San Jose State community members joined together to discuss thoughts, emotions and issues that have arisen from the Atlanta shootings and recent high numbers of hate crime incidents Monday evening on Zoom.
Alumnus Don Nguyen said the recent shootings have brought deep-rooted issues of discrimination and hate toward the Asian American and Pacific Islander community to the “limelight.”
“Systemic racism has always been there . . . but it was really brought out both last year and this year with all these attacks, hate crimes and systemic injustices,” Nguyen said.
A series of shootings occured at massage parlors in Atlanta on March 16 and out of eight people who were killed, six were Asian American women, according to a March 17 NBC News article.
Christopher Yang, director of the MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center said the dangerous realities Asian women face from hypersexualization is a leading example of microaggression and xenophobia in the U.S.
“The fetishization and exoticization of this particular act of violence in Atlanta is really part of the idea of who we consider to have power and rights to humanize [others],” Yang said.
Other examples include the model minority stereotype and the discriminatory coronavirus rhetoric, according to the American Psychology Association.
The model minority stereotype stems from the idea that all Asian Americans are far more successful through the combination of talent and dedication and therefore are at a higher level than other minority groups, according to Learning for Justice, an organization focused on reducing prejudice to tackling systemic injustice.
The discussion was hosted by staff and faculty from SJSU’s Counseling and Physical Services, MOSAIC Cross Cultural Center, Office of Diversity, Equity and Inclusion and the Asian Pacific Islander and Desi American (APID/A) task force.
Many students expressed feeling emotional, angry and frustrated, while facilitators placed students in break out rooms to talk with peers more privately.
“Many of us on this [Zoom] call have been grappling and struggling with issues of hate incidents that are anti-Asian in their attacks [and] exclusion of people in our community,” said Kathleen Wong (Lau), SJSU’s chief diversity officer, during the discussion.
Nearly 3,800 cases of anti-Asian hate crimes have been reported nationwide between March 2020 and February 2021, according to Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) Hate.
Stop AAPI Hate is a California nonprofit that tracks discrimination and xenophobia against Asian Americans and Pacific Islander in the U.S. through its Stop AAPI Hate reporting center.
Anti-Asian hate crimes have surged in San Jose by 150% in the last year, according to police data analysis from California State University, San Bernardino.
Nguyen said the Asian American and Pacific Islander community needs a common voice against those who try to exacerbate division between other communities.
“White supremacy has always tried to drive a stake within the communities of color,” Nguyen said in the discussion. “The model minority myth was definitely a tool to basically put Asian people on a pedestal and then be able to use that to put down all of the other communities of color.”
He said Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders went from garnering deserved recognition in the U.S. from accomplishments such as the South Korean blockbuster “Parasite” winning Best Picture at the 2020 Oscars, to “quickly becoming yellow peril in the next month.”
Wong (Lau) said Asian hate crimes should be taken as seriously as any other minority identity movement in the U.S.
“Our campus, as you may have noticed from many of the messages from President [Papazian], the different initiatives that we're doing on this anti-Asian hate also needs to be understood within the history of systemic racism,” Wong (Lau) said in a phone call before the discussion. “Just as we understand anti-Black racism and Latinx racism.”
She said speaking out is crucial and people should take initiative during these situations and acknowledge their rights.
Wong (Lau) encouraged everyone in the discussion to enroll in Asian American Studies courses, to work with staff members who’ve been supportive of APID/A students and attempt to understand what they're going through.
“Empower yourself with knowledge and with understanding and a sense that [students] have a right to belong on a campus, [they] have a right to speak up when people are excluding [them],” Wong (Lau) said.
