Here’s Why the #StopAsianHate Hashtag is So Important

If you’ve been on social media over the past few weeks, you might have seen a thing or two about the #StopAsianHate movement that’s slowly but surely taking over the globe. It comes just days after mainstream media failed to report on any of the countless violent hate crimes committed against Asians not only in the US but worldwide. Whether it’s a brutal attack against the Chinese elderly in Oakland or a policeman murdering a Filipino by kneeling on his neck in Antioch, news networks everywhere have decided not to write about any of these. While we definitely aren’t as big as these multinational corporations, we want to use our platform to tell you why #StopAsianHate hashtag is so important and why it shouldn’t be ignored.

To put this into perspective, in the UK the rate of hate crimes against Chinese people between January 2020 and March 2020 almost tripled that of the previous two years. On the other side of the world, the US experienced a 1,900% increase in violence against East and South East Asian people since January last year, and on the run up to Chinese New Year on February 12th, there were several racially motivated attacks reported every single day, none of which were reported by the media. While it’s easy to blame this “sudden” increase on the coronavirus, that is far from the truth.

Last month, Prime Minister Boris Johnson took to social media to wish British Chinese people a happy Chinese New Year and thank the community for “consistently achieving so much, in everything from education to business and medicine”. This was immediately met with hundreds and hundreds of xenophobic replies, including “Year of the Covid, put that on the new calendar”, “I do not wish them Happy Anything. They have ruined the world!!!”, and “Was last year the year of the bat?” This racist ideology was reinforced by President Donald Trump over the pandemic, constantly referring to Covid-19 as the “Chinese virus”, the “Wuhan virus”, or “Kung Flu”.

As a first generation British Chinese myself, I think it’s safe to say that I’ve experienced racism of some shape or form at least once a week for the past 26 years of my life, but more so within the past twelve months. While 97% of these thankfully haven’t been violent, a lot of them have been micro-aggressions that I’ve grown to get used to. For instance, when people ask me where I’m from and I respond with “Belfast”, this is always swiftly followed by “But where are you really from?” Come on man, just because I’m not white it doesn’t mean I can’t be from here.

My parents, who immigrated from Hong Kong in the late '70s, experienced similar struggles. While they had just recently retired, they owned a takeaway for over thirty years before that, and within these three decades they experienced some of the most heinous acts of hate crime anyone can imagine. From coming in to the premises and pouring water over them and shouting derogatory terms, to straight up threatening them with a handgun, there have been so many instances when I’ve caught my own mum crying because of these - but she would never talk to me or anyone else about it. Why? Because it’s engraved in our culture that we’re “loud in our laughter and silent in our suffering.”

This is just one experience, and it’s one of the many reasons why the #StopAsianHate hashtag is so important. Finally, Asians everywhere have a voice. We no longer need to hide in the shadows and pretend that everything is okay when it isn’t. With that said, we’ve spoken to several members of our team to talk about what it’s like for them to be British Asian.

As being Muslim and Asian, I felt abuse towards being both at different times. My first experience that I'll never forget, was when someone offered to help my dad unload his car outside our house when we moved to Kent from South London. As I was too small to help him, a man came over, offered to help my dad but when he picked up the things, he just dropped them and everything unravelled from the boxes. The guy's words were "sorry I forgot to say, I don't really help p***s, you're on your own." That was the first time I experienced racism and it wasn't towards just me, seeing my dad go through that hurt me even at such a young age.

I consider myself lucky when it comes to being on the receiving end of racism. I can count the amount of times I’ve been in these situations with my fingers but this is one too many occasions. I grew up in secondary school with many other kids saying derogatory terms like c**** as if they were a joke when my heritage is one of a Filipino background. Even when they acknowledged my Filipino identity, I would be called Manny Pacquiao. Which some may view as an honourable comparison, These people would then proceed to butcher a Filipino accent. Racism became much more apparent in university, when I would spend time with people in the South East Asian society and there would be nights out where people in sports clubs felt it was appropriate to bow to me and say "ni hao" or "konnichiwa" then laugh as if it were funny when it’s meant to be a respectful gesture but you clearly see the mockery and ignorance.

The rise of crimes against Asian communities around the world is the fact there are layers to our struggles. The views of Asian males being a beta nerd whose just into anime and K-pop. The views of the Asian female being fetishised for the ideal male gaze where you can do as you wish and she will submit. The fact we are criticised for the lunches we eat just because it wasn’t a regular sandwich and having to tell your mum can you give me a "normal" lunch. We are viewed as a "different" that people think they can mock or belittle because in their heads we are not as "vocal" as our other P.O.C counterparts. The fact that vulnerable members of our community like the elderly are the ones being targeted especially breaks my heart regarding these crimes. I’d advise people to understand the weight of their words and that seek some humanity in understanding our struggles and the inequality issues we face. Do not reap the benefits of our culture like our food, fashion, and our media exports in music and television then proceed to disrespect the demographic that create those same things.

Anti-Asian hate crimes are unfortunately not new, it has been present for quite some time now yet the majority of the population choose to turn a blind eye to it as if we don’t exist. Looking back, one that I would never forget is when I was having my lunch with a few friends and one of them saw that I was using a fork and spoon to eat my food (that’s how we traditionally eat in the Philippines) and asked me “Why can’t you just be a normal human being like all of us and use a knife and fork instead, Asians are so damn weird."

