As many of us know, a lone gunman entered three Atlanta spas on Tuesday (3/16) and killed eight people, six of which were women of Asian descent. This has been a part a larger trend of an anti-Asian hate crimes that have spiked 150% since the pandemic started last March. Unfortunately, this spike in racist acts stems from an even longer trend of systemic racism against Asians and Asian Americans.
Here is info on the Atlanta shooting.
Chinese immigrants started arriving in the U.S in large numbers by the 1850s to work in the railroad and mining industries. This angered many white settlers who were promised economic opportunities in the West but were instead beat out by immigrants willing to work for a lower wage. Congress then passed the Chinese Exclusion Act in 1882 in response and kept the policy in place until 1943 (Brokell). This was the first immigration restriction policy in our country’s history. The United States has also shown its willingness to discriminate against Asians who are already citizens of the country. The most salient example is Japanese internment during World War II. After the bombing of Pearl Harbor, the U.S government forced Japanese citizens into internment camps for the duration of the war “over suspicions they might aid the enemy” (Brokell). American citizens of Japanese descent were held in miserable conditions despite the fact that no spies were ever identified. Now today ignorant bigots blame Asians for causing the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic. This scapegoating has resulted in fewer customers at Asian businesses and a surge in violence. Many Asian Americans have stressed the importance of self-education when it comes to realizing what Asian Americans have contributed to this country (Hohman). Unfortunately, a lack of education and White entitlement has led towards the “othering” of Asian Americans. This reminded me that “no group ever sets itself up as the One without at once setting up the Other against itself” (de Beauvoir). In other words, White people feel constant pressure to pit themselves against people that are different than them in order to prove their supremacy and maintain a White dominated society. This is why we see recurring violence towards Asian Americans in this country.
Sources:
Brockell, Gillian. “The Long, Ugly History of Anti-Asian Racism and Violence in the U.S.” The Washington Post, WP Company, 18 Mar. 2021, www.washingtonpost.com/history/2021/03/18/history-anti-asian-violence-racism/.
Hohman, Maura. “Anti-Asian Violence Has Surged in the US since COVID-19. But It Didn’t Start There.” TODAY.com, 8 Mar. 2021, www.today.com/news/anti-asian-violence-history-anti-asian-racism-us-t210645.