutally recolonize Vietnam with military support. He later even helped the recolonization efforts by paying up to 80% of the costs of the French war to retake Vietnam.
Ho Chi Minh understandably felt double crossed and betrayed by those he had helped to fight the Japanese. This was also an intentional effort by America to destroy democracy and independence in Vietnam.
If you don’t believe this, read for yourself here:
CIA and the Wars in Southeast Asia, 1947–75
Remembering Ho Chi Minh’s 1945 Declaration of Vietnam’s Independence
https://www.cfr.org/blog/remembering-ho-chi-minhs-1945-declaration-vietnams-independence
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THE FUNDAMENTAL ROOTS OF RACISM
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To effectively combat any evil, we need to understand it’s fundamental root causes . When people blame the wrong causes or ignore the fundamental causes it is no different from police wrongly blaming an innocent person. It lets the perpetrators go free. Racism and other sins/crimes will keep striking regularly until we recognize the real fundamental roots of crimes of racism and other injustices. The Bible and science both speak clearly about roots of racism and other evils that Christians must understand to oppose effectively.
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MAJOR PRINCIPLES TO COMBAT RACISM
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To stop racism against Asians, African Americans and others, several things are important, but 3 are especially important.
1) GOD’S PRINCIPLES: We need to understand God’s principles against racism which include God’s repeated claims that all are created by God (which is the foundation for equality, while Darwinism justifies racism), that every person is equal, that laws must be the same for everyone. We need to confront words and actions of racism in our own communities, in our schools, in our churches and at institutional/government levels where it has been especially pernicious. Racism is a fundamental attack on people God created with dignity and equality. It is also a primary method Satan uses to destroy unity in the church which is crucial for us to do God’s work in this time.
2) FACTS: We need to understand how serious racism is, how widespread it is, how the media we watch and words we say can damage and influence crimes against real people. When we fail to confront racism around us, it can result in ruined or destroyed lives. It’s important to understand that how racism harms everyone.
3) IDENTIFY ROOT CAUSES: We need to identify the real fundamental roots of racism and the most effective solutions so we know what to focus on to best confront and stop racism. One of the key things we have got to understand is that the most serious roots of all kinds of racism, as well as other evils, are greed and pride (***I have more Bible and science references on that in the last section). When these fundamental causes are ignored and wrong causes or minor causes blamed, it is like police arresting the wrong person and letting the innocent one go free. Crimes will definitely happen much more when we focus on the wrong thing.
PRIMARY CAUSES
a) GREED: Racism is highly profitable for a few immoral people and so it is promoted frequently in media, esp. secular Hollywood media) This lecture explains how the whole concept of skin based racism was invented in the late 1600s for the purposes of greed.
Dr Jacqueline Battalora- Birth of a White Nation
youtube.com/watch?v=TM6ehzu3p4c
This one explains that racism profits those who promote it to the tune of ~$182 billion a year.
Racism is Profitable | Robert Reich
b) PRIDE: Pride is the fundamental principle that influences people to treat others as inferior/lesser and this justifies engaging in violence because they are not equal. Pride began in heaven with Satan and is expressed in many ways in sins on earth. But it’s core principle is the idea that others are not equal to me, an idea rejected all over the Bible (Neh. 5:1-13 is a particularly good example).
SECONDARY CAUSES
c) DARWINISM: Racism existed before Darwinism. But Darwinism exponentially increased it. Dr. Stephen Gould, a Darwinian from Harvard, agreed that Darwinism causes more racism,
“Biological arguments for racism may have been common before 1850, but they increased by orders of magnitude following the acceptance of evolutionary theory.”
d) DIVISION: Ellen White says:
“As we approach the last crisis, it is of vital moment that harmony and unity exist among the Lord’s instrumentalities. The world is filled with storm and war and variance. Yet under one head—the papal power—the people will unite to oppose God in the person of His witnesses. Last Day Events, p. 131
Satan wants to destroy the unity in the church and in society to destroy as many families and lives as he can. And racism is a major way to do that.
e) PROPAGANDA: Powerful forces use propaganda to harm people and distract people from the real causes of the most serious problems in our society such as the above issues.
f) WHITE PRIVILEGE (a symptom of root causes and a secondary cause): I know many of my friends say white privilege is the primary cause of racism. But I would suggest that this is more complicated and that we “test everything that is said.” 1 Thess. 5:21. White privilege is most definitely real, and it could be a secondary cause of racism in some respects, such as that thinking of many in the general population. But I believe Bible principles and research show that white privilege originates from powerful people addicted to greed and pride who institute policies of white privileges.
