My Feelings On #StopAsianHate
Asian Americans are being attacked. This is not new. This has been happening and reported attacks continue to grow. The injustice against Asian Americans is not new; there had been laws, acts, and hate crimes committed against the Asian race which rarely ever gets taught in American history classes.
The people I interact with on instagram are mostly my sorority sisters from an Asian Interest sorority that I joined in college, and friends that I met in Asian interest organizations, but that is not the case on facebook. I have many friends, middle school and high school classmates, and neighbors and work colleagues from all backgrounds. I had previously been just sharing content that other people created to share how I feel. But as my anger at the injustice grew, I felt it was time I stop being afraid of speaking my mind because these individuals of all backgrounds who know me may not even be informed of what’s happening. Of course, Asian Americans are likely more informed of issues that affect us, but what is the use of sharing this information amongst us who already know this? If we want to spread the news, inform people of the injustice, and educate them on what we are going through, we need to reach out to the entire community that we are a part of. Rather than them reading the news as just another negative piece of what’s going on in the world and moving on with their day, I needed them to know how this affects me personally. The impact is more effective if it affects someone you know.
Last year, my neighbor shared on facebook a memory of injustice that happened to her family. Someone tried to break into my car back in high school, and her family not only chased the thief away, but called the cops for me. When the cops came, they attempted to arrest my neighbor’s brother believing he did it. People can try to twist the story around and say it might have been a misunderstanding, but my neighbors who called the cops for me are black. Was this just a simple error if these “misunderstandings” continuously keep happening to people of color? Prejudice and racism are ugly matters, and it brings pain to everyone who experienced it and people who care about them. I never knew that the cops tried to arrest them, because all they did was knock on my door, ask a few questions, and left. My neighbors never brought it up to me about what happened. But years later when this experience was shared through facebook, I was distraught and racked with guilt and sadness because this happened to my neighbors who did something nice for me. I didn’t do more back then but I can check myself to become a greater ally and do more moving forward.
What I just mentioned directly relates to my next point: Something that has been posted frequently was “Check on your Asian friends. If you don’t have any, ask your self why? How will you understand how other people experience the world if all your friends look like you?” The same goes for other way around. If all of your friends are Asian, and you are sharing this knowledge and injustice amongst each other, how do you expect to make changes for the way the AAPI community is being treated if you do not have any friends of other ethnicities who can learn from you on what you are going through?
This is exactly why I decided to share my piece on facebook rather than just share another piece of someone else’s experience on Instagram. I want my words to reach out to every single community I am a part of. And I hope more of my friends and family are willing to share personal pieces of what they went through to let it be known how real this is for us.
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