#stopasianhate
This hashtag has plastered the walls of each social media platform since the mass shooting outside of Atlanta. Eight people, of which six Asian American women, were killed within one night.

#enoughisenough
#notyourmodelminority
Each hashtag is reposted, promoted by Asians, yet brandished as if this wave of anti-Asian violence is something spurred on by the pandemic alone. The issue of xenophobia and the anti-Asian sentiment is being simplified by a wide-sweeping campaign without enough attention being given to the real roots of the issue.

No generation of Asian Americans, from the first major influx of Chinese immigrants in the nineteenth century to the daily arrival of families in the present day, regardless of citizenship status or cultural identity, is ignorant to the feeling of blind alienation by the Western society around them. From emasculated job-stealers to imported sexual deviants to buck-toothed cartoons of old enemies, Asians of every creed have grown used to, but not numb to the incessant stereotyping and condescension present in their everyday lives.

Chinese immigrant massacres and Japanese internment camps; caricatures and sex symbols; mass shootings; being spat at on the street; elderly assaults and snide “do you eat cats and dogs?” remarks. While hate crimes and microaggressions may seem like the extreme and the moderate sides of the spectrum, they both have imprinted indelible marks on the Asian American community and the American perception of Asians as a whole.

While Asian Americans themselves have made efforts to make strides forwards, pushing through the “bamboo ceiling” of Hollywood with Crazy Rich Asians, Parasyte, and Minari, one-sided pop culture movements are not enough to change the perspective of an entire country. The soft power losses of verbal harassment and discrimination are having life-rendering consequences once again, and it is only now, in the wakes of powerful movements like #metoo and #blacklivesmatter, that others are willing to speak up too.

김현서 강남포스트 학생기자  webmaster@ignnews.kr

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