So it is actually more of a symptom of the root causes mentioned above.
“Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned.” Ezekiel 28:16
If we want to be effective in combating racism, we have to distinguish the real fundamental roots and reasons for the evils from the surface level symptoms or else we will not be very effective in opposing it. It’s like getting rid of cobwebs, but not killing the spider that produces to cobwebs.
More detailed facts on these issues are below.
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GREED, PRIDE & MEDIA PROPAGANDA ARE THE ROOT CAUSES OF RACISM (deeper)
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It is really crucial to focus on the real cause of racism and other crimes. Although there is for SURE skin based privilege in America, and also in some other countries, skin color is not the fundamental cause of evil. The Bible tells us that greed is the root of all evil (1 Tim. 6:10) and pride is a twin root of evil, the original sin that began all sin in heaven (Isaiah 14:12-15) and on earth (Genesis 3:5). This is what the Bible teaches as the cause of sin and what much research confirms.
A) GREED:
This lecture explains how the whole concept of white and black was invented in the late 1600s. Before that, the identify of white and black simply did not exist. They were invented as part of a divide and conquer strategy to ensure that the lower classes of all backgrounds and skin colors did not unite against the greedy thieves at the top. Esp. look at minute 19+ which makes 3 points:
* united labor force was a threat to capitalism that was taking hold in the colonies
* VA lawmakers wrote a letter to English authorities stating that they were going to use a divide and conquer strategy to prevent rebellion (Allen, 1997)
* It is only after Bacon’s Rebellion that we see the emergence of “white” people.
Dr Jacqueline Battalora- Birth of a White Nation
youtube.com/watch?v=TM6ehzu3p4c
A brilliant African American intellectual explains how the identify of race is used as a divide and conquer strategy as well as to separate people from their cultural identity. German, Xlosa, Korean, Mexican, Iroquois, etc. are all associated with a long history and heritage. But when you cause people to lose their heritage and identify as white, black, Asian, Hispanic, Indian, exclusively, these new identities have few morals, traditions, customs, values, etc. and serve to make people easier for the elite to control and manipulate. This is an extremely insightful talk
by an African American scientist who I have learned a lot from.
THE ILLUSION OF RACE IN AMERICA (Must Watch) by DAYZ OF NOAH
Every year powerful organizations make ~$182 billion a year because of promoting racism.
Solana Rice and Jeremie Greer, Co-Founders of Liberation in a Generation and Robert Reich, explain how the profitability of racism sparks a vicious cycle called the Oppression Economy, which has been churning for centuries. The crime of racism enables its perpetrators to rake in over ~$182 billion in profits every year.
Racism is Profitable | Robert Reich
B) PRIDE
The fundamental essence of pride is that we are NOT equal. I’m better than you are in race, gender, economics, nationalism or various others. There is a hierarchy of humans and me, myself and I want to be at the top and your rights to life, safety, happiness, freedom, etc. are inferior to mine if they exist at all.
When Satan rebelled against God in heaven, it was pride that started sin in the first place.
When Pharaoh enslaved the Israelites and killed their babies, that was pride (and greed), because he didn’t consider that they were equal to him, nor their babies equal to his babies.
Every act of injustice and sin towards other people is rooted in the view of the criminal that they are not equals.
C) DARWINISM (more coming): Darwinism influenced racist genocides several times as the peer reviewed work of Dr. Richard Weikart, Dr. John West and others show.
The Biology of the Second Reich and Origins of World War 1
https://www.discovery.org/v/the-biology-of-the-second-reich-social-darwinism-and-the-origins-of-world-war-1/,
HUMAN ZOOS: Human Zoos tells the shocking story of how thousands of indigenous peoples were put on public display in America in the early decades of the twentieth century due to Darwinian thinking.https://humanzoos.org
or https://youtu.be/nY6Zrol5QEk
The War on Humans
The War on Humans is a 31-minute documentary that critiques growing efforts to disparage the value of humans in the name of saving the planet. The documentary investigates the views of anti-human activists who want to grant legal rights to animals, plants, and “Mother Earth,” and who want to reduce the human population by up to 90%. The video features Discovery Institute Senior Fellow Wesley J. Smith, author of a companion e-book with the same title. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RWcEYYj_-rg&t=0s
D) DIVISION: Ellen White says we need unity more and more as we get closer to Jesus’ coming.
