An open letter to my fellow East Asian diaspora

And before you say my accusations are unfair, before you try to assure me that you have good intentions and before you say you feel uncomfortable making posts about these injustices – stop and look at what is actually happening.

When has this ever happened to you or your family? When has this ever happened to our people to this extent? When has this level of state violence in a Western country ever been imposed onto East Asian people to the point where we had to protest like this, for our right to exist?

I am writing this letter to you all to remind you all of the simple fact that – none of the racism we have experienced as East Asian people in the West will ever be as bad as what Black people have experienced. Any racial slur said to us, although hurtful will never have its roots in slavery. We are simply not profiled by police in the same way Black people are. We barely experience police brutality to the extent they do, in fact I know East Asian people that just pretend they don’t speak English when they want to get out of a traffic fine, meanwhile Black people are murdered for it. We are not held back from our jobs because of our hairstyles. We are not seen as “uneducated” if we use AAVE. White people don’t call the police on us when we are being loud in the park. Our people are not incarcerated on mass.

“We are simply not profiled by police in the same way Black people are.”

None of us have had our children stolen in cultural genocide by colonisors. None of us have had to watch an entire nation celebrate a day where our land and culture was stolen from us. Our skin’s proximity to whiteness means we can foolishly use makeup products to try and blend in. We can be portrayed in offensive ways in media such as movies, our women are constantly fetishised but it is still nowhere near the level of tarnishing Black people have received by white media throughout history about their culture and their way of life. If anything, the recent spike in anti East Asian racism from coronavirus has shown us that even if we go through racism, we are at least given a platform to speak about it. There was thinkpiece after thinkpiece about our feelings towards coronavirus racism and when we protested, the police didn’t even care. It is blatantly obvious that the racism we experience as East Asian people is just not as bad as, and will never be as bad as what Black people experience. We are so quick to defend ourselves yet we don’t show the same urgency towards our Black brothers and sisters. This lack of urgency is anti-Black, it is racism.

Writing this letter is the bare minimum I can do with my platform but I am also writing this letter out of my sheer frustration towards the complicity we are exhibiting as a community. There is no denying that every single one of us has perpetuated some form of anti-Black racism in our lives. This anti-Black racism is so deeply ingrained in the systematic racism rampant throughout most Western countries, sometimes we don’t even know we are doing it. No one chooses the skin colour they’re born with. No one chooses the country they’re born into. No one chooses the privilege they have and no one certainly ever chooses the oppression they face. However, regardless of all these things we didn’t choose, we still have a choice to act against it. We have a choice to defy these systems. We have the choice to hold ourselves, our friends, our family and our community accountable.

As East Asian people, we have a lot more privilege than we realise and we need to use our privilege. Being first generation Australian means I can live on Stolen Land and have more rights than the original custodians. I can shake my fists at the Australian government and criticise them over their corruption without being worried about being arrested. To my American brother and sisters, recognise that your family migrated to a country built on the slave labour of Black people yet you can’t even stand up to defend them during this time? A lot of our families no doubt had to flee war, some of us were refugees and some of us had to seek political asylum. We did all have to work very fucking hard to get a place in these Western countries, not to mention the amount of racism we would’ve had to endure but this does not exempt us from not fighting against anti-Black racism.

“As East Asian people, we have a lot more privilege than we realise and we need to use our privilege.”

Not only do we have more privilege and should use it, we also constantly consume Black culture every single day. We consume it, we profit off it and we exploit it. Through music, fashion, make up, hair styles, art, food – every day in some way or another, something we enjoy originated from Black people. So many of us are quick to jump on the new Beyonce remix or the new Kendrick Lamar album and blast it through our speakers yet when injustices like George Floyd happens, we are silent. We will go through hours of learning how to do our hair in cornrows (which is cultural appropriation, do not do this) but can’t spend a few minutes of our time reading up on the discrimination that Black people face in the world. We will carefully watch dance music videos and steal dance moves from Black people so we can look cool at the club but we can’t watch documentaries to learn about how we can fight their oppression.  We spend time teaching ourselves how to mix house and techno records but can’t recognise the discrimination they still face on music festival line ups. We listen to Black people speak and steal words out of their vocabulary so we can sound “cool”, we listen to them speak so we can copy their accent, yet we can’t listen to their experiences with racism and ask them what we can do to support them?!

Are you fucking kidding me?

At times like this, when it is so obvious that injustices are occurring we can’t just stand there and watch it happen. What is happening in the world right now is nothing new. If you don’t know why or how to help in these situations then I am truly disappointed in you and hope you realise how you are part of the racist system with your inactivity. However, this anti-Black behaviour you’re exhibiting is something you can change. You can educate yourself, you can change your actions, you can educate others and you can be part of the progress, instead of the problem.

In a way, we are all part of the problem, including myself. Just because I have written this letter does not mean I am exempt either. However whatever shortcomings I might have, they will only go away with constant action. To fight anti-Black racism, it isn’t something you do when protests break out all over the US. It is something you need to be doing every single day of your lives. So to help, I have put together some suggestions.

Check yourself.

Look at your own behaviour and ask yourself how you perpetuate anti-Blackness.
Do you appropriate Black culture by wearing your hair in Black hairstyles?
Do you tone-police Black people when they complain about racism?
Do you expect Black people to be grateful for you when you stand up for them?
Do you use AAVE to try and seem “cool” with the way you express yourself?
These are all examples of anti-Black racism and however uncomfortable you might feel about these questions, your discomfort is not the priority here. You need to critically look at your own behaviour and stop your own anti-Black racism.

Educate yourself on the extent of racism the East Asian community has perpetuated.

The racism our community exhibits can sometimes be as violent as what white supremacy has done and it is our responsibility to hold our own people accountable for it. Innocent Black people have died at the hands of East Asian police and East Asian shop owners. There have been numerous cases of East Asian people calling the cops on Black people for no reason. East Asian shop owners also are known to follow Black people around their stores for no reason other than racism. East Asian people are also part of the problem when it comes to the gentrification of Black neighbourhoods. The stereotype of East Asian people “loving a good deal” isn’t just for supermarket sales but also property and business hoarding which then forces Black communities out. We need to learn about this so we can try and combat this.

Stop believing that we are the model minority.

The model minority myth (mostly an American term but it definitely happens in the UK and Australia as well) is the myth that as East Asian people, we can be “good citizens” and integrate into white society. It’s a lie. I think coronavirus racism has shown us that we will never fully be accepted because we are different and if white people want to use us as a scapegoat, they can. This myth however has conditioned a lot of us to turn our noses up at the behaviour of Black people, especially in this case of these protests. Firstly, we are no better citizens because we don’t loot. We simply don’t “riot” because we aren’t driven to it. It is straight up racist to accuse Black people of violence whilst completely ignoring the horrific violence white supremacy has forced upon a lot of people. Stop that. We are not the model minority, we never will be no matter how ‘“good” our behaviour is. Let that go.

Call out your family and your friends, hold them accountable.

This experience isn’t easy, it isn’t fun, it isn’t comfortable but it has to be done. I hope with your friends that you can openly have these conversations, if not then get some new friends. With family, it can be a real struggle. My personal experience with getting through to my racist mother hasn’t been easy. She was very abusive towards me growing up for which I resent her so our relationship is already quite estranged. Another obstacle I have to face is the language barrier because she doesn’t speak any English. However, whatever obstacles I have, I know it isn’t an excuse to stop trying. It is the bare minimum that I keep trying. It is the bare minimum that we all keep trying. Do what you need to do. Try constant nagging or withholding grandchildren if you have to. If it doesn’t work today, try again tomorrow, try again next week, try again next month. If you want to keep your racist family in your life and then you need to constantly hold them accountable.

Be mindful of what media you consume.

Mainstream media can really brainwash you. If you think you aren’t susceptible to propaganda in the West, you are wrong. I’m sure as East Asian people we would’ve seen the lies the media said about us in regards to coronavirus. Are we all bat eating, evil communists, who kill exotic animals at wet markets all the time? No we are not, yet the media tried to portray us as that. If the media did that to us, then you know they are definitely publishing misleading information about Black people to warp our perspectives. To quote Malcolm X here: If you’re not careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed, and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.

Show up, speak up, pay up.

If you are physically able to go to any of these protests, then please show up. Use your voice there. Walk with Black people, protect them from police if you can. Show solidarity by showing your presence. Speaking up on social media is also a really helpful tool and I doubt anyone’s “aesthetic” is more important than creating awareness of these issues. Those with proximity to wealth, put your money where your mouth is. Donating to charities that help Black people means you are giving back to their community. You can also literally put money in the hands of Black people so they can help themselves. You can buy from Black businesses, buy from Black artists and if you can’t afford to do so, you can definitely share their work. You can also create safer spaces for them in night life, give them platforms to speak on and defend them in public from other people if necessary. There are a lot of different things you can do to show your support if you listen to their needs.

When it comes to fighting these injustices, we are all on different paths. Some of us do have more time to learn and some of us have more energy to learn. We all have other factors in our lives that we too need to deal with which can affect our pace at learning about how we can combat anti-Black racism but, please remember that doing nothing means absolutely no progress is happening. I’m not saying that every minute of your life you need to be immersed in Black liberation politics but whatever you decide to do, however you decide to act – please make sure it is a step forward in the right direction. As a community, we can not ask for solidarity from Black people when we go through racism if we don’t show that solidarity back. We can’t continue to do nothing. We need to act now. As Angela Davis said: In a racist society, it is not enough to not be non-racist, we must be anti-racist.

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Article reposted with permission. Written by Jex. Jex is a writer, DJ and photographer based in London.
Original artwork created exclusively for YEOJA Mag by Nilufar.