Calling out Anti-Blackness as APA Co-Conspirators
Ahmaud Arbery. George Floyd. Breonna Taylor. We cannot allow their murders to be forgotten in the midst of COVID-19. We need to talk about anti-blackness and work to dismantle white supremacist actions in communities of color. As Asian Pacific Americans (APAs) face anti-Asian racism during this pandemic, it’s more important now than ever for all of us to speak up and be co-conspirators in the fight for racial justice.
Young Asian girl wearing a pink bow in her hair, in a field of grass, holding a flower with both hands
Think back to the first time you learned about race. What words did the adults in your life use to describe black/African American communities? I must have been about five or six years old when I heard my relatives talking about blacks/African Americans. Only they didn’t call them that. They used a racial slur in Cantonese to describe that community. And I thought that was the word. I didn’t know it was a racial slur until I repeated the word and my parents told me to never use it in front of the black community. When I asked why, they didn’t say it was a racial slur. Instead, they taught me to fear that community. It was a fear that was driven partially by their personal experiences but largely by stereotypes and beliefs imposed by the dominant culture. Language is important. The way we talk to our kids about communities of color, racial justice, and social justice matters. What words did the adults in your life use?
I’m not ignoring my parents’ experiences and denying that people of color don’t attack one another. We know it happens. It’s happened to me. I’ve been physically assaulted by members in all communities of color including whites. But just because it happens doesn’t mean that we don't stand up for other racial minorities. If we don’t, then we are allowing the dominant White culture to continue scapegoating Asians. Our people have been used as reasons by Whites to keep the dominant culture and racial hierarchy in place (think: model minority) in this country.
Asian Pacific Americans and blacks/African Americans have more in common than we think:
When slavery was abolished in the U.S., slaveholders replaced black slaves with slaves from China. Some were tricked into slavery in the harbors of Canton, but others were simply kidnapped off the street. Roughly 15% - 45% died in the ships during the treacherous journey from China to the U.S. Those who made it were enslaved. If they tried to run away, they were lynched and hung.
The dominant culture passed policies and created structures that led to segregation of Asian Americans. They prevented us from owning land and sometimes stole what little wealth we had. They created a Chinese school so White kids didn’t have to go to school with children from our community. And in SF Chinatown, they forced us to live in a small radius and prevented us from leaving the neighborhood.
At various times of our country’s history, Asians were called black. We were called black so that we would not have access to certain rights and privileges.
When I first watched the video of the killing of George Floyd, my partner said, “hey, isn’t one of those cops Asian?” My immediate response was to pray and hope that no Asians were involved in the murder of a black man. The last thing we needed during this pandemic was more anti-Asian racism. Alas, we found out that Tou Thao, a Hmong officer, was one of the four officers involved in Floyd's murder. Tou Thao held the witnesses at bay while Floyd was being killed. Thao also has a history of police brutality in Minnesota.
Person using a phone to access Twitter and scrolling through tweets.
The backlash on the Asian community after the video was released was immediate. People took to social media to spread hate, slurs, and stereotypes about APAs. Many were waiting to see whether the Asian community will defend Tou Thao like they did Peter Liang. However, what is largely left unsaid in this conversation is that there were APAs on the side of Black Lives Matter and Akai Gurley in Liang’s case. Another issue left unspoken is that the NYPD also upheld white supremacy when they charged Peter Liang with a crime so that other white cops could go free. Rightly so, they held Peter Liang accountable but they also splashed the front pages of our newspapers with that in hopes that we would forget about Eric Garner’s case. And it worked to a certain extent. But those who sympathized with the APAs on Peter Liang’s side understood that they were partially fighting against racial discrimination of the Chinese community in New York. But now we’re talking about George Floyd. And we need to hold Tou Thao accountable for being an accessory to murder. Just as we held Peter Liang responsible for Akai Gurley’s murder.
Being a racial justice co-conspirator means that we need to address anti-blackness in our communities. We need to have the hard conversations. We have to call out people in our family who use racial slurs. We need to break free from our identity with just one racial minority group and realize that we need to fight for ALL communities of color. We can’t play the oppression olympics because that’s exactly how the system is set up. Through pitting communities of color against each other and disguising it under the farce of equity, the dominant culture ensures that it’ll continue thriving.
And here’s the sad part. At the end of the day, if we don’t act as co-conspirators, people of color will lose. There will be more George Floyds. More Akai Gurleys. More Ahmaud Arberys and Breonna Taylors. Because just as they came for the blacks/African Americans during the slave trade, they’ll come for Asian Pacific Americans when there are no blacks/African Americans left. This is how the white dominant culture wins.