“And now in these last days, while God is bringing his children into the unity of the faith, there is more real need of order than ever before; for, as God unites his children, Satan and his evil angels are very busy to prevent this unity and to destroy it. EW p. 97
“It is of the highest importance that the youth understand that Christ’s people are to be united in one; for this unity binds men to God by the golden cords of love, and lays each one under obligation to work for his fellow men.” FE p. 479
Satan knows this and wants to destroy the unity in the church and in society to cripple God’s plans for His church as much as He can. Racism is a major way he does that, but there are others. Racism damages the work of the church, and it also serves to cripple and destroy many lives and families. This is Satan’s work.
E) PROPAGANDA: Powerful forces use propaganda to harm people and distract people from the real causes of the most serious problems in our society such as the above issues.
Advancing Justice-AAJC co-founded its own anti-hate initiative called StandAgainstHatred.org in response to racist rhetoric during political campaigns in 2016.John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC says”
“There’s probably a couple of different root causes [of recent attacks, and] I wouldn’t attribute it to any one thing,” he says. “First and foremost is we had a former president that conditioned communities to be phobic and to be anti-Asian. And he did it through rhetoric around this awful ‘Chinese virus’ or ‘kung-flu,’ ” Yang explains. “And so we had a situation where people saw the Asian-American community as ‘other,’ as a different community, and frankly, as a disease-carrying community. So that is certainly one cause. But the other cause is the economic insecurity that a lot of people face. We have to look at this in the context of Covid-19, what people are feeling economically, and the fear that people feel.”
What You Can Do About Anti-Asian Violence: ‘We Are Part of This Country,’ Activists Say https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/asian-american-racism-violence-1127876/
f) WHITE PRIVILEGE (a symptom of root causes and a secondary cause): I know many of my friends say white privilege is the primary cause of racism. But I would suggest that this is more complicated and that we “test everything that is said.” 1 Thess. 5:21. White privilege is most definitely real, and it could be a secondary cause of racism in some respects, such as that thinking of many in the general population. But I believe Bible principles and research show that white privilege originates from powerful people addicted to greed and pride who institute policies of white privileges. So it is actually more of a symptom of the root causes mentioned above.
The policies of white supremacy in governments and institutions are most definitely real, and most definitely contribute to the evil of racism. But skin color on its own has never caused people to be racists. It doesn’t cause anything. Skin is just a protection for the organs of the body. Similarly where one is born does not require one to limit love and equality to those of one’s own nation. It is society that makes rules and policies that create white privilege, and privilege for other categories of people depending on country. And these policies originate from greed and pride, which are the real root causes.
The Bible tells us that greed is the root of all evil (! Tim. 6:10). And this would of course mean that the root cause of racism is also greed. Other verses also show that greed leads to violence, which would include both the emotional and physical violence of racism.
“Your rich commerce led you to violence, and you sinned.” Ezekiel 28:16
“Enough, you princes of Israel! Stop your violence and oppression and do what is just and right. Quit robbing and cheating my people out of their land. Stop expelling them from their homes, says the Sovereign Lord.” Ezekiel 45:9
The Lord replies, “I have seen violence done to the helpless, and I have heard the groans of the poor. Now I will rise up to rescue them, as they have longed for me to do.” Psalm 12:5
I suggest that white privilege and nationalism are symptoms and results of people in power being consumed by greed and pride and wanting to use propaganda to divide and conquer the general population. Those policies are instituted in society by people who are enemies of God and who want to exploit people.
You could say that AFTER these policies of white privilege are promoted by powerful people indulging in sins of greed and pride (in some other countries there is also Asian privilege or African privilege, Latin privilege, etc.), then those policies create racism in people in society. But this is a secondary cause at best. The real root causes are greed and pride.
If we want to be effective in combating racism, we have to distinguish the real fundamental roots and reasons for the evils from the surface level symptoms or else we will not be very effective in opposing it. It’s like getting rid of cobwebs, but not killing the spider that produces to cobwebs.
