Hello! We Asians are right here!

http://nyti.ms/2e0F76M

This world is not as monotonous as it is made out to be; in addition to black and white, the color ‘yellow’ shines bright and adds diversity. Nevertheless, many today seem to take this and many others for granted when talking about race, failing to give any credit to or show appreciation for their presence. Racial discourse focuses solely on black versus white, overlooking the millions of other colors that should be placed into the conversation. These days, no matter how much or how often the society has been disputing about ‘racism’ to achieve equality for all men and women, it has failed to highlight the entire spectrum of the issue. People are in fact too engrossed in the matter of ‘black racism’ that they have been blinded to the injustices that are still being inflicted upon Asians, including an indifference to the emotional distress experienced by Asians due to a lack of education on this subject.

In this twenty-first century, where racial issues are at the forefront of global discourse, the topic of ‘asian racism’ is seldom to be found, making it difficult for Asians to speak out when faced with injustice. While media coverage with racism has increased with the aggravated severity of extreme violence, there is a continuous void in the discussion of prejudice against Asians. News outlets such as the New York Times embellish their front pages and websites with tragic photos, shining a spotlight on the conflict between African Americans and white police officers whenever such incidents occur. In addition, songs, articles, and poems about these tragic deaths get released with the goal of arousing deep sympathy, sorrow, and grief from the general public. On the other hand, the study from the charity, The Monitoring Group, claims that "British Chinese Asians experience perhaps even higher levels of racial violence or harassment than those experienced by any other minority group" (Thomas). Nonetheless, the victimisations are often overlooked because the victims are unwilling to report the case. This resistance to report the incidents is in part due to pressures from the society. The fact that discussions about racism is dominated by prejudice against African Americans leaves Asians susceptible to be diffident to stand up for themselves. Asians often face the fear of not being taken seriously when they report cases of discrimination, since the general public is not used to exposed to such cases personally or in the media. The reality of this situation has clearly implanted the message to Asians that their voice will be completely neglected in the adversity that they experience.

Due to society’s indifference toward racism against Asians, the degree of emotional distress that Asians encounter are completely ignored. In fact, rather than viewing it as racism, people find amusement in the emotional distress of Asians. In addition to being mocked because of physical features such as eye shape and hair texture, Asians even endure comments like “Hey you have an eggroll coming  your way.” And as if the physical insults are not bad enough, Asians even suffer from the erroneous stereotype that they are innately intelligent or “good at math” subjecting them to extreme pressures that are unfair. Even if the academic excellence is attained, the arduous effort is not acknowledged and rather taken as the norm, while if one fails to reach the standard, he or she gets blamed for being the ‘dumb’ one. The injustices and distress that Asians are forced to encounter because of the actions of ignorant people who behave without fully being fully aware of the harm they cause is the issue that must be addressed and publicized.

The source of this sorrow can be traced to the lack of a comprehensive education on racism, which should go beyond the issues of just black and white. In order to establish a more peaceful world for the following generations, the community, political leaders, the media, educators, and the like must be wise enough to recognize the potential pitfalls of excluding ‘asian racism’ in the education for equality and tolerance. In reality, the historical absence of this education has negatively influenced the youngsters and adolescents for generations; the elders who are authoritative and should be positive influences for those who look them for guidance are still, to this day, setting immoral examples. For one instance, a boss at a company called his Asian employee “chinker-bell”, and the Asian employee’s lifelong best friends proceeded to laugh and call him the same. “Chinker-bell” may as well as offensive to Asians as the N word is to African-Americans; however, nearly everyone would deem the N word much worse, simply because it is presumed a bigger deal in society. Recently, the New York Times bravely took the first step in disseminating the topic of Asian racism by producing a video collage that includes the interviews of Asian-Americans living in America frankly revealing their realities and recounting their experiences while living in America.  This is just the first step, and others must follow suit in this quest for global equality.

Asians make up 60% of the global population, and it would be a massive loss for the rest of the 40% non-asians to continue down this path of discrimination towards them. Asian have so much to offer in the advancement of the international community, yet the indifference to the prejudices they face must come to an end. Therefore, further consideration of asians, including their suffrage from racism, should be no longer be callous and postponed, but immediately put into action. This society must bear the responsibility of discussing a wider range of racism, and a plan of action to expand the focus of education on the full color spectrum must be no longer postponed.