The murder of George Floyd has been a tragic event capturing the nation’s attention for the past few days. People from all walks of life have stood together against the police system to create a strong wave of unity against racial injustice - demanding justice for Floyd and their race from here on out. Communities of all races are supporting African Americans in their cause, which is something previously unheard of--especially within Asian communities.
Previous generations of Asians had inter-racial tensions with the African-American community. The history behind these tensions run deep, and we can be the first generation to end them.
The Naturalization Act of 1790 restricted citizenship to "any alien, being a free white person" who had been in the U.S. for two years. This meant that the growing Asian and African-American population were excluded from this and left with fewer rights and privileges.
As the USA became more industrialized in the 1800s, the North became the economic center for the nation. A growing demand for jobs was caused by a multitude of factories being built. White clouds turned gray as raw materials from the South were being manufactured into all sorts of finished products.
The Asian population saw a spike in size as many migrated to America in hopes of a better life. However, they were not recognized as citizens due to their ethnicity. In an effort to combat this, many Asians marked themselves as white in the annual censuses. Around the mid-1800s is when Asians were recognized as “model minorities”: hard-working individuals who achieved a higher socioeconomic status than others. This tactic was used by the white majority to divide the Asian and African-American communities. This separated them from the African-American community with whom they were previously with.
Despite an attempt to bar Asian immigration through the Chinese Exclusion Act, many Asians still maintained their status as model minorities. During World War II, America feared that its discrimination policies would prevent them from forming alliances with other nations; in an effort to work around this, they kept the Asian population as the “model minority”.
While America has a history of dividing Asians and African-Americans, it’s not the only factor at hand. Alongside that, a much more deep-rooted issue lies within the Asian community: colorism.
In places like India, I’d see commercials build an image of “brighter skin = better”. In the past decade, a couple of Chinese commercials depicted light skin color as pure, and dark skin color is seen as dirty. One advertisement showed a Chinese girl stuffing a Black man in a washing machine--after he came out, he had a bright skin and was shown as pure. Colorism is a deep-rooted sentiment in previous generations of Asian culture and is another reason as to their tension with African-Americans. The origins of colorism go back to Ancient China, where a belief of “white = rich” was formed. This ideology was passed down for many generations, which is why East Asian girls tend to use makeup to make them look paler. In mainland China, people will often poke jokes at black people. They did not intend to be offensive, as they were not exposed to the idea of racism at the time. However, this does not excuse their actions at all.
Even besides colorism, many Asians appropriate African-American culture as a method of conformity. I’ve seen it countless times: Indian teenagers ditching their cultural values for the more popular culture pioneered by African-Americans. A good portion of them uses racial slurs without considering the history behind it, which makes them equally a part of the problem as their predecessors. Some rappers in China often switched their hairstyle to match what African-American rappers had, without learning the deep history behind it. In America, activities such as cultural appropriation and blackface still take place, because mistakes are never learned from.
However, we can be the first generation to stop these racist habits. Having grown up in America, our sense of traditionalism comes from our parents. One day, sit down with them and talk to them about the issues happening in the USA. Sit down with them and talk to them about how we can make a change by extending an olive branch.
We live in a situation where we are more fortunate than others of minority groups.
Yes, we face our own racism as well, but that does not mean that we should ignore it so we don’t get ourselves in the same situation. If it’s still happening to African-Americans after fighting for equality for hundreds of years, it will happen to us too. If we don’t help out others, when we get targeted, which we’ve already seen and/or experienced, they will not help us either, because we ditched them when they needed us.
Just because we face our own pain does not mean we should invalidate the pain of others, especially when they’re in a more dangerous situation than ours.
We cannot afford to have more tension between minorities in this modern society, because progress cannot happen through conflict.
We must take the initial step towards unity, and support the African-American community in one of their most tense moments.
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