These are some of the major sins that are the root causes of all racism, as well as all other sin. As long as we ignore these root causes, we will continue to have tragedies occur regularly. It is only with God’s principles of love and equality, identifying the root causes of evil, greed and pride, and actions by people to follow these principles that we will be able to reduce and beat racism and all other these evils far more effectively than what has happened so far.
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WAYS TO CONFRONT RACISM (esp. about COVID-19)
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What You Can Do About Anti-Asian Violence: ‘We Are Part of This Country,’ Activists Say https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-news/asian-american-racism-violence-1127876/
What Can You Do to Support the Asian Community?
John Yang, president and executive director of Asian Americans Advancing Justice-AAJC, lists some ways that we can support our Asian friends.
1. Provide Community Resources
Yang emphasizes that there are several ways to create safer public spaces, not just in Asian neighborhoods, but for the community at large.
“Safety looks like… making sure that we provide a protective network for [our elders], making sure that there are community resources if there are attacks, and making sure that there is a response group that helps to provide the resources that they need,” he says.
2. Inter-Community and Inter-Racial Dialogue
It’s important, Yang stresses, to be “Having these conversations not only within the Asian community [and] making sure Chinese Americans are talking to Indian Americans, are talking to Vietnamese Americans. But then expand that out — talking to the Black community, the Latino community, too,” he says. “Because the bottom line is, we’re all in this together. And if we all feel that connective thread, that connective tissue, that’s what’s going to lead to longer-term solutions, longer-term protection of all of us during this environment.”
3. Education
Yang calls “the education piece” part of the long-term strategy that people need to think about. To Yang, that means, “Making sure that people understand the history of Asian-Americans in America, that we have been a fabric of this country for centuries. And in that sense, we are not foreigners to this country, he concludes. “Rather, we are part of this country.”
4. Donate
A number of non-profit organizations and community groups have mobilized to provide resources and assistance to the Asian-American community. Groups like the AAJC (Asian Americans Advancing Justice – Asian American Justice Center) aren’t just bringing awareness to issues of anti-Asian racism – they’re also leveraging their network to provide advocacy and legal support to Asian-American and Pacific Islander communities as well. You can find out more about their work and make a tax-deductible donation here.
GoFundMe also has a landing page of vetted groups and AAPI fundraisers that you can support. These include fundraisers for victims of recent attacks, as well as verified fundraisers for Asian-American businesses, educators, non-profits and community groups. See GoFundMe’s full list here.
What Are Good Resources and Tools to Help Stop “Asian Hate?”
Bystander Intervention Training: Advancing Justice-AAJC and Hollaback! partnered to create a guide that offers strategies for de-escalating situations when you see someone is being harassed. The guide includes suggestions such as starting a conversation with the target to provide a distraction, finding assistance from someone else in the area, taking out your phone to record the incident on video, or if it is unsafe to engage during the incident, checking in with the victim and offering support after the harassment.
Volunteer in Your Community: The Oakland Chinatown Coalition created a volunteer-based community safety program to check in on community members, local businesses, and clean up trash in the area while New York City has a similar program called Chinatown Block Watch. Remember the safety and resource needs can vary from city to city — seek out your local Asian community center and ask if they have a volunteer program.
Report Incidents: If you witness a hate incident or are the victim of a hate incident, report it to Stop AAPI Hate and Stand Against Hatred so that data can be used for education and advocacy. If this is an emergency, you should always dial 911.
Educate Yourself on the History of Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia:
Watch PBS Asian Americans, a five-part docuseries about different aspects of the Asian American experience.
https://www.pbs.org/show/asian-americans/
Read this article about the history of anti-Asian legislation in American history.
https://theconversation.com/the-long-history-of-us-racism-against-asian-americans-from-yellow-peril-to-model-minority-to-the-chinese-virus-135793
Learn about the diversity of Asian cultures and the unique socio-economic issues within each community.
https://www.pewresearch.org/topics/asian-americans/
Engage with Asian and Asian American Art:
Take a virtual tour of the Wing Luke Museum in Seattle.
https://www.wingluke.org/events/virtual-tours/
Listen to spoken word poetry and music showcased at Asian-founded art organizations like Sunday Jump, Tuesday Night Project and Palms Up Academy in Los Angeles.
Check in on Someone You Know
With 20 million Asians in the United States — six to seven percent of the nation’s population — odds are that you know someone who is of Asian descent. A survey by PEW Research Center reported that Asian Americans and Black Americans have experienced discrimination during the pandemic. Asking something as simple as “How are you feeling about this?” or “How can I support you?” can go a long way.