Needless to say, since the Covid pandemic, anti-Asian hate crimes have sky-rocketed up - people have started to target anyone who appears to be inherently different from them, specifically anyone who looks Chinese or of Asian background. Living as a Filipino in the UK, the vast majority of my nationality works in the NHS, including my relatives and friends who all work in hospitals. Even though they are all frontline health and social care workers in this pandemic risking themselves and working endless hours in Covid wards, they still receive racist comments on their way to work, or even in the hospital directly, about us Asians being the root cause of coronavirus.

Overall, I can see that the only ones making a stand on this matter is the Asian population. It's very heartbreaking to see the vast majority of people brush aside such an important matter, yet they enjoy things that originated from our cultures such as Chinese food, K-pop, anime and even buying Asian brands such as A Bathing Ape, COMME des GARÇONS, sacai, and UNDERCOVER.

If you want to join The Sole Supplier in support of the #StopAsianHate movement, here’s a few ways that you can help:

The are also many Instagram accounts that you should follow:

Asians Are Human

Dear Asian Youth London

Don't Call Me Oriental

Next Shark

Stop AAPI Hate

The Next Generasian

And here are some books that you should definitely read:

America Is in the Heart by Carlos Bulosan

America Is in the Heart is a semi-autobiographical novel from the celebrated author Carlos Bulosan. Beginning with the young Carlos' difficult childhood in the rural Philippines where he and his family face immense hardship, this gripping story follows the narrator's tumultuous journey in search of a better life in America. This is an eye-opening account of the injustices, abuse and discrimination faced by immigrants in post-Second World War America.

Minor Feelings by Cathy Park Hong

Poet and essayist Cathy Park Hong fearlessly and provocatively blends memoir, cultural criticism, and history to expose fresh truths about racialised consciousness in America. Part memoir and part cultural criticism, this collection is vulnerable, humorous, and provocative—and its relentless and riveting pursuit of vital questions around family and friendship, art and politics, identity and individuality, will change the way you think about our world.

No Good Very Bad Asian by Leland Cheuk

Meet Sirius Lee, a fictive famous Chinese American comedian. He’s a no good, very bad Asian. He’s not good at math (or any other subject, really). He has no interest in finding a “good Chinese girlfriend.” And he refuses to put any effort into becoming the CEO/Lawyer/Doctor his parents so desperately want him to be. All he wants to do is making people laugh. No Good Very Bad Asian by Leland Cheuk follows Sirius from his poor upbringing in the immigrant enclaves of Los Angeles to the loftiest heights of stardom as he struggles with substance abuse and persistent racism despite his fame. Ultimately, when he becomes a father himself, he must come to terms with who he is, where he came from, and the legacy he'll leave behind.

The Making of Asian America: A History by Erika Lee

The Making of Asian America shows how generations of Asian immigrants and their American-born descendants have made and remade Asian American life, from sailors who came on the first trans-Pacific ships in the 1500 to the Japanese Americans incarcerated during World War II. Over the past fifty years, a new Asian America has emerged out of community activism and the arrival of new immigrants and refugees. No longer a “despised minority,” Asian Americans are now held up as America’s “model minorities” in ways that reveal the complicated role that race still plays in the United States.

The Myth of the Model Minority by Rosalind S Chou and John R Feagin

With their apparent success in schools and careers, Asian Americans have long been viewed by white Americans as the "model minority." Yet few Americans realise the lives of many Asian Americans are constantly stressed by racism. This reality becomes clear from the voices of Asian Americans heard in this first in-depth book on the experiences of racism among Asian Americans from many different nations and social classes. Chou and Feagin assess racial stereotyping and discrimination from dozens of interviews across the country with Asian Americans in a variety of settings, from elementary schools to colleges, workplaces, and other public arenas. They explore the widely varied ways of daily coping that Asian Americans employ-some choosing to conform and others actively resisting. This book dispels notions that Asian Americans are universally "favoured" by whites and have an easy time adapting to life in American society. The authors conclude with policy measures that can improve the lives not only of Asian Americans but also of other Americans of colour.

Yellow Peril! An Archive of Anti-Asian Fear by John Kuo Wei Tchen and Dylan Yeats

The "yellow peril" is one of the most long-standing and pervasive racist ideas in Western culture - indeed, this book traces its history to the Enlightenment era. Yet while Fu Manchu evokes a fading historical memory, yellow peril ideology persists, animating, for example, campaign commercials from the 2012 presidential election. Yellow Peril! is the first comprehensive repository of anti-Asian images and writing, pop culture artefacts and political polemic. Written by two leading scholars and replete with paintings, photographs and images drawn from dime novels, posters, comics, theatrical productions, movies, polemical and pseudo-scholarly literature, and other pop culture ephemera, this book is both a unique and fascinating archive and a modern analysis of this crucial historical formation.

The #StopAsianHate movement has just begun, and while we’re not quite sure what lies ahead of us, we’re excited to be joined by cultures and nationalities all over the world in this fight. Our past has been plagued by discrimination and oppression for decades, and we dream of a future where, no matter what race or colour you are, we can all live in perfect harmony without the walls of racism dividing us.