Stereotypes: 4

Hi Friends!
Welcome to Issue 31 of this newsletter! It’s the fourth week of our Stereotypes series, and this week we focus on the Asian-American community. My partner Richard—who is Chinese, Korean and Puerto Rican—and I are a part of the 3% of the US population that are in an interracial couple comprised of a predominantly Asian male and Hispanic female, according to Pew Research. In creating this newsletter, as I did when creating my newsletter about Anti Asian Violence During COVID, I asked him about his experiences in America as someone who identifies and exists in this society as an Asian man. From fetishization to emasculation to feeling like a perpetual outsider, his experiences are similar to those of many Asian-Americans. If you’re looking for more history and background, definitely read this past newsletter, today we’ll be breaking down some specific stereotypes and connecting it to the past. Let’s get into it!

Key Terms

Xenophobia: The fear or hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an ingroup and an outgroup and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a desire to eliminate their presence, and fear of losing national, ethnic or racial identity.

Chinese Exclusion Act: In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.

Japanese Internment Camps: These were established during World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent would be interred in isolated camps. Enacted in reaction to Pearl Harbor and the ensuing war, the Japanese internment camps are now considered one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.

Let’s Get Into It

For more on Yellow Peril, the Chinese Exclusion Act, Japanese Internment Camps and other background, read this newsletter first.

Asian Americans, who represent 6% of the US population, report less discrimination in employment, housing and criminal justice compared with other racial minorities in the United States (Discrimination in America, Harvard Opinion Research Program, 2018). But they often fall victim to a unique set of stereotypes—including the false belief that all Asian Americans are successful and well adapted. Let’s dive into the most common.

Model Minority: East Asians in the United States have been stereotyped as possessing positive traits such as being seen as being hardworking, industrious, studious, and intelligent people who have elevated their socioeconomic standing through merit, persistence, self-discipline and diligence. Between 1940 and 1970, Asian Americans not only surpassed African Americans in average household earnings, but they also closed the wage gap with whites. Hilger’s research suggests that Asian Americans started to earn more because their fellow Americans became less racist toward them. Embracing Asian Americans “provided a powerful means for the United States to proclaim itself a racial democracy and thereby credentialed to assume the leadership of the free world,” Ellen Wu writes in her book “The Color of Success”. Stories about Asian American success were turned into propaganda. By the 1960s, anxieties about the civil right movement caused white Americans to further invest in positive portrayals of Asian Americans. The image of the hard-working Asian became an extremely convenient way to deny the demands of African Americans. Both liberal and conservative politicians pumped up the image of Asian Americans as a way to shift the blame for Black poverty. This is the birth of the Model Minority stereotype.

Yellow Peril: The term “yellow peril” originated in the 1800s, when Chinese laborers were brought to the United States to replace emancipated Black communities as a cheap source of labor. Chinese laborers made less than their white counterparts, and also became victims of racist backlash from white workers who saw them as a threat to their livelihood. This fear led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first law to restrict immigration based on race. Overall, Yellow Peril is the fear of the Asian man coming to America to take jobs away from the white population.

Forever Foreigner: The Forever Foreigner is constantly asked, “Where are you really from?” Asian characters are often portrayed as being unable to assimilate, speak English and create a sense of home in America. This idea helped lay the groundwork for Japanese internment during World War II, when Japanese American citizens were sent to detention camps solely on the basis of their ethnicity, due to suspicions that they were abetting the Japanese government in some way. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Islamophobia toward Muslim Americans and prejudice toward South Asian Americans was similarly fueled by assumptions that people were not loyal to the United States because of their religion, ethnicity and external appearance.

ABG (Asian Baby Girl): Asian Baby Girls are seen as rebellious, replacing polite, studious cultural norms with being loud and taking up space; however, there are both negative and positive connotations for those that are self proclaimed ABGs. Birthed out of 90s club culture, it’s described here by NY locals as a reaction to Chinatown gangs being largely imprisoned, and the community that was left creating this subculture of Asian Baby Gangsters. Asian Baby Gangsters sprang up as a way to gain social capital, a familiar teenage defence mechanism to fit in and advance themselves within their communities. It’s taken on various characteristics since the 90s but is used frequently on TikTok and Instagram today as both a self proclaimed title, and a jab at an Asian girl, similar to the “Dumb Blonde” stereotype.

Effeminate Asian Man: As a way of minimizing the threat posed by Chinese men -- who were often portrayed as stealing white Americans' jobs and women -- Asians were characterized as passive, effeminate and weak. These stereotypes were further promoted in movies, where white actors like Mickey Rooney (Mr. Yunioshi in "Breakfast at Tiffany's") and Warner Oland (who played both Fu Manchu and the fictional detective Charlie Chan), used thick, stunted accents and exaggerated mannerisms to reinforce existing stereotypes, ridiculing or villainizing Asian men as a form of entertainment.

