Dr. Susan Chung, Psychiatrist, Executive Committee of Pacific Southwest Region, Christian Church (DOC)
Rev. Young Jun Yang, Associate Regional Minister, Co-Director of PSWR NAPAD
Rev. Young Lan Kim, Associate Regional Minister, Co-Director of PSWR NAPAD
Priscilla Yang, Representative of PSWR NAPAD Young Adult
No living mammals, including human beings, welcome forceful changes in their environment. Any changes are regarded as “stresses“ causing them to react with ”Fight or Flight” responses. The world continues to go through unimaginable stressful changes: in our way of living, in our yearnings to be with other human beings, and in our pursuit to work and to love. We see no end in sight. We have all felt frustrated, isolated, sad and anxious. Unfortunately, some individuals developed secondary emotions of intense anger and rage like some animals with poor abilities to control such emotions.
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) are the fastest growing ethnic group in the U.S. Most of the Asian American and Pacific Islanders in this country immigrated to the U.S. after the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, ending an immigration policy based on race and ethnicity designed to limit immigrants from Asia, Africa, the Middle East, and Southern and Eastern Europe. Asian immigrants come from different countries with diverse cultures: Korean, Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, South Asians (East Indians, Pakistani, Sri Lankans, Nepalese, Burmese), Pacific Islanders (Native Hawaiians, Samoans, Togans, Chuukese, Tahitians, Guamanians, Fijians, Palauans), South East Asians (Vietnamese, Thai, Cambodians, Laotians, Hmong, Mien), Indonesians and Malaysians.
4,000 Asian American & Pacific Islanders were killed, injured, insulted, slurred and harassed since the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020. A recent study from the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, found that while overall rates of hate crimes in the country decreased by 7% in 2020, anti-Asian hate crimes surged by 149%. Following the deep-rooted cultural teachings of Confucianism, the voices of Asians kept silent. But silence is no longer a virtue, but avoidance of responsibility. We must make our voices heard and we must move towards a better future.
To protect the AAPI in our communities, we want to bring up important points to consider and suggest the following guidelines:
1. Education and Training
Education and training are essential in creating communities where we stand together. The education and training of communities should be focused on the following:
- Self-identification as AAPI: We are also Americans who live in the U.S.
- Expanding pro-reconciliation and anti-racism training: People of color also need this training.
- Practical response training: How to handle/respond when you or someone you know are the victim of a hate crime.
2. Report the crime
Between March 2020 and February 2021, nearly 3,800 anti-Asian hate incidents were reported, with women reporting incidents at 2.3 times the rate of men. There are a number of community organizations you can report hate crimes and hate incidents to: Stop AAPI Hate(in Korean), Stand Against Hatred(in Korean), 211 LA County, National Asian Pacific American Bar Association, or Asian Americans Advancing Justice (AAAJ) which are located in the cities of Los Angeles (Connie Chung Joe as CEO), New York, Atlanta and Chicago.
Many of these organizations work to collect data and stories in order to advocate for policy changes and to inform where services are needed for more effective response and prevention against anti-Asian attacks.
3. Communication within in the AAPI communities
Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders encompass a wide range of diversity. AAPI communities consist of approximately 50 ethnic groups speaking over 100 languages. Because of such diversity, there is often a lack of understanding within the AAPI communities.
Chinese immigrants came to the U.S. in the middle of the 19th century only to face the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, and later the Immigration Act of 1924. Korean immigrants came to the U.S. to avoid the Japanese annexation of Korea in 1903. During World War II, Japanese and Filipino immigrants faced discrimination and persecution, and even incarceration. Unfortunately, there was neither cooperation nor support between the two groups. In 1992, East Asians and Pacific Islanders did not cooperate nor support one another during the Los Angeles riots.
The AAPI communities must confirm we are together; we must cooperate together and join forces. This requires a process of sharing the difficulties and pains due to racial conflict and then recognizing and acknowledging one another.
4. Communication and cooperation with other groups
As the model minority myth began to spread in the 1960s, interracial tension also spread. The myth suggests that Asian Americans are more successful than other ethnic minorities because of hard work, education, and inherently law-abiding people. But many advances of the Asian Americans then were not the result of hard work alone, but also of the same systemic forces that held others down. “Not only does such a myth create a monolithic identity for Asian Americans and render their struggles invisible, but it also drives a wedge between them and other communities of color,” said Bianca Mabute-Louie, an ethnic studies adjunct at Laney College. On April 29, 1994, Korean church leaders and African American ministers met to declare their decision to cooperate in order to bring peace to the Los Angeles area. However, since then, not much has developed and little progress has been made to solve racial tensions.
On the other hand, after Japanese Americans were seen as threats and sent to detention camps during WWII, that community offered support to Civil Rights leaders trying to repeal the Emergency Detention Act over concerns that Black activists could be subject to the same kind of treatment. The term “Asian American” was coined in 1968 by UC Berkeley students who were inspired by the Black Power Movement. Activists like Yuri Kochiyama and Grace Lee Boggs not only pulled insights from Black radical frameworks for Asian American liberation, but were also strong and active advocates for Black social justice movements. Recently, Korean pop artist group, BTS, donated $1 million to Black Lives Matter. These are just of the ways different minority groups can work together to support each other.
We must reach out to our communities including our white, Latino and black brothers and sisters to live happily in this land of freedom and peace. In order to cooperate and communicate with one another, there is an urgent need to develop programs that facilitate conversations and relations between ethnic churches. For this movement, the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) must strengthen the role of the church as a foundation for exchange and understanding among ethnic groups in our communities. For dialogue and cooperation, racial reconciliation and cooperation should be achieved through solidarity with non-profit organizations that advocate well-balanced media and anti-racist policies.
Resources
Asian Pacific Institute on Gender-Based Violence (API GBV)
(https://www.api-gbv.org/resources/census-data-api-identities/)
Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino
(https://www.csusb.edu/sites/default/files/FACT%20SHEET-%20Anti-Asian%20Hate%202020%203.2.21.pdf)
Migration Policy Institute
(https://www.migrationpolicy.org/article/fifty-years-1965-immigration-and-nationality-act-continues-reshape-united-states)
Time
(https://time.com/5947603/how-to-help-fight-anti-asian-violence/)
Time
(https://time.com/5851792/asian-americans-black-solidarity-history/)