Tag: afroasian

Forgive Me

NykeLeave a comment

“…But I know we can agree on this:
something is deathly wrong with us.”

– Propaganda, “Forgive Me For Asking”
Photo courtesy of the New York Public Library

Forgive me if it sounds a little angry, but I had to post this.

I purposefully kept my eyes off of the news when the COVID-19 news became the hot new topic in the United States. I also had to stop looking at most of the news surrounding COVID-19 in Korea as well.

Crazy enough—it was the same reason. No, not fear. It was frustration that kept me from actively keeping up with what various politicians had to say, media publications on what celebrities may have contracted the virus, and the constant ignorance that surfaced. And the majority of this ignorance, which then led to flat out rudeness and harassment, wasn’t even about the virus itself.

I’m hurt by two things: one, the politicians, and two, the public.

I’m only going to say one thing in regards to politics since, outside of its connection to AfroAsian identity, this is not the place for that and not the topic of this post. Besides, we all have our opinions and I sincerely respect those—even if they differ. But I hope we can all agree on this, COVID-19 is not the time for politicians (especially the partisan ones who have been caught using information for their own personal gain) to point fingers at anyone and try to get votes. Congress, you were voted in. Just do right by your constituents and stop taking taxpayer money to do nothing but talk and argue with one another. Do your job.

My real issue is with the people who have harassed others, especially the elderly, in response to the COVID-19 news. When I saw the attacks on people who even looked vaguely Chinese (which is a whole other issue -insert eye roll-), I was angry. Even more so when the attacks were committed by people who have once, or always, been in the position of being attacked for no legitimate reason, especially in America. Even if COVID-19 did start in China, it is a virus that is not innate to a person being of Chinese descent. On top of that, Americans of Chinese descent have been in the United States for generations and unless they recently visited an affected country (many are also European) there is no reason to make up in your mind that those of Chinese descent are responsible and deserve mistreatment. And then to add that to other East Asian Americans? Then to Asian Americans?

Literally—what logic?

Stop doing these things, please. Stop repeating this part of history. If anything, remember the golden rule: treat others the way you would want them to treat you.

Fake News: Black Power and Global AfroAsian Solidarity

NykeLeave a comment

“The media’s the most powerful entity on earth. They have the power to make the innocent guilty and to make the guilty innocent, and that’s power. Because they control the minds of the masses…If you aren’t careful, the newspapers will have you hating the people who are being oppressed and loving the people who are doing the oppressing.”

— Malcolm X

Just the other day, my mother was engrossed in the Netflix & Fusion limited series, Who Killed Malcolm X? I watched some of it, but I knew it would only piss me off. Malcolm X is dear to me because I was born on his birthday and learned so much about him growing up, including his recognition of issues within the Black community and even something to which he had dedicated his entire life and family.

Yuri Kochiyama, Malcolm X

For those of you who don’t know, it’s been common knowledge that Malcolm X was killed by other Black people after he left the Nation of Islam. Seriously, if I were to ask my Southern family, most of whom lived through extreme racism in Mississippi, they would unanimously say that the Nation of Islam killed Malcolm X. No one knows the details, but it’s a common agreement. Even if the United States government was in on it, the agreement had to be made with people who were able to get somewhat close to Malcolm X. If you watch the limited series, there are quite a number of details that barely (if they do) make it into the history books.

Richard Aoki

That’s why I find it tragic that we still do this to each other, particularly in academia and in film. Why do we erase people who are involved or, you know, actually did the work? Why is it that Black people and Black bodies are still the butt end of the joke—worldwide? What happened to Third World solidarity? Why do people not know about the Red Guard, modeled on the Black Panther Party(1), and other Asian Americans not of Chinese-descent who protested with the phrase “Yellow Peril Supports Black Power”? Why is Yuri Kochiyama completed erased from Spike Lee’s X? Why are people unaware of Paul Robeson, Zora Neale Hurston and other Black creatives’ involvement in speaking out against the U.S.’s foreign policy in Asia and for Korea’s independence from Japan?

I’ve spent years deconstructing cultural representations in media and studying Africana Studies and only recently did I discover DuBois’s travels to China or Richard Wright’s The Color Curtain. Where were these things in my Africana Studies classes? Why do we miss these things, especially during Black History Month?

And this is why we have stereotypes that still persist as real representations of people, to the point where even those within believe them sometimes. All I ask is that we question some of these things—even if they are made by “us.” Just question and rethink.

And always stay blessed. ; )

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  1.  Bill V. Mullen, “Persisting Solidarities: Tracing the AfroAsian Thread in U.S. Literature and Culture,” in AfroAsian Encounters: Culture, History, Politics, ed. Heike Raphael-Hernandez and Shannon Steen (New York: New York University Press, 2006), 248.