Dragon Lady: The dragon lady is a stereotype portraying East Asian women as domineering, deceitful, mysterious and sexually alluring creatures. The stereotype finds its history in the Yellow Peril movement and the Pace Act of 1875, which barred Asian women from entering the US. This not only branded the women as unwelcome, but also essentially a threat to white supremacy. Another view is that the dragon woman is someone who needs to be “civilized” for western culture. The U.S. military contributed to this conception of Asian women as hypersexualized. During the wars in the Philippines at the start of the 19th century, and during the mid-20th-century wars in Korea and Vietnam, servicemen took advantage of women who had turned to sex work in response to their lives being wrecked by war.

The Lotus Blossom: The Lotus Blossom Lady, also known as China Doll or Geisha Girl, is the very symbol of feminine Asian “flowers” – the complete opposite of the sexual Dragon Lady. The modest butterfly known as the Lotus Blossom Lady is demure, innocent, gentle, but most of all, obedient.Unlike the Dragon Lady who needs to be conquered, the gentle China Doll needs to be saved by the Western man, someone who can take care of her fragile, almost child-like self. Above all, she is a good girl, making her the perfect wife.

Like every community we have discussed thus far, the Asian-American community is complex, multifaceted and far from a monolith. Next week, let’s talk about stereotypes surrounding the Indigenous community in The United States. See ya there!

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, we are the change we seek” — With love and light, Taylor Rae

Anti-Asian Violence

“When I hear the phrase “Asians are next in line to be white,” I replace the word “white” with “disappear.” Asians are next in line to disappear. We are reputed to be so accomplished, and so law-abiding, we will disappear into this country’s amnesiac fog. We will not be the power but become absorbed by power, not share the power of whites but be stooges to a white ideology that exploited our ancestors.”

— Cathy Park Hong, Minor Feelings: An Asian American Reckoning

Hi Friends!
Welcome to Issue 21 of this newsletter. Today we are talking about something that’s been shared across social media and news outlets with haste the last few weeks, Anti-Asian Violence During COVID. To understand the surge of xenophobia that’s been highlighted recently, you must understand the history of Asians in America. From being exploited as cheap labor, to being stereotyped as effeminate men and promiscuous women, to constantly being “othered” in internment camps and 9/11 hate crimes, to being reduced to the Model Minority Myth, racism against the Asian-American community is not new. Let’s talk about how Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric in regard to the “kung flu” has resulted in a resurgence of anti-Asian xenophobia.

As an Afro-Latina who lives with (and is engaged to) an Asian and Latino partner, we often discuss the ways in which our identities intersect. We talk about the types of racism we have faced, the stereotypes associated with our identities, and the ways in which our future child will navigate the world as a Puerto Rican, Dominican, Chinese and Korean person. Lunar New Year is here and it’ll be my fifth one with Richard’s family. I’ve seen so many folks take this opportunity to talk about this topic at this time, and wanted to do the same. Today we delve into some background, cover some of the most recent examples of bigotry, and as always, discuss action steps to create change. Let’s get into it!

Key Terms

Asian: The Census Bureau defines a person of the Asian race as “having origins in any of the original peoples of the Far East, Southeast Asia, or the Indian subcontinent including, for example, Cambodia, China, India, Japan, Korea, Malaysia, Pakistan, the Philippine Islands, Thailand, and Vietnam.”

Xenophobia: The fear or hatred of that which is perceived to be foreign or strange. It is an expression of perceived conflict between an ingroup and an outgroup and may manifest in suspicion by the one of the other's activities, a desire to eliminate their presence, and fear of losing national, ethnic or racial identity.

Model Minority: An ethnic minority demographic group whose members are perceived to achieve a higher degree of socioeconomic success than the population average. This success is typically measured by income, education, low criminality, and high family/marital stability. When we call Asian-Americans “model minorities” we refer to them as a monolith, erase their history, reduce their experiences, and perpetuate white supremacy.

“Forever Foreigner” Trope: A misguided argument founded on “respectability politics” that further puts the onus on Asian Americans to demonstrate how American they are — and it’s revealing of how much some people still think Asians need to compensate for looking “different.” This idea helped lay the groundwork for Japanese internment during World War II, when Japanese American citizens were sent to detention camps solely on the basis of their ethnicity, due to suspicions that they were abetting the Japanese government in some way. In the wake of the 9/11 terrorist attacks, Islamophobia toward Muslim Americans and prejudice toward South Asian Americans was similarly fueled by assumptions that people were not loyal to the United States because of their religion, ethnicity and external appearance.

Yellow Peril: The term “yellow peril” originated in the 1800s, when Chinese laborers were brought to the United States to replace emancipated Black communities as a cheap source of labor. Chinese laborers made less than their white counterparts, and also became victims of racist backlash from white workers who saw them as a threat to their livelihood. This fear led to the passage of the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, the first law to restrict immigration based on race.

Chinese Exclusion Act: In the spring of 1882, the Chinese Exclusion Act was passed by Congress and signed by President Chester A. Arthur. This act provided an absolute 10-year moratorium on Chinese labor immigration. For the first time, Federal law proscribed entry of an ethnic working group on the premise that it endangered the good order of certain localities.

