THE STATE OF THINGS
I. SELF AS WITNESS
In August 2019, when I was 14, I traveled to London with my extended family. During our trip, our party of ten concluded that it would be impractical to travel via taxi or rental car, the former due to the price and the latter due to the unfamiliarity with the local traffic laws. We resorted to walking and the London public transit system as methods of transportation. We were able to navigate our way around the city almost seamlessly and our trip was going pretty well, except for one incident that soured it.
I can't recall which train we boarded that particular afternoon, but I remember it to be much brighter than any other train we've been on. It was decorated with lights against a white interior and it felt more spacious than other train lines. Since we were such a large group, we decided to stand together instead of finding separate seats between others. We ended up settling in this section of the train near a door that only had one row of seats across from it. Only one man was occupying the seats, but we didn't pay much attention to him and minded our own business. It wasn't until midway through the ride that I realized that the man, who appeared to be intoxicated, had been saying something, seemingly toward us. While I only caught his monologue in fragments, I heard him say something along the lines of "the Chinese came and took all of our jobs."
When I heard that, I was in complete disbelief, primarily because he was saying this in public, where dozens of other people were, and in a city like London—a city with so much diversity. I remember immediately looking at my parents and at people around the train to see if they noticed, but even if they had, they did not show it. And as the man continued to mutter under his breath, I could feel myself starting to become upset. For one, I was upset that he said that people "took" away jobs from him. This implies that these British-Chinese individuals forcibly got in his way to get a job, when in fact, these people were able to get a job due to their merit. Saying that these jobs were stolen takes away from their ability to work and implies that they had to resort to taking another capable individual's job in order to get one. Jobs are earned by people who qualify in the eyes of the employer. Jobs are not merely stolen.
Second, I was upset that his anger at the Chinese was directed at us, who were simply tourists and not even residents in the United Kingdom, though that doesn't mean that his anger is justified towards another who might be. Then, I was upset because even if we were living in the U.K., we would be justified to do so, as my entire family was British Nationals (Overseas) before immigrating to the United States. If they hadn't immigrated to the United States and still held their BN(O) passports from Hong Kong, they would have had the right to live, work, or study in the United Kingdom, even if it was only for a limited timeframe. While I understood that this man would have no way of knowing any of this, it still upset me how he was able to just make these blatantly racist remarks to people he assumed to be Chinese.
II. HISTORICAL PRECEDENTS
While my experience of racially-motivated discrimination happened in England, the United States also has a long, and continuous, history of racism against Asians. For years, with roots tracing back to the foundation of the American Transcontinental Railroad, there has been a suppression of Asians, specifically the Chinese, in America. During that period, when Chinese people migrated to America to find work, they were deemed "sinister" and thought to be trying to take "American gold," which is a stereotype not far from what Chinese immigrants still face today. These "sinister" stereotypes went as far as saying that the Chinese secretly hid weapons under the long sleeves of their Hanfu-inspired garments. They were portrayed with long, slanted eyes, flat faces, large ears, and an over-exaggeration of their braided hairstyle. These portrayals often reduced them to being less than human, to the point where they almost seem animal-like. This demonization of Chinese people came from a widespread fear of them known as the Yellow Peril. Not long after a boom in Chinese people immigrating to the United States, the government implemented the
The Yellow Terror in all His Glory (1899)
Retrieved from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow_Peril
Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882, preventing Chinese laborers from immigrating to the country for ten years. Ultimately, this ban did not lift after ten years and went on to be strengthened as the Geary Act, which banned Chinese immigration until 1943.
In more recent history, anti-Asian hate has seen a prominent resurgence, especially with the COVID-19 pandemic. In particular, this hate was indirectly encouraged by our head of state at the time, who had publicly called the virus "kung flu," insinuating that there was a connection between the virus and China. This undoubtedly fueled a hate train against Chinese Americans and by association those who resembled them, predominantly East Asian Americans. Chinese Americans were subjected to verbal abuse, harassment, and physical violence, especially towards the elderly. People were told to "go back to their countries," even though for some, the United States was all they've ever known. They were physically attacked on trains, on sidewalks, and even outside their own homes, all unprovoked. All of this discrimination is not something that appears out of nowhere, it comes from a long history that is often brushed aside.
Citations:
Chan, Sucheng. “The Writing of Asian American History.” OAH Magazine of History, vol. 10, no. 4, 1996, pp. 8–17. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/25163093. Accessed 27 Oct. 2022.
“Exposing the Stereotype.” Omeka RSS, projects.leadr.msu.edu/progressiveeraimmigration/exhibits/show/the-working-chinese-man/exposing-the-stereotype.
Lähde, Anna. “"The Sinister Chinese": an Orientalist Analysis of the Development of Chinese Stereotypes in Late 19th and Early 20th Century Literature Reflected through the Yellow Peril.” (2012).
Zhang, Wenxian. “Standing Up Against Racial Discrimination: Progressive Americans and the Chinese Exclusion Act in the Late Nineteenth Century.” Phylon (1960-), vol. 56, no. 1, 2019, pp. 8–32. JSTOR, https://www.jstor.org/stable/26743829. Accessed 27 Oct. 2022.
III. GOING FORWARD
Going forward, I believe that greater incorporation of racial studies should be included in education. Given how much of our lives we spend in a classroom or in an academic setting, we are heavily influenced by what we learn at school. Currently, in our academic context, it's often that we don't actually realize how many racial and ethnic microaggressions occur in a single day. It could be an off-handed comment about expectations (or lack of) for a race in a certain subject, or a subtle exclusion of a peer, there are so many things that we do that we aren't aware are discriminatory. Throughout my educational experience, I can't even count the number of times I've heard East Asians be told that they should be good at math, simply because they are Asian. Instead of allowing these experiences to be dismissed as sensitivity, I think that educational systems should start incorporating the teaching of international cultures into their curriculum. Our future generations should be given the chance to gain an understanding and respect for other cultures so that these microaggressions can slowly be eliminated from our society, or at least make us aware of their existence.
Furthermore, I think another form of systemized racism that must be deconstructed is the idea of beauty standards created by societal norms built by a predominantly white population. In the United States, there has been a long-standing idea of a beauty standard comprised of fair skin, large eyes, double eyelids, a certain height, and onwards. This standard, especially for women, has been detrimental to how people of color see themselves. If someone did not have these traits, which most people do not, they were criticized for it. For instance, East Asians were judged for the stereotypical image that they had "small, slanted eyes." Even as an Asian-American in the 21st century, I grew up playing with Barbie and seeing Disney princesses that reinforce this beauty standard. It wasn't until recently that I started to see people reflecting my own features in popular culture. Everyone is beautiful in their own way and their race should not be a point of judgment for their beauty.
Only by understanding the root of these racial crimes can we truly be able to heal from our trauma. This does not mean we must rationalize or justify any aggressions that we've experienced, but being able to understand where it comes from and then creating sources that can prevent them from happening again can allow us to come to peace with the fact that we can improve this situation.
Citations:
Chopra, Sapna B. "Healing from Internalized Racism for Asian Americans." Professional Psychology: Research and Practice, vol. 52, no. 5, 2021, pp. 503-512. ProQuest, https://jerome.stjohns.edu/login?url=https://www-proquest-com.jerome.stjohns.edu/scholarly-journals/healing-internalized-racism-asian-americans/docview/2556043887/se-2, doi:https://doi-org.jerome.stjohns.edu/10.1037/pro0000407.
THE STATE OF THINGS GALLERY
