On March 16, a white man traveled to 3 Atlanta space spas and took the lives of Soon C. Park, Hyun J. Grant, Suncha Kim, Yong A. Yue, Delaina Ashley Yaun, Paul Andre Michels, Xiajoie Tan and Daoyou Feng. Last Week Tonight with John Oliver wasted no time in leaping into this story — beginning with how Captain Jay Baker of the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office mentioned the aforementioned white man who killed these eight individuals — six of them had been of Asian descent — was fighting a intercourse habit and was on the finish of his rope. Apparently, all of this was the results of a “bad day”, mainly sympathizing and humanizing a white man who went on a capturing spree.
“Absolutely, f*cking not,” mentioned Oliver in response to footage of Baker’s press convention. “You get that this is a press conference about mass murder, right? You don’t get to minimize what happened like that.”
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Oliver added that Baker mentioned the white man’s assault wasn’t racially motivated and as particulars proceed to be launched in regards to the mass capturing, authorities are nonetheless unwilling to name this a hate crime.
“I will say, a white man driving across counties to two different towns, going to three Asian-owned businesses, shooting and killing six Asian women, in a city that’s only about 4% Asian sure as sh*t seems a lot more like a hate crime than a ‘bad f*cking day’,” Oliver mentioned bluntly.
As the host identified, that is simply the most recent growth in a disturbing sample of hate-related incidents in opposition to Asians and Asian Americans. In a current examine from Stop AAPI, information reveals that had been almost 3,800 experiences of those hate-related incidents reported final yr.
President Joe Biden did communicate to the violence in opposition to Asians and Asian Americans saying, “Vicious hate crimes against Asian Americans who’ve been attacked, harassed, blamed and scapegoated… It’s wrong, it’s un-American, and it must stop.”
“Yeah, it must,” agreed Oliver. “And I am really glad he condemned hate crimes against Asian Americans there, but to say that they are ‘un-American’? I’d love to visit the nation that exists in Joe Biden’s head, because it’s a place where racism is ‘not who we are’ and racial attacks against Asians are somehow ‘un-American’, despite the fact — and far be it from me to explain this to someone who seems like he’s lived through most of American history — Anti-Asian racism has long been a fact of American life.”
This is the place Oliver began to convey out receipt after receipt of moments in America’s anti-Asian racism historical past that proceed to be swept underneath the rug. There was the horrible therapy of Chinese railroad staff within the 1800s in addition to the Chinese Exclusion Act. Let’s not overlook the Watsonville Riots in 1930 during which a white mob rampaged by means of a Filipino group after which there was the internment of Japanese Americans throughout World War II.
On prime of all that, Asians are sometimes topic to racial scapegoating. For occasion, Vincent Chin was murdered by two white autoworkers in Detroit in 1982. Witnesses mentioned the 2 white autoworkers mistook Chin, who’s a Chinese American for being Japanese. They blamed him for taking their jobs and beat him to dying. Oliver said, “And by the way, even though they’d reportedly used racial slurs during the attack, the men still tried to claim they were not motivated by race. ” So not solely are hate crimes in opposition to Asian Americans very a lot American, so is denying that they’re racist.
Oliver mentioned, “And our long, ugly history of Anti-Asian racism — and the fact it often peaks during times of crisis — is the very reason why, just last year, many were loudly warning that Trump calling Covid names like ‘the China virus’ was likely to lead to a rise in violence against people of Asian descent, an argument at that at the time, not everyone seemed to find convincing.”
Many had been making an attempt to convey the surge of violence in opposition to Asians and Asian Americans to the highlight final yr when the pandemic first began because of Trump utilizing racist phrases to explain the virus. I even wrote a narrative in regards to the violence against Asians in March 2020 and though it garnered some consideration, it, like each different warning signal didn’t make a large enough dent within the zeitgeist.
In a clip from Meghan McCain mentioned that she didn’t care what individuals referred to as the coronavirus as a result of it did originate in Wuhan. Oliver jabbed, “Take the word from a wealthy white woman who’s dressed like she’s about to lay off 47 people over Zoom.”
Earlier this week McCain posted a “Stop Asian Hate” graphic on her Twitter web page and Oliver didn’t actually have an issue with the truth that she threw that up after the very fact, however he did add a caveat: “There has to be an understanding that saying, ‘I don’t have a problem with calling it the China virus’ is very much giving space for that hate to grow.” I critically doubt McCain understands that.
Oliver then went on to speak in regards to the idea of the “model minority” and the way it impacts the Asian group. “The minimization of racist rhetoric plays into the harmful stereotype of Asian Americans as a ‘model minority’ pitting them against other minority groups and pressuring them to swallow their experiences without making a stunk, because that’s how you earn white acceptance,” he defined. “That is something that takes its toll.”
A clip of NBA basketball participant Jeremy Lin speaking to Anderson Cooper about how he was referred to as “coronavirus” on the courtroom. Lin defined why microaggressions like individuals asking “Where are you really from?” and calling it the China virus provides gasoline to the “model minority” fireplace. These microaggressions construct up and switch into acts of violence.
“Comments like ‘Where are you really from?’ are constant reminders of how Asian Americans throughout history have been regarded as outsiders — as people who don’t belong,” mentioned Oliver.
The consolation individuals have with diminishing and othering Asians is pervasive. Case in level: keep in mind Sheriff Jay “Bad Day” Baker? Before the Atlanta mass capturing, Baker took to social media to advertise T-shirts that mentioned “Covid 19, imported virus from Chy-na”.
Oliver then opened one other layer to anti-Asian racism: “The fact the killer chose these particular women working low wage jobs as targets for his ‘sex addiction’ speaks to how Asian American women, in particular, have to deal with hypersexualization and how Asian workers to the extent that they are seen at all are seen more for the labor that they provide rather than the full three-dimensional humans that they are.”
There’s quite a bit to be confronted and lots of Asians and Asian Americans have been saying all of this for years and many years. In a clip from CBS This Morning Sung Yeon Choimorrow, Executive Director of the National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum, she reiterates how the capturing in Atlanta was a racist incident as a result of the way in which Asian American girls expertise racism in America
“This isn’t just a conversation about this week,” mentioned Oliver. “It’s a conversation about the centuries leading up to it.”
Some have responded by proposing varied options equivalent to elevated police presence — however everyone knows that received’t work due to their fame as of late. Once once more, simply check out Captain Jay “End of His Rope” Baker. That’s not any individual I wish to have defending me.
Oliver went on to say, “Asian American and Asian immigrant communities have been feeling extremely vulnerable for a long time and especially so right now. And for a group whose suffering has historically felt invisible to the media and the country at large, it’s important that we acknowledge that pain right now.”
For those that wish to assist, there are lots of organizations that you can look into equivalent to Stop AAPI Hate, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, AAPI Women Lead, Send Chinatown Love, and National Asian Pacific American Women’s Forum. However, it goes past all of this and is about dismantling anti-Asian prejudice and preventing to launch the chokehold white supremacy has on this nation.
“Because as we’ve seen since its foundation, and continued to see this week, people will bend over backward to call racism anything other than what it is,” Oliver mentioned. “And that is unfortunately very f*cking American.”
source https://infomagzine.com/john-oliver-addresses-atlanta-mass-shooting-deadline/
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