research paper Anti-Asian racism seems like to be still alive in today's America with its unconscious stereotypes and prejudice that are socially constructed upon Asian Americans, and its effects have been always harmed many Asian America in various ways,

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Qi Ming Zeng

ETHS 220, Eric Mar

Anti-Asian Violence

a.        Anti-Asian racism seems like to be still alive in today's America with its unconscious stereotypes and prejudice that are socially constructed upon Asian Americans, and its effects have been always harmed many Asian America in various ways, such as leading to the act of anti-Asian violence that harms not only Asian American individuals, but the Asian American communities too. I chose to research on this topic because I believe it is such an important issue that not only we would face in our lifetime here in America, but probably our future generations if we don't raise enough awareness of it around our communities and take actions to break this phenomenon so that Asians in America can advance and be able to face new challenges in the future. Furthermore, I believe it is important for Asians around the globe to understand what struggles Asian Americans are facing here in America, and it is also important for other ethnic groups to understand what underlines this issue is the source of racism, and that they could someday undergo the same situation if racism is being passed on and that things could get worse.

b.        Why it is a ‘problem’ for Asian American communities?

                - The physical act of violence maybe taken on an individual, but the actual hatred is on the whole community.

                - Asian Americans have become the fastest-growing targets for hate crimes and violence national wide for the last 20 years. This increase in anti-Asian violence challenges Asian American communities and its people that, Asian Americans can loss their faith living in America. The problem now seems like a regular occurrence and an ongoing pattern.

                - Anti-Asian violence includes beatings, rapes, verbal and mental assault, and deaths of Asian Americans, and how can Asian American communities possibly still pretend to be in "healthy" condition both socially and politically?

                - If we don't address the problem, then we really become marginalized objects, and the idea that Asian Americans build new consciousness and radical political thoughts will be lost. So, we must organize and educate our communities so that we could find ways to deal with the problem.

                - Many of us in the community are unaware or ignorant of these anti-Asian violence incidents. Moreover, many of the incidents out there were under-reported. Addressing the problem is not only for the victims individually, but also a way that alerts us to what's struggling Asian Americans today in America; we do not want to be silent victims of hate crimes.

Examples:

        Anti-Chinese violence in New York

                On July 2nd, 2007, a random Chinese pedestrian was beaten by two White men on the street. The incident began as two White males were inside a car verbally insulting a Chinese teenager on the street. As they got out of the car, they began beating him. While doing so, they found another Chinese teenager passing by and began beating him too, and they shout "F**king Chinese, go back to China!" to the Chinese crowd who was witnessing the incident. Later, the criminals have already gone before the police's arrival. There was no clear evidence that showed the two criminals were motivated to commit the crime other than being anti-Chinese, so it was classified as a racial violence incident. (Singtao Chinese Newspaper, 2007) For a case like this, we must see it as a wake-up call for our community to understand what struggles our people are facing in America and to bring justice not only to the two victims in this particular case, but Asian American communities as a whole.

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        The Cau Bich Tran killing by San Jose Police

                On July 13th, 2003, a 25 years old Vietnamese female was shot to death by the police. The incident began as the police arrived at Cau Bich Tran's house because they were responding to a 911 call, and they were let in by Tran's spouse as Tran wasn't at home at the time. Shortly after Tran's arrival, Tran was holding up a coincidently vegetable peeler. The police officer Chad Marshall feared that she might throw the peeler at him, and that his life would be immediately in danger. In response to ...

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