Japanese Internment Camps: These were established during World War II by President Franklin Roosevelt through his Executive Order 9066. From 1942 to 1945, it was the policy of the U.S. government that people of Japanese descent would be interred in isolated camps. Enacted in reaction to Pearl Harbor and the ensuing war, the Japanese internment camps are now considered one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.

Let’s Get Into It

A Brief History

• In the 1880s, Chinese laborers were brought to the United States to replace emancipated Black communities. “Yellow peril”—fear of an Asian invasion and resentment of the cheap labor coming from China—paved the way for the Chinese Exclusion Act, banning both new immigrants and existing residents from becoming U.S. citizens. It wasn’t until the Immigration Act of 1965 that the race-specific barriers were removed.

• On February 19, 1942, President Franklin Roosevelt ordered more than 120,000 Japanese Americans into internment camps during WWII. Enacted in reaction to Pearl Harbor and the ensuing war, the Japanese internment camps are now considered one of the most atrocious violations of American civil rights in the 20th century.

• Between 1940 and 1970, Asian Americans not only surpassed African Americans in average household earnings, but they also closed the wage gap with whites. Hilger’s research suggests that Asian Americans started to earn more because their fellow Americans became less racist toward them. Embracing Asian Americans “provided a powerful means for the United States to proclaim itself a racial democracy and thereby credentialed to assume the leadership of the free world,” Ellen Wu writes in her book “The Color of Success”. Stories about Asian American success were turned into propaganda.

• By the 1960s, anxieties about the civil right movement caused white Americans to further invest in positive portrayals of Asian Americans. The image of the hard-working Asian became an extremely convenient way to deny the demands of African Americans. Both liberal and conservative politicians pumped up the image of Asian Americans as a way to shift the blame for black poverty. This is the birth of the Model Minority stereotype.

• In the 1980s, Asian communities in America starting mobilizing to fight for their civil rights. The trigger was a murder: In 1982, Chinese-American Vincent Chin was beaten to death by two white men a few days before his wedding.

• After 9/11, Hindus, Muslims and Sikhs, many of whom were South Asian, documented scores of revenge-motivated hate crimes in the U.S.

• In 2020, as COVID-19 infections appeared in the U.S., President Trump repeatedly referred to COVID-19 as the "China virus" and "Kung flu," and pushed a disproved theory that it had originated in a Chinese lab. By April an IPSOS poll found that 3 in 10 Americans blamed China or Chinese people for the virus.

Violence During the Pandemic

• Over the past year, anti-Asian incidents have surged across the country: There have been more than 2,800 since last spring, according to Stop AAPI Hate.

• Ranging from verbal abuse and workplace discrimination to storefront vandalism and physical violence, many of these assaults have been fueled by xenophobic sentiment that seeks to scapegoat Asian Americans for the spread of the coronavirus.

• Activists emphasize that it’s important for communities of color to stand in solidarity, and to make sure that policing is not viewed as the main form of redress — given how policing has disproportionately harmed Black Americans. Instead, they note that communities need to focus on cross-racial education and healing, in order to raise awareness about the discrimination that different groups experience.

• According to an Ipsos survey, 60 percent of Asian Americans have observed people blaming members of their community for Covid-19.

• The association of Asian Americans with the coronavirus activated age-old stereotypes that have associated immigrants of Asian descent with “weird” foods, dirtiness, and illness.

• Attacks on the Asian-American community have included included an Asian American child getting pushed off her bike by a bystander at a park, a family at a grocery store getting spat on and accused of being responsible for the coronavirus, vandalism outside businesses, elders being attacked on the street, a man in New York being slashed across the face, and then there is the death of Ratanapakdee in San Francisco this past month.

• In a recent executive action, President Joe Biden condemned anti-Asian racism, marking a stark change from the Trump administration. He’s also instructed the Justice Department to begin gathering data on these attacks and to strip discriminatory language from federal documents. But it is going to take more than one message denouncing such acts to maintain this dialogue and ensure that members of these communities get the funding and legal backing they need. (Vox)

Action Steps

Don’t be a bystander. The term “bystander effect” refers to the phenomenon in which the greater the number of people present, the less likely people are to help a person in distress. When an emergency situation occurs, observers are more likely to take action if there are few or no other witnesses. Being part of a large crowd makes it so no single person has to take responsibility for an action (or inaction). There are 2 major reasons why this happens:

1. When folks are in a group, they don’t feel as much pressure to act because of a sense of shared responsibility.
2. When others fail to act, we see this as a social cue, that stepping in would be in inappropriate and not socially acceptable.

Support your local Asian-American community. In NYC, the Light Up Chinatown Project helps support struggling small businesses who have suffered during this pandemic. In California, you can support Chinatown through the Chinatown Service Center. You can also order yourself some amazing Chinese food and support small businesses that way!

Next week, we talk about Tone Policing! See ya there.

“We are the ones we’ve been waiting for, we are the change we seek” — With love and light, Taylor Rae