Colonization, imperialism, militarization-all of it has led to a view of us as "less than," that is always then exaggerated in extremely racist cartoons. There is a long-standing connection between American foreign policy on China and racist domestic outcomes here in the U.S. Whenever we experience economic downturns or social unrest, Asian Americans become targets of violence and hatred. This toxicity that we have normalized online and in-person would dissuade the best intended public servants from seeking public office-and for the record, women receive similar mistreatment at these critical choice points of progress.Īndrew Yang is well aware of the broader context we are wading through. He is challenging our understanding of what a New York City mayor looks like-and for that he is being picked on, teased, and mocked unmercifully. Some of my neighbors are afraid to even walk out of their homes for fear of being yelled at to "go back to your country."Īndrew Yang is absorbing a large share of these abuses for obvious reasons: He might actually become the first Asian American elected mayor of New York City.
The spiral of anti-Asian hate crimes is by now well known. But ignoring these microaggressions hasn't helped us the opposite: It's landed us in a very dangerous spot. We have been told to keep our head down, blend in, and not kick up a fuss, no matter what the slight or mistreatment. And still, we are constantly subjected to this kind of dehumanizing language. These lazy and harmful tropes perpetuate a cycle of dehumanization that Asian Americans have worked hard to overcome. We are constantly told that we don't belong, that we are other, that we are strangers in a strange land. This is a well known and deeply hurtful anti-Asian stereotype. The message was clear: You're a stranger here.
0 kommentar(er)
