Asian American actors speak out against hate crimes

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Industry

Asian American Actors Respond to Anti-Asian Hate Crimes

Sandra Oh, Daniel Dae Kim, and others have spoken out

By Diep Tran

ACROSS THE COUNTRY,

Asian American actors have reacted to the surge in antiAsian violence around the country with activism.

Last month, Sandra Oh attended a Stop Asian Hate rally in Pittsburgh where she made an impassioned speech, saying, “I will challenge everyone here: If you see something, will you help me?” She continued, “We must understand, as Asian Americans, we just need to reach out our hand to our sisters and brothers and say, ‘Help me,’ and, ‘I am here.’ ” She then encouraged the crowd to chant, “I am proud to be Asian! I belong here!”

According to Stop AAPI Hate, there were 3,795 incidents of anti-Asian hate crimes that took place between March 2020 and February 2021. Hate crimes against Asians rose 149% in 2020. Meanwhile, those rates fell for many other ethnic groups.

On March 18, actor Daniel Dae Kim testified before the House Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties in a hearing about anti-Asian violence. In his testimony, he advocated in support of the No Hate Bill and the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act, which have both been introduced in the subcommittee. Both of these bills would provide money to organizations that help members of the Asian American and BIPOC community who are living in poverty, and would improve data collection for hate crime reporting.

Said Kim, “What happens right now and over the course of the coming months will send a message for generations to come as to whether we matter, whether the country we call home chooses to erase us or include us, dismiss us or respect us, invisibilize us or see us.”

Asian American performers are also calling the entertainment industry to task for its role in perpetuating stereotypes that dehumanize or erase Asian bodies. In a column for the Hollywood Reporter, Ronny Chieng wrote that Hollywood needs to go beyond tokenism when talking about diversity and give Asian Americans more decision-making power.

“What we need is diversity for the sake of authenticity,” he wrote. “We need diversity to more accurately portray society as we know it to be—a multiracial world with three-dimensional characters.”

Some theater artists have expressed the same sentiment, calling out their industry for marginalizing Asian voices.

The Asian American Performers Action Coalition (AAPAC), a group dedicated to advancing BIPOC visibility in theater, said that in the 2018–19 New York City theater season, Asian American actors were cast in only 6.3% of all roles, Asian American playwrights and musical theater writers made up 4.9% of writers produced, and Asian American directors were in charge of only 4.5% of productions.

“In our own industry, we have witnessed this same white supremacist narrative in the form of the exotification, dehumanization, and erasure of Asian men and women on America’s stages,” said AAPAC in a statement. “Words matter. Representation matters. The perpetuation of hideous and inaccurate stereotypes, only seeing our stories via a white lens, and removing us from the American narrative through exclusion are all directly connected and have their ramifications. They dehumanize us to the point that some believe we are expendable enough to further erase with coldblooded murder.”