Event
I was changing a lightbulb on a Zoom call and an Indian American told me that increasing the light in my room wouldn’t make me (an African American with brown skin) any less darker.
Context
I know this individual on a personal level as my company contracts with him on a regular basis. He and I interact frequently. We have worked together for a few years.
My Analysis
This moment definitely raised a red flag for me. As an African American I have become desensitized to microaggressions to the point that they are laughable (kind of sad typing that out). However, I can almost always recognize the indignities.
I believe this individual thought of the comment as an innocent joke between two minorities. It went a little deeper than that. As an Indian American, this individual is in fact an Asian American. Statistically, Asian Americans have some of the highest educational scores and incomes in the United States. As a result, the minority group has been given a “model minority” status in America. Asian American’s placement on this pedestal causes all other minorities to be considered “Other” and subordinate in sociocultural hierarchy. Despite both being discriminated against by White Americans, this otherness creates a cultural tension between Asian Americans and African Americans that has existed for several decades. The conflict between African Americans and Korean Americans is one of the most prominent conflicts.
In 1965, the United States restructured the immigration system from being quota-based to being skills and educationally based. Koreans were able to enter the country at relatively higher rates than other groups because they were “hyper selected”, or had much higher socioeconomic and educational access relative to their country of origin and the US born population (Tran). Many of these immigrants became small business owners in predominantly African American communities.
Korean liquor store in Leimert Park LA / (Genaro Molina / Los Angeles Times)
The fact that most African Americans could not open businesses due to discriminatory financing practices by banks increased bitterness on both sides. American media made both groups distrustful of one another as well. Korean Americans were distrustful of African Americans because of the racist portrayals of African Americans as poor, violent, and uneducated. The Korean War depicted Korean as untrustworthy, which was internalized by some African Americans. Language and cultural barriers also exacerbated the problem (Bailey). The conflict may have reached its pinnacle during the 1992 LA/Rodney King riots when dozens of stores in Koreatown were looted and Korean American store owners were forced to go on the offensive.
Korean store owners in 1992 during the LA Riots (Hyungwon Kang/Los Angeles Times via Getty Images)
Scott Kurashige, professor and chair of comparative race and ethnic studies at Texas Christian University summed up the conflict between both groups well: “…what we need to realize is that there’s this timeless structure, in which there’s always one group on top and another at the bottom.”
I doubt the individual I interacted with knew these dynamics were at play, as he is a light hearted guy. I also doubt he intended any harm. Nevertheless, ignorance and good intent never trump impact. Education is the only way to stop the perpetual injustices.
Works Cited:
https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7758/rsf.2018.4.5.09#metadata_info_tab_contentshttps://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/0957926500011001004