Asian Hate - Everyday Happenings
By Anna Tsuchimoto | She/Her/Hers
Hey, it’s Anna, the Buddhist Discussion Editor here. Today I am bringing you a brief interview I had with a friend, regarding a recent event she went through. Christina Nguyen, a recent graduate from UC Berkeley, with a degree in both Political Economy and Theater and Performance Studies, had a not-so-nice encounter with a stranger that performed an act of Asian hate. Read on to hear about Christina’s experience.
[Anna]: “Can you explain (in as much detail as you’d like) what happened that day you were walking on campus?”
[Christina]: “It was a normal Friday at 2pm and I had gone out to lunch with a friend. When we were going home, we decided to walk through campus since it was a nice day and we missed what being on campus felt like. There were a handful of people around the area we were walking. I noticed a man carrying a water bottle maliciously mumbling something under his breath as he locked eyes with me and I could sense some sort of danger. I tried speeding up my walking to avoid him as much as possible, but when he saw me speed up my walk he came towards me and my friend and he threw the water from his bottle on me. I jumped back and yelled loudly hoping to get bystanders’ attention. As I tried to back away, he started approaching me again, with his water bottle ready to throw another time. Luckily there were two older men in front of us who intervened and told him to leave us alone. The man fought back, saying that it was nobody’s business besides his to act this way. I was so in shock by what was happening, and I just stood there in shock as the older men almost got into a physical altercation with the perpetrator... I really couldn’t move. As soon as the perpetrator left, I just broke down. You see these things on the news all the time and you become so jaded that you don’t realize that these things can happen to you at any time, regardless of the time of day, regardless of if you’re walking with a friend, regardless of if you’re in a public space like a school campus, and regardless of if you’re surrounded by people. Nobody around us was Asian, and we were 2 girls which made us ‘easy targets.’ I had never felt so much hate due to my appearance before.”
[Anna]: “Had you personally experienced anything like that before, or witnessed something like that happening?”
[Christina]: “I personally have never experienced any form of racially charged physical altercation before, nor witnessed it. Like I said, you see this stuff on the news all the time happening to our elderly population but you never think you yourself can be a target until it happens.”
[Anna]: “What microaggressions or other racism have you experienced before, if you have?”
[Christina]: “I come from a very predominantly white area in Georgia; I’ve experienced microaggressions my entire life. Store clerks would noticeably treat me and my mom a certain way when we walked in, treating us like we weren’t as valuable customers compared to others, I’ve had parents come up to me and assume lots of things about my work ethic and personality just because I’m Asian, I’ve been told that school isn’t hard for me because there’s an assumption that I’m smart just because I’m Asian... growing up experiencing things like this made me see this country in a rather hostile way. And the sad part is, I didn’t even realize how damaging these experiences were until I moved to California, where the Asian population is so much greater, and I’ve been treated so differently, so much more like an equal. That’s of course not to say that there aren’t terrible people everywhere, because there are, but my day-to-day life interactions with others have changed so much. The feeling of walking outside and negatively feeling like part of the ‘other’ has never sat well with me, especially because I know the judgment behind people.”
[Anna]: “What have your family, classes, or life experiences taught you about how to handle these types of situations?”
[Christina]: “Unfortunately my family doesn’t talk about these things. When Asian hate was on the rise during the pandemic, my parents didn’t even know about it... I had to educate them about it. Immediately after my incident, I told them right away. My dad’s first response? “Don’t think about it”. How could I not think about something traumatizing that just happened to me less than 20 minutes ago? How could I just pretend that these things aren’t happening in the world when I was literally still covered in the water that the man threw on me? I felt so lost and so unsupported. The damage that is being done to our community is not going to go away if we ignore the problem. We need to have these conversations and I so badly wished that I could talk to my parents about it on that day without feeling like I was supposed to completely erase those memories from my mind and suppress my thoughts.”
[Anna]: “What is one thing you hope our readers take away from this experience you had?”
[Christina]: “Have these conversations. Talk about what’s happening out there, beyond just ‘it’s crazy that these things are happening.’ Yes. It’s crazy... and people have to bring more awareness to this issue. Talking about it with others is the only way we as a community can create a sense of solidarity. Now is not the time to keep our heads down and move on. We shouldn’t have to accept this. Ignoring these topics will not make us stronger as a community living in this country. If you’re Asian and living in California, you don’t feel like a minority, but in the broader lens of the U.S. as a whole, we are, and we need to protect ourselves.”
Thank you to Christina for sharing her story. If you would like to read more about Asian hate crimes, some resources are listed below:
https://www.napaba.org/page/HateCrimeResources
https://www.aapicovid19.org/resources
https://www.apiahf.org/hate-crime-resources/
#StopAsianHate