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At the government/policy level, there are also many things that can be done. Here are some excerpts of an article with some ideas on that.
“Long before health officials had confirmed the first cases of COVID-19 in the United States, acts of discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans were rising rapidly.As the number of confirmed cases increase exponentially, racist hate crimes targeting Asian Americans are also on the rise, escalated by racist language used by public officials and members of the media when discussing COVID-19. During a March 11 incident in New York City, a Korean woman was punched in the face, grabbed by her hair, and yelled at for not wearing a mask while entering a building…The shift in public treatment of Asian Americans from a “model minority” to the “yellow peril” to scapegoat amid a public health crisis is not without precedent. Throughout history—from the Black Death to Ebola—xenophobia and public health policy have been strongly linked and have often involved scapegoating people of non-white races and ethnicities.
..In light of this history, policymakers and public officials can take the following evidence-backed actions to mitigate the racism and xenophobia spreading in the wake of COVID-19, prevent further misinformation, and support vulnerable Asian American communities..
Use language supported by scientists and public health officials when referring to COVID-19
In 2015, the World Health Organization (WHO) issued best practices for naming new infectious diseases in response to cases when disease names provoked a backlash against members of particular religious or ethnic communities or created unjustified barriers to travel, commerce, and trade. WHO specifically instructs people outside of the scientific community to avoid using geographic locations in disease names. Best practices, like in the case of COVID-19 (coronavirus disease of 2019), include incorporating the pathogen in the disease name.
Disseminate accurate and accessible COVID-19 information to the public
Getting accurate information in the hands of the public is critical during public health crises, when collective anxiety is already running high…
Denounce rising discrimination and hate crimes against Asian Americans Civil rights and racial justice organizations have issued a joint call to action denouncing the increase in discrimination against Asian Americans related to COVID-19, and the Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus drafted a letter urging public officials to help prevent the spread of misinformation that can increase public anxiety and incite violence amid a public health crisis…
Enact policies that support vulnerable workers and small businesses through the crisis
More than 2 million Asian Americans and Pacific Islander (AAPI) workers work in the health care, transportation, and service industries and may be more vulnerable to changes in health or economic stability from COVID-19….
Expand community outreach for federal safety net programs
The Families First Coronavirus Response Act also increased federal funding for Medicaid and the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP). Although this is crucial for responding to increased need for health care and food assistance, data show social services are not reaching low-income Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders who need assistance…
Provide resources for people affected by hate crimes and other acts of discrimination Last Thursday, Asian American nonprofit organizations launched an online reporting center where people can report the location and details of discrimination they experience. Since then, the website has collected reports of more than 150 cases, ranging from microaggressions to verbal and physical assault.
Confronting Racism and Supporting Asian American Communities in the Wake of COVID-19
MORE RESEARCH LINKS:
Yes, Asians and Asian Americans experience racism
https://www.seattletimes.com/opinion/yes-asians-and-asian-americans-experience-racism/
Yellow Race in America, Beyond Black and White by Frank Wuhttps://yalereviewofbooks.com/yellow-race-in-america-beyond-black-and-white-book-by-frank-h-wu/
Stop Pointing at Asian Americans to Downplay Racism at Universities
https://civilrights.org/edfund/resource/stop-pointing-asian-americans-downplay-racism-universities/
Racism is very real in America, and this area, including racism against Asians. Here are a few good links on this.
There is a long history of racism against Asians in America
See the section “RACIST LAWS, STEREOTYPES AT WORK FROM THE START” for a good overviewhttps://theundefeated.com/features/antebellum-and-lovecraft-country-are-gorgeous-empty-suits/
and these are also good.
https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/2020/09/asian-american-racism-covid/ https://www.pbs.org/newshour/nation/the-long-history-of-racism-against-asian-americans-in-the-u-shttps://everydayfeminism.com/2016/06/racism-against-asian-americans/
Some other links
https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2016/10/17/us/asian-american-confronting-racism.html
Research shows that racial discrimination is related to illness among diverse racial and ethnic populations. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4933297/https://www.nytimes.com/1992/02/29/us/us-study-says-asian-americans-face-widespread-discrimination.htmlhttps://theundefeated.com/features/why-we-must-talk-about-the-asian-american-story-too/