Do You Muse???? Racism Live and Uncut

Disclaimer: When I mention a specific ethnic or racial group, I’m talking about a collective not anyone specifically. This is not targeting anyone who calls themselves friends of mine.

What does it look like when Asian people are targeted throughout the country, punched in the face in the middle of San Francisco, shot to death in their place of business in Atlanta?

It’s called as American as apple pie.

Throughout 2020, the target of choice was (not surprising) black people. Ahmaud was shot to death getting some exercise in his Georgian neighborhood. Brionna was murdered by police officers while sleeping in her own bed under a case of mistaken idea. George was left on the ground, gasping for any semblance of air while a burly white police officer kept his knee squarely on his neck, knowing that death was near. Patrick, suffering from a mental health episode, was also shot and killed by police officers after he was already tased in his own home.

I’ve reached out to some of my Asian friends, close and distant, to see how they’re doing. Each one of them expressed their dismay and dread at how America has now turned their eyes toward targeting a different ethnic group. Many of them are fully aware of the retargeting efforts and recognize the shifting dynamics. The slight bent is that there are also people of color attacking Asian. Basically color on color crime.

Which leads to the true underlying construct at play….. caste. Dominate and inferior caste ideologies at work. Asian people are currently being viewed as people on the lower rung and others are taking advantage. You can partially thank #45 and his racist rhetoric for this recent engagement. It’s not surprising that this is unfolding, especially when you think of how he placed blame on China for COVID’s origin and encouraged a great deal of his dislikes toward many Asian countries.

Side Note: if you haven’t read Isabel Wilkerson’s Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents, I have three words for you…..Read…. It….. Immediately. You will develop a full understanding of how American racism is designed, constructed and preserved. Caste is at the core of every racist action ever played out on American soil and Ms. Wilkerson paints the most vivid picture like Picasso.

Here’s the thing. American terrorizing of Asian people is not a new occurrence nor should it be a shock.

Let’s recall, white America (after securing its own independence and liberation from England in the 1700's) made it very extremely difficult for others who were unlike them to experience similar freedom and assimilation. Through policy and laws, Asian Americans were denied many rights afford to their Anglo-Saxon counterparts.

The first bombshell action was 1882’s Chinese Exclusion Act, banning Chinese immigration into the United States for 10 years and barred Chinese that were already in the country from becoming citizens. Framed as a means to protect American workers from “Chinese laborers”, this act was renewed many times until the repeal in 1943 during World War II. Also during WWII, people of Japanese descent were interred into concentration camps. Military zones were created in California, Washington and Oregon — states with a large population of Japanese Americans — and Roosevelt’s executive order commanded the relocation of Americans of Japanese ancestry.

In other words, America targeted its Asian residents and enacted policies that made their existence in this country almost non-existent and difficult.

Understanding these dynamics of America’s impact on Asian people is critical in the analysis of how old and new school generations can be at odds with each other. While tensions between the older generation suffering under the challenged system and those in the newer generation who arrived in the US highly educated, with higher earning potential and more opportunity to be accepted into (white) American culture.

Recently, I saw an iceberg picture that showed how Asian Americans are perceived on the surface and how they are treated below the surface. Not getting growth opportunities in companies. Pay disparities. Seen as the model worker / student but lagging in receiving benefits from hard work and diligence. What struck me most is that the things happening beneath the surface for Asian Americans are the same things happening to black people. I saw a very similar iceberg picture capturing the Black experience and, in many ways, the two visuals were mirror images. I also spoke with a young Sri Lankan women who shared very similar sentiment about her culture.

Conclusion?

If you’re a person of color (varying shades of course), you will be treated as inferior when the time to oppress others works for the dominant caste. As people who make up the majority of the world, we need to better align and be allies to each other to ensure that there’s a collective voice. No more turning blind eye to people being attacked, beaten, ridiculed when their “race” doesn’t match your own. Empathy must be at the core of how we move forward and how we band together to cure a longstanding, mutating disease that has crippled this country (and the globe) for far too long.