diversifying the Asian American narrative Written by Lang Duong @duolanga
Lang Duong is a proud Vietnamese-American daughter and graduating senior at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. She plans on pursuing a Ph.D. in psychology with research interests focused within the Asian community. She enjoys starting new hobbies and never finishing them, but it has allowed her to learn new skills, such as embroidering, crocheting, painting, and more! Intelligent. Docile. Hardworking. Passive. Diligent. All words used to describe America’s “model minority.” The oxymoronic status of Asian Americans’ role within the American hierarchy has continuously enforced systemic racism against other minoritized communities. However, it has also been used to oppress Asian Americans through the erasure of their narratives and hardships. This past year, we have witnessed firsthand the invisibility of the Asian American narrative. From March 19, 2020 to February 28, 2021, StopAAPIHate reported a total of 3,795 hate crimes – a drastic increase from previous years. While we cannot prescribe the specific cause of this spike, hate speech such as the “Chinese virus” and “Kung-flu” used by our former president can only be presumed as the primary contestant. Additionally, throughout the entire year, severe hate crime incidents rarely made a presence on mainstream media outlets despite Asian organizations fighting for representation and support. Instead, one year later, it
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took 8 victims on March 16, 2021 in Atlanta, Georgia for us to get the recognition we needed. Among the flood of posts and support on Instagram that following week, one stuck out to me the most – a quote by Steven Yeun said, “Sometimes I wonder if the Asian American experience is what it’s like when you’re thinking about everyone else, but no one is thinking about you.” And I began to reflect: We KNEW Asian hate crimes were rising. We KNEW the words used to instill blame on East and Southeast Asians. We KNEW it would only get worse. Why are we JUST NOW receiving recognition on social media? Why are people JUST NOW posting in solidarity with the Asian community? Why did it take EIGHT lives for change to occur? And for the love of God, why are they not calling this as it is – A HATE CRIME? My algorithm on social media does a splendid job sheltering me from the haters. I’m surrounded by GoFundMe accounts for the victims’ families, ways to support the
AAPI community, educational events to attend, and more. But my algorithm didn’t shield me from the hate lingering outside of my bubble. I read comments about Asian wealth and fortune. I watched videos of anti-Blackness’ prominence within the Asian community. I heard rumors about the victims’ side job as sex workers. All of these were used as justification for the horrific acts of hate this past year. But these are all just stereotypes – false generalizations of the greater community. What do people actually know about the Asian American narrative? Do people believe our tangential whiteness automatically grants us liberty, rights, and wealth?
