The long Western legacy of violence against Asian Americans

[GMDino]

My father in law shared this link with me.  I wanted to quote what he said:

Quote:Having spent years in Korea, Japan, and Vietnam I am not amazed or surprised at this show of hatred by some scum who call themselves Americans. I watched drunken GIs in Japan, marching down a main street hollering "Nagasaki, Hiroshima....BOOM BOOM"......This is 15 years after the war, so there were Japanese war veterans hearing these chants. I've never been less proud to be an American.

https://www.hcn.org/articles/race-racism-the-long-western-legacy-of-violence-against-asian-americans?fbclid=IwAR3TWyJObNnE6Hw1Bs7h5C-4DaB-GdY0qPTmySBJJM2NBCosxa3KXT3GZbA

Quote:Here’s what I remember: My friends and I were standing outside a bar in Seattle after singing Taylor Swift’s “Blank Space” at a karaoke night. The night air was chill. A group of young white men sauntered by, and one of them suddenly jabbed an elbow into the side of my head, near the temple. I cried out in pain. My partner tried to go after them, but our friends held him back. My assailant ran off.


My friends that night were white. I’m Chinese American — the only Asian in our group; in fact, I was the only Asian I saw that night.


And then I buried the memory. I think my subconscious wanted to shield me from anger that might otherwise eat me alive. That anger has re-emerged as I’ve read about vicious assaults on Asian Americans like Vicha Ratanapakdee, an 84-year-old Thai man who died after being brutally shoved to the ground by an assailant in San Francisco in January, and Denny Kim, a Korean American veteran who posted a photo of his bruises and fractured nose after two men assaulted him in Los Angeles.

[/url]
Sanan Wannachit, Monthanus Ratanapakdee and husband Eric Lawson stand amongst the crowd as Lawson holds a photograph of his late father-in-law Vicha Ratanapakdee while attending the “Love our People: Heal our Communities” rally in condemnation of the recent increase in violence towards the Asian American community around the Bay Area in San Francisco, California, on Feb. 14, 2021.

Stephen Lam/The San Francisco Chronicle via Getty Images


And it all came flooding back to me.
Was I a victim of anti-Asian American violence? I don’t know; I’ll never know for sure.


But thousands of Asian Americans are now reporting similar incidents as hate crimes, especially in the Western U.S. According to Russell Jeung, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate, more than 3,000 verbal and physical assaults have been reported since the organization began tracking incidents in March 2020. Between March and August, 46% of all reports came from California alone.


The elderly are disproportionately represented, as are women, who are more than twice as likely to be targeted than men. Jeung’s own mother, a 94-year-old San Franciscan, told him that due to the attacks, she changed her routine: Instead of taking the bus to Trader Joe’s, she was shopping on Clement Street, the city’s “other” Chinatown.

The recent attacks are just the latest in a long legacy of anti-Asian hate, which has strong roots in the Western U.S. In the 19th century, white colonizers moved Westward, propelled by a vision of manifest destiny and seizing land from the original Native inhabitants. But it was Asian workers who built the infrastructure crucial to the West’s economic growth: railroads, farms, mines, canals. Yet they were always seen as the “other” by white workers.[url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/40491092?casa_token=nGTdkQFJTFsAAAAA%3AP7q496yyKbGhpw-QaKDq74hjVn7UEB1mpQRveXx1Bzj2k5Cd0p1NWt6Vb308n6Dp9kMyF27K_D2d8tzDNmsmPfydg1mvZLZ-0d6pNd1WE7Mv3oDaOMM&seq=2#metadata_info_tab_contents]


Historically, anti-Asian sentiments have intensified whenever people are panicked about disease or economic instability. The U.S. is currently experiencing both.


Chinese immigrants have long been scapegoats for disease, considered a people whose “habits and manner of life are of such character as to breed and engender disease whether they reside,” as one San Francisco health inspection officer wrote in 1873. And it wasn’t just San Francisco; public health departments up and down the West Coast accused Asians of bringing everything from leprosy to malaria to the area. In the early 1900s, officials quarantined San Francisco’s Chinatown, convinced that its Asian residents had seeded a bubonic plague outbreak. Jeung, an Asian American history professor at San Francisco State University, foresaw the current wave of racism as soon as he heard about COVID-19. “Whenever an epidemic comes from Asia, Asians are scapegoated and are met with interpersonal violence and racist policies,” he said.


