Anti-Asian Racism
This past year we have seen a rise in anti-Asian violence and hate in Minnesota and across the United States.
From March 2020 – June 2021 there were over 9,000 incidents of hate reported nationwide.
Over 63% of these incidents were reported by women.
What’s happening is not new.
In fact, the interpersonal attacks are a symptom of larger systemic racism that has been directed towards Asians in America ever since we arrived in this land.
From the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the incarceration of Japanese Americans during World War 2, the surveillance of South Asians and Muslims after 9/11, and the deportations of Southeast Asians, many groups of Asian Americans have historically faced systems in the US designed to exclude and exploit them. Today, Asian Americans continue to be targeted, surveilled, detained, deported, and killed, by our criminal justice system.
This is fueled by negative stereotypes, perceptions, and scapegoating of who we are as Asian Americans.
The Model Minority Myth incorrectly assumes all Asians are successful. At the same time, Asians are also stereotyped as being perpetual foreigners. Add on top of this America’s rhetoric towards China, the COVID-19 pandemic, and the economic uncertainty in this moment, Asians make a perfect scapegoat for those in power to blame for the current struggles we face as a nation.
Today, Asian Americans are rising up and fighting back. We are organizing against policies that criminalize our people, we are building systems in our communities to keep each other safe, and we are working in solidarity together with other communities of color and indigenous communities to build a world where all of us belong.
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