How to Respond to Anti-AAPI Hate

/

Activists protesting anti-AAPI hate in San Francisco (Source: Guardian)

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the enactment of Asian American and Pacific Islander Heritage Month, a historic event in itself. If the definition of a generation as 25 years holds true, many Americans may not be aware that the impetus behind the federal designation is to highlight AAPI’s contributions to this nation, which now, more than ever, need reiteration.

Hate against any US immigrant group surges and ebbs according to events involving its ancestral homeland. Chinese and Chinese-looking people have been unfairly blamed for the Covid-19 pandemic that has taken more than one million American lives and hundreds of thousands of infected victims since March 2020. More than 9,000 hate acts against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been documented to date by the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate.

Hate crimes spring from deep-seated prejudices, fears and ignorance often fueled by people with political agendas.  While such crimes occur globally, they should have no place in a country whose symbol of enlightenment and welcome is immortalized by Emma Lazarus:

“Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.”
                        -Inscription on the Statue of Liberty, New York

 

AAPI Heritage Month is an ideal time to reflect on the challenges confronting AAPIs everywhere.   

“More than 9,000 hate acts against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders have been documented to date by the advocacy group Stop AAPI Hate.”

Here are some ways to open the hearts and minds of non-AAPIs and AAPIs who harbor resentment out of disinformation and racial fears:

 

  1. Be an ally to AAPIs. Broaden your knowledge of the population. Read up, listen and learn. Find out why May is designated as AAPI Heritage Month, also Mental Health Awareness and Older Americans Month.  Many hate crimes are committed against older AAPIs by individuals who should be in the care of mental health clinicians. 

  2. Know the AAPIs around you.  Yes, Filipinos are Asians and Pacific Islanders too. AAPIs are vibrantly diverse.  Until 1910 Filipinos were lumped with Chinese, Koreans, and Asian Indians as “Other”; in 1920 the US Census deemed AAPIs among “newer Asian immigrant groups sizable enough to warrant” a specific category. Vietnamese, Guamanian and Samoan first appeared in the 1980 Census. By 1990, a new category “Other API” was introduced to include Tongan, Fijian, Laotian, Thai, Cambodian, and Pakistani newcomers.  The decennial count responds to immigration patterns and factors in proponents’ preferred self-identification.

  3. Recognize the contributions of AAPIs to this country and to your circle. From astronomers to artists, teachers, and techies, and from legislators to healers and soldiers, poets, clergy, civil workers, volunteers and family care givers, AAPIs prop up all sectors of US society.

  4. Ensure meaningful representation. Be intentional in seeking diversity in committees and activities by inviting AAPIs to participate. Some may feel unsure about their ability to contribute and might just be waiting for an invitation, which reinforces their value. Beware of tokenism. Find a way to motivate AAPIs to share their thoughts, to engage. Start by conferring with members of said community to ensure appropriate and sensitive outreach.  If you are a member of the community, identify yourself as such.  Be proud of who you are.

  5. Create a safe space for AAPIs to share their identity and culture. May is an ideal time to launch Days of Understanding or making time to discuss inclusion, specifically of AAPIs. Assign a high-traffic area to post photos and videos, maps, quotes, books, and handicraft, perhaps a directory of resources particularly for an AAPI group or the larger population. Provide contact information for those who may have questions or want to know more. Have typical treats at meetings that coincide with the occasion. Offering food is a universal act of welcome. Gatherings with treats invariably provide commonalities.

  6.  Understand that Asia and the Pacific Islands comprise a diverse multitude of nations.

    Asia is the largest continent spanning 48 countries, per the United Nations, or 60 percent of Earth’s population, occupying 30 percent of the land area of the globe (National Geographic). The Pacific, home to 15 independent island nations excluding innumerable smaller isles, according to World Population Review, covers over 155 million square kilometers or larger than the total landmass of all six continents. Each nation has its colorful history and distinct culture. AAPIs immigrated to the US over the centuries as escapees of forced labor in the Spanish galleon trade between Manila to Acapulco, or railroad builders, or workers who tended farms or healed the sick, or as defenders of democracy. Some have sought exile, fleeing tyranny, seeking fundamental freedoms.

  7. Explain the US role in AAPI emigration from their birth land. Know the history of US presence in their countries and what pushed people across the Pacific to a new land. Conventional wisdom assumes that immigrants are lured by US jobs rather than pushed out by authoritarian rule in their country of birth.

  8. Call out racist jokes. Silence is complicity. Speak up and call the joke offensive and say why: It dehumanizes. Grab the opportunity to educate. Sometimes all a bully needs is to be called out.

  9. Learn to pronounce names correctly. Be enlightened. Refrain from saying you have difficulty pronouncing a name, which makes the owner feel like an outsider. It’s a form of micro-aggression, a subtle, indirect or unintentional type of discrimination that may affect the mental health of the victim, leading to alienation and exclusion.

  10. Empower AAPIs to seek help if they have been subjected to a racist attack. Provide them with information on how or whom to report to and access resources for help when they are ready. (See Stop AAPI Hate https://stopaapihate.org for comprehensive information related to anti-AAPI sentiment). Empathize and reiterate your support for them.  Assure them they are not alone.

 

Sources:

https://www.npr.org/2022/05/02/1095812576/aapi-asian-pacific-heritage-month-origin-may-why

https://stopaapihate.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/12/SAH-x-TAAF-Codebook-FINAL-2021-08-19.pdf

https://www.census.gov/data-tools/demo/race/MREAD_1790_2010.html

San Francisco Bay Area-based Cherie M. Querol Moreno learned empathy, courage and responsibility from her journalist parents. The Positively Filipino and Inquirer.net correspondent is executive editor of Philippine News Today.

More articles from Cherie Querol Moreno

/ /
, ,

Cherie M. Querol Moreno