Having "The Talk" with my Parents

#AsianAmericanConversation

While Asian Americans are largely referred to as a single group, the experiences, cultures, and histories of each Asian ethnic group that resides in the United States are drastically different. The unjust murder of George Floyd shed light upon not only police brutality directed towards the Black population, but also served as a catalyst for the resurgence of the Black Lives Matter Movement. To my fellow Asian Americans: feel free to use this as a reference to convey your own conversations with your families. Here is my take on uprooting racism within my family.

Here is my #AsianAmericanConversation: 

Dear Mom, Dad, Grandma, and Grandpa, 

This conversation is long overdue. We are in a position of privilege. While these conversations are a choice for us, they are a necessity for Black families trying to safeguard their loved ones. Talking about institutionalized racism disguised in our society as the status quo might be uncomfortable because it challenges the values we’ve internalized. Keep in mind that I’m not trying to argue and invalidate your own experiences. However, we should be empowering all people of color because, as MLK said, 

“Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere.”

To dispel anti-Black rhetoric in America, we must first tackle the Model Minority Myth: the stereotype that Asians are intelligent, polite, and law-abiding due to our historical success. However, we owe our historical success to the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, fought by Black activists, which only allowed EDUCATED Asians to immigrate to the United States.This myth was America’s tool in order to justify that it was not anti-Black through the evident success of a minority group that was able to “overcome” racism through hard work. In addition, it was originally used by the press with the intention to dehumanize Black and brown communities through the creation of a screwed-up racial hierarchy that pits marginalized communities against one another. In reality, it’s labeled as a myth because it blinds us to the fact that we are still treated as second class citizens in the White America we live in today. 

The people affected by this myth: you, me, our family, and our friends, were ultimately used as political pawns to create tension and isolate the hardships of both communities. These tensions ultimately led to Asian Americans participating in anti-Black rhetoric such as the 1991 killing of Latasha Harlins by a Korean shop owner under the pretense that she might have stolen a bottle of orange juice. Another incident, the strongarming of Rodney King by LAPD took a national stage. Amongst Korean Americans, it was conflicting since many Korean Shop owners were previously killed by local gangs and seemed to get no attention. Thus, it kept many Korean Americans on edge especially when there was very minimal intervention from LAPD whilst the looting and riots were happening at many Korean businesses in the Los Angeles area following both incidents. Evidently, just as the Model Minority Myth stereotyping of Asian Americans was harmful, the stereotyping of Black youth sometimes cost them their lives. These tragedies show greater rifts between the two communities where in reality, it’s these situations are not “us v.s. them” but rather “us v.s. the system(of policing, justice, and minority stereotyping). What we have failed to recognize in the fallout of these incidents is that we are both minorities fighting on the same side of the battlefield against racism. 

On the other hand, when our communities dispel our differences and work together, amazing things happen. Both communities struggle with institutionalized racism in the United States, but we must attest our successes to the work of Black activists within the Civil Rights Movement. The Civil Rights Movement empowered all minorities, not just the Black community. During the Civil Rights Movement, a multitude of impactful laws were passed: 

• Executive order 8802 was passed to prevent legal discrimination against ALL minorities. [Without this, Obama couldn’t have become President *gasp*]  

• The Voting Rights of 1965 act gave minorities the right to vote. [Imagine being deprived of a fundamental human right]

• The Immigration and Nationality act ended immigration bars to Latin Americans, Asians, and African as well give preference to many educated Asians to come to America, specifically coined “Professionals, scientists, and artists "of exceptional ability" ” [Without this means our families in foreign countries didn’t even stand a chance to visit or chase the American Dream] 

• The case of Loving v. Virginia involving a Black woman and white man who fought for all minorities to legalize interracial marriage. [Without it means you can wave goodbye to Wasians and Blasians and everything in between #LoveConquersAll]

During the advent of COVID-19, we all have seen and been hurt by anti-Asian sentiment that arose, fueled by (media, the government’s inaction, and our president’s own words). We feared going to the local supermarket, getting harassed on the streets of Chinatown, and ordering Uber rides only to be refused time and time again. However, that was only a small fraction of fear, pain, and anger that Black communities face every single day. Discrimination that Black Americans face is disproportionately greater than any other minority in the United States. Thus, having these terrifying experiences should motivate us to stand up for what’s right, as we have been given the opportunity to witness the experiences of Black families across the country. As minorities of the same country, it’s important to stick together, because we aren’t playing the blame game of who had it worse; the system has played us both. Having the “us vs. them” mentality will only further the wedge between our two communities and continue this perpetual cycle of racism. 

I’d like to end by saying please don’t trust everything you see on WeChat because the integrity of your local “news” could be greatly compromised by reading the opinions of Asians who still believe in their own internalized racist values. By relying on one new source, we are allowing for tunnel vision and restricting ourselves to a single sided story. Instead, let’s learn through diverse outlets of information and often have these discussions together. As Asians and Asian Americans, we are in a position where we can shift the narrative, engage in anti-racist action, and fight for the justice these people deserve. 

All lives will only matter if #BlackLivesMatter,

王宇琪 （Jessica YuQi Wang)

This piece is dedicated to my 老爷, I hope Heaven has translators.