Today, perpetrators of hate crimes are blaming Asians for COVID-19. Some try to weaponize the threat of the disease; Jeung said that the Stop AAPI Hate group received so many reports of people spitting or coughing on Asians that it created a new category, one that currently comprises 7% of the database.

Quote:“Whenever an epidemic comes from Asia, Asians are scapegoated and are met with interpersonal violence and racist policies.”

Economic turmoil has historically stoked hate as well. According to a 2019 paper from Jeremy Chan, a lawyer, white workers convinced that Asian workers were stealing their jobs murdered at least 300 Chinese people in the West between 1860 and 1887. And Chinese residents had little recourse; owing to a 1854 California Supreme Court decision, Asians were not allowed to testify in court. “Whites could practice violence on communities of color without consequence,” says Jason Oliver Chang, a historian at the University of Connecticut. “It’s a signal to the larger community about who belongs, and who faces consequences.”


Meanwhile, local governments created ordinances designed to hamstring Asian-owned businesses. Then the federal government passed the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, a 10-year ban on Chinese workers immigrating to the U.S. Today, besieged by the coronavirus and the worst recession since World War II, some who fear for their social standing or earning potential have reacted by vandalizing Asian American businesses and harassing Asian Americans. 

[/url]
Oakland Police Captain Bobby Hookfin exits Chung Chou City while visiting businesses around Chinatown in Oakland, California, in February. Community members are on heightened alert after the recent increase in violent crimes toward the Asian American community throughout the Bay Area. Despite an increased police presence, armed private security and volunteer groups patrolling the area around Oakland Chinatown, many businesses are taking extra precautionary measures such as boarding up storefronts and closing hours earlier.


“Those who are expressing the violence are, in some ways, the people who have been the most vulnerable,” said Simeon Man, a historian at University of California-San Diego. As the conversation turns toward addressing anti-Asian hate, many Asian Americans are forced to grapple with the larger question of race in the U.S., including racism within Asian communities. Last year vividly illuminated racism’s role in police killings and coronavirus inequities. “It’s so important to think about this violence not as perpetrated as lone individuals,” Man said. “It’s not exceptional. It’s a symptom of a violence that is also impacting other racialized people and BIPOC communities.”


But even if history is repeating itself, Jeung said, his studies have taught him a hopeful lesson: “Whenever we’ve experienced violence and discrimination, we’ve always fought back,” he said. After the Chinese Exclusion Act passed, Asian Americans filed thousands of appeals; during World War II, Japanese Americans in internment camps mounted hunger strikes. Now, a new generation is reporting its own experiences — and more Asian Americans, like me, are finally acknowledging the violence and abuse we endured in the past. When I was assaulted outside that club, it never occurred to me to report it, nor did I realize that thousands of others had had, and were still having, similar experiences. But in recent weeks, Asian [url=https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/politics/2021/02/19/lawmakers-denounce-crisis-point-anti-asian-american-violence/6791224002/]politicians, celebrities and allies of other races have spoken out and publicly condemned such attacks as serious hate crimes.  
“I see the community really standing up to racism,” said Jeung. 


Jane C. Hu is an independent journalist who writes about science, technology and the outdoors. She lives in Seattle

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

If only we had information regarding the attackers, maybe we could figure out why this is happening.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

To clarify, we must first ask what does "West" mean in this article? Does it mean people of European ancestry? Does it merely mean living in a "Western" society? If the latter then would a recent immigrant from, randomly, Honduras, who assaults an Asian person be yet another example of the "West" an it's history of anti-Asian violence? If it's just people of European ancestry then surely the attacks cited in the article itself will bear that out.

The first man mentioned;

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/16/us/san-francisco-vicha-ratanapakdee-asian-american-attacks/index.html

The second man mentioned;

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/02/24/hate-crimes-against-asian-americans-increase-during-pandemic/

Hmm, no description of the suspects (in this or any other article on the attack that I found), despite there being an eyewitness. That is odd.

How about the other attacks in Oakland?

https://nypost.com/2021/02/10/man-arrested-in-attacks-of-elderly-asian-victims-in-oakland/

So, given the above, what does the "West" mean in the article in OP?

[fredtoast]

(03-15-2021, 12:14 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: To clarify, we must first ask what does "West" mean in this article?  Does it mean people of European ancestry?  Does it merely mean living in a "Western" society?  If the latter then would a recent immigrant from, randomly, Honduras, who assaults an Asian person be yet another example of the "West" an it's history of anti-Asian violence?  If it's just people of European ancestry then surely the attacks cited in the article itself will bear that out.

The first man mentioned;

https://www.cnn.com/2021/02/16/us/san-francisco-vicha-ratanapakdee-asian-american-attacks/index.html

The second man mentioned;

https://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2021/02/24/hate-crimes-against-asian-americans-increase-during-pandemic/

Hmm, no description of the suspects (in this or any other article on the attack that I found), despite there being an eyewitness.  That is odd.

How about the other attacks in Oakland?

https://nypost.com/2021/02/10/man-arrested-in-attacks-of-elderly-asian-victims-in-oakland/

So, given the above, what does the "West" mean in the article in OP?

Most people assume that anyone in the United Sates is part of the "west".  But we all know about the certain groups who don't consider immigrants as a part of our society.

To me it seems pretty clear what the issue is.  Just like any other group of people who were "different" when they immigrated to the United States that suffered from discrimination.  If anyone wants to know how bad it was read some of Sax Rohmer's original "Fu Manchu" stories about the "Yellow Peril" written in the early 1900's.


Things were made worse with WWII.  But it is interesting to note that while Americans hated Germans, the Germans were not portray as sub-humans as much as the Asians.  What they went through back then was terrible.

In the last year I ma sure it has become much worse with all the blame for Covid.

But in general the racial stereotype of an Asian is "good at math" or "can't drive" or "small dick", and none of those seem to be the type of thing that would invoke physical violence.   They are not considered to be trying to overthrow our government like the Muslim, or stealing all our jobs while living off welfare like the Mexicans, or rioting in the streets while stealing all the white women with their big dicks like the black population.

[GMDino]

(03-15-2021, 12:33 PM)fredtoast Wrote: Most people assume that anyone in the United Sates is part of the "west".  But we all know about the certain groups who don't consider immigrants as a part of our society.

To me it seems pretty clear what the issue is.  Just like any other group of people who were "different" when they immigrated to the United States that suffered from discrimination.  If anyone wants to know how bad it was read some of Sax Rohmer's original "Fu Manchu" stories about the "Yellow Peril" written in the early 1900's.


Things were made worse with WWII.  But it is interesting to note that while Americans hated Germans, the Germans were not portray as sub-humans as much as the Asians.  What they went through back then was terrible.

In the last year I ma sure it has become much worse with all the blame for Covid.

But in general the racial stereotype of an Asian is "good at math" or "can't drive" or "small dick", and none of those seem to be the type of thing that would invoke physical violence.   They are not considered to be trying to overthrow our government like the Muslim, or stealing all our jobs while living off welfare like the Mexicans, or rioting in the streets while stealing all the white women with their big dicks like the black population.

I'm not sure where this discussion is going?


It's an article about Asians seeing violence against them.  Is there a question about whether they are really Asian?  Or if there is really violence?

Or maybe that Asians see violence in other places so leave the US alone? 

Maybe a simple "Yep. We shouldn't stand for this kind of thing" would do.

Edit to add the suspects in the Kim incident:

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/koreatown-attack-against-27-year-old-asian-american-air-force-veteran-being-investigated-as-hate-crime/

Quote:According to the Los Angeles Police Department, one of the suspect’s was described as a Hispanic male, with a bald head, about 5 feet 7 inches tall, weighing approximately 170 pounds and about 30-years-old.

The second suspect was described as a Hispanic male with brown hair, about 5 feet 6 inches tall, weighing approximately 140 pounds and about 30-years-old.

Now I see the "point", I guess: White people aren't to blame?

[*michaelsean*]

So are we just going to ignore the whole Taylor Swift karaoke thing?

[fredtoast]

When I moved to Colorado in 1992 I was shocked at the amount of violence toward Asians. I was constantly hearing people making plans to "hit the slopes".

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-15-2021, 01:34 PM)GMDino Wrote: I'm not sure where this discussion is going?


It's an article about Asians seeing violence against them.  Is there a question about whether they are really Asian?  Or if there is really violence?

Or maybe that Asians see violence in other places so leave the US alone? 

Maybe a simple "Yep. We shouldn't stand for this kind of thing" would do.

Edit to add the suspects in the Kim incident:

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/koreatown-attack-against-27-year-old-asian-american-air-force-veteran-being-investigated-as-hate-crime/


Now I see the "point", I guess:  White people aren't to blame?

I think the point is that your article provided the ethnicity of the attacker in one instance, when the attacker was white, but none of the others.  Why is that, as it appears to be a deliberate omission?  We're not going to solve racism by combatting it with racism.

[GMDino]

(03-15-2021, 01:34 PM)GMDino Wrote: I'm not sure where this discussion is going?


It's an article about Asians seeing violence against them.  Is there a question about whether they are really Asian?  Or if there is really violence?

Or maybe that Asians see violence in other places so leave the US alone? 

Maybe a simple "Yep. We shouldn't stand for this kind of thing" would do.

Edit to add the suspects in the Kim incident:

https://ktla.com/news/local-news/koreatown-attack-against-27-year-old-asian-american-air-force-veteran-being-investigated-as-hate-crime/


Now I see the "point", I guess:  White people aren't to blame?

I was right.  

How sad.

So I won't respond to this inane attempt to downplay the violence based on something that was never said or implied by me or the author but rather is more victimhood.

I will say that the article speaks for itself, as does several others out there, about the rise in violence against Asians and that should be the focus.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-15-2021, 04:52 PM)GMDino Wrote: I was right.  

How sad.

So I won't respond to this inane attempt to downplay the violence based on something that was never said or implied by me or the author but rather is more victimhood.

Not an attempt to downplay anything.  Keep your ham fisted attempts to paint others in a negative light to yourself please. 

Quote:I will say that the article speaks for itself, as does several others out there, about the rise in violence against Asians and that should be the focus.

Quite correct, and I have a friend who was a direct victim of this.  The point being, which eluded you because you chose to view it in a negative light, is that you can't solve a problem without first acknowledging what the problem is.  Treating this a problem of "the west" does not address the actual causes and, as written, makes it appear that the problem is solely the responsibility of one ethnicity.  We need to confront racism wherever it exists, not just when it's comfortable to do so because the perpetrator was white.  A failure to do so will merely allow the problem to continue as the reasons behind it go both untreated and unacknowledged.

[fredtoast]

(03-15-2021, 04:59 PM)Sociopathicsteelerfan Wrote: Treating this a problem of "the west" does not address the actual causes and, as written, makes it appear that the problem is solely the responsibility of one ethnicity. 

So you believe that black people living in the United Sates today are not a part of "Western Culture" or "Western Society"?

[*michaelsean*]

Are we trying to pretend western isn’t code (I know the love of identifying codes and dog whistles) for white Europeans or of white European descent?

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-15-2021, 08:24 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Are we trying to pretend western isn’t code (I know the love of identifying codes and dog whistles) for white Europeans or of white European descent?

Some of us are, that's for damned sure.  I always enjoy the feigned outrage/disbelief from the usual suspects.

[Arturo Bandini]

(03-15-2021, 08:24 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Are we trying to pretend western isn’t code (I know the love of identifying codes and dog whistles) for white Europeans or of white European descent?

It reminds me when France won the World Cup final in 2018 and people said most of their players were coming from Africa while in fact, most of the people of african countries' team were coming from France.

It's just facts.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-15-2021, 08:53 PM)Arturo Bandini Wrote: It reminds me when France won the World Cup final in 2018 and people said most of their players were coming from Africa while in fact, most of the people of african countries' team were coming from France.

It's just facts.

Indeed.  Isn't it interesting how these things work out depending on the situation?

[GMDino]

(03-15-2021, 08:24 PM)michaelsean Wrote: Are we trying to pretend western isn’t code (I know the love of identifying codes and dog whistles) for white Europeans or of white European descent?

Are we going to pretend that where the attackers come from matters less than the fact that the attacks happen?


I read the entire article and never thought "here go white people again being all racist and crap".  Instead a read about increasing violence toward Asians and thought "this is horrible and we should be speak out against it more".

But, to be fair, its not the first time this board has seen people jump to the defense of white people whether they were attacked or not.

[GMDino]

(03-15-2021, 08:53 PM)Arturo Bandini Wrote: It reminds me when France won the World Cup final in 2018 and people said most of their players were coming from Africa while in fact, most of the people of african countries' team were coming from France.

It's just facts.

That's like people who complain about the local college team letting all the good players "from here" play elsewhere while that school is filled with "good players" from everywhere else. 


Also reminds of a god friend of mine.  Knew her all through high school, did a lot of church activities together.  

Anyway she grew up to be a rabid conservative.  Very anti-immigration.  She shared a story on FB once about a girl who, according to the story, was raped by two, according to the, illegal immigrants.  I asked why them being allegedly illegal was important compared to the rape.  She said if it was my daughter I'd care when the rapists came from.  I disagreed but she defriended me, blocked me and I'm sure she was just stunned to learn the next day that a) the girl wasn't raped b) the two boys were not involved and c) they were not citizens, but not illegal immigrants.

It was just her looking to direct her own views on immigration into a horrible story of a rape...that turned out to not even be that.

I don't care what the race is of the people doing the violence.  I'm not sure why "western" triggered anyone unless they already had an agenda in mind.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-15-2021, 09:54 PM)GMDino Wrote: Are we going to pretend that where the attackers come from matters less than the fact that the attacks happen?

Nope, but we also aren't going to pretend that this problem won't be resolved if it's not actually addressed.

Quote:I read the entire article and never thought "here go white people again being all racist and crap".  Instead a read about increasing violence toward Asians and thought "this is horrible and we should be speak out against it more".

Here's the thing.  Not only do I deal with this issue professionally, but a close friend was affected by it as well.  I actually have skin in the game here.  Beyond the fact that I don't want anyone attacked, hurt or belittled because of their ethnicity, sexual orientation, etc. I want to actually address the problem, not veil it in code words and obfuscation.  You'll eat it up because you're desperate to be seen as on the side of what's "right".  The problem is you're so desperate in this regard you don't take even a second to analyze whether what's being advanced is even accurate.  

Quote:But, to be fair, its not the first time this board has seen people jump to the defense of white people whether they were attacked or not.

Says the person who routinely posted "Won't someone think of the white people" memes.  Please don't project your pathetic white guilt on the rest of us.  Most of us find racism in every form abhorrent.  The apparent fact that you can accept racism towards white people like a hair shirt worn by a flagellant does not mean the rest of us are so crippled by self loathing that we can't see the truth.  You want to be an advocate against racism and bigotry, then denounce all of it, not just what you're told to denounce by your far left ilk.

[*michaelsean*]

(03-15-2021, 09:54 PM)GMDino Wrote: Are we going to pretend that where the attackers come from matters less than the fact that the attacks happen?


I read the entire article and never thought "here go white people again being all racist and crap".  Instead a read about increasing violence toward Asians and thought "this is horrible and we should be speak out against it more".

But, to be fair, its not the first time this board has seen people jump to the defense of white people whether they were attacked or not.

I didn’t defend white people. I said let’s quit pretending this isn’t about white people.

[Sociopathicsteelerfan]

(03-15-2021, 10:12 PM)michaelsean Wrote: I didn’t defend white people.  I said let’s quit pretending this isn’t about white people.

It's all the same to him.