Consider This from NPR - A Look At Anti-Asian Violence One Year After The Atlanta Shootings

Episode Date: March 18, 2022

It's been one year since a white man opened fire at three spas in the Atlanta area killing eight people — six of whom were Asian women. Since the beginning of the pandemic there has been an alarming rise in hate crimes against Asian people in America, and a majority of the victims are women.Harmful stereotypes of Asian Women play a huge role here — often portrayed in pop culture as demure, exotic, hyper sexualized, or carriers of disease. CNN journalist Amara Walker discusses what it feels like to live with these stereotypes and the threat of violence as an Asian American woman. In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Russell Jung is a co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate. AAPI stands for Asian American and Pacific Islanders. And since 2020, he has been documenting anti-Asian hate incidents. That's why, sadly, I wasn't surprised last year to see elders killed. I wasn't surprised by the Atlanta shootings because I saw the extent of the hate. He's, of course, referring to the deadly shootings at three spas in the Atlanta area one year ago this week, where a white man killed eight people, including six Asian women. His group has tracked nearly 11,000 hate incidents between March 2020, the start of the pandemic, and just last December. Of course, none of this is a coincidence. Why do you keep calling this the Chinese virus?

Why do you keep using this? Because it comes from China. A lot of people say it's racist. It's not racist at all, no. Not at all. It comes from China. That's why. It comes from China. I want to be accurate.

Former President Trump helped fuel anti-Asian sentiment through his rhetoric and his policies. The Trump administration banned Chinese scientists and researchers. He suspended migration visas. He extended the Muslim ban. He cut refugee resettlement. He cut H-1B visas. All those policies disproportionately targeted Asians. But it's not just recent anti-Asian policies. Decades of harmful stereotypes about Asian people in movies, TV, all over popular culture, play a huge role here, especially for Asian women who are often portrayed as demure, exotic, hyper-sexualized beings. Asian American women are still bearing the brunt of hatred and ignorance in this country.

That's Amanda Nguyen. She's a civil rights activist. And she says it's important to recognize that the majority of these anti-Asian hate incidents are happening to women. That's according to the data compiled by Stop AAPI Hate. Just last week in New York, an Asian woman was stomped on and punched more than 125 times. She's still alive, but she's suffered brain and facial injuries. You hear about our sisters getting shoved in front of trains, stabbed and screaming, and no one comes to help. It feels like getting torn apart. Consider this. Since the beginning of the pandemic, there has been an alarming rise

in hate crimes against Asian people in America. A majority of those victims are women. Coming up, we'll talk about what it feels like living with that threat. I just remember being in such shock and then being overcome by fear that it could possibly have happened to me. And then, of course, there was that feeling of anger. From NPR, I'm Elsa Chang. It's Friday, March 18th. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally,

and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. This week marks one year since a white man opened fire at three spas in the Atlanta area. He killed eight people. Six of them were Asian women. These killings, they brought national attention to the violence that Asian Americans have faced for years, especially since this pandemic began. And these crimes, they also brought into focus the sexualization and the stereotