Anti-Asian Racism

Xiaojie Tan, Daoyou Feng, Delaina Ashley Yaun Gonzalez,Soon Chung Park, Hyun Grant, Suncha Kim, Paul Andre Michels, and Yong Ae Yue

This is the list of names of the victims of the Atlanta spa shootings. I remember first hearing the news of the shootings. These names were not available yet, but there was speculation that this was racially motivated anti-Asian violence. The same violence that had been shared through videos of insults being shouted and violent attacks on elderly Asians in New York and San Francisco. The same violence that had been going on since the COVID-19 pandemic began. The same violence that has been going on for hundreds of years through overt racism, bias and policies such as the Chinese Exclusion Act, Chinese workers building the railroad or Japanese Internment that targeted Asians and Asian Americans. This experience is similar to the experience that South Asians face, where events such as the United States vs. Bhagat Singh Thand (a Supreme Court case that South Asians were ineligible for naturalized citizenship) illustrate how we have faced exclusion and violence in the United States as well.

When I saw the list of these names, I thought about how their lives were similar to the lives that my family and community experienced. However, I felt like I heard more about the shooter and his background and motivations than the lives of the victims. I thought about their journeys to America and their hard work to build a life in this country. These journeys need to be acknowledged along with the violence and targeting that Asians face in this country.

I am angry that the same violence that has continued for hundreds of years still continues today. I am tired of the spin and excuses that exist instead of acknowledging and addressing the problem. The United States has a problem with anti-Asian racism and violence. This must be addressed as part of our collective anti-racism work to ensure that Asian people can be treated as equals in the United States. 

by Kartik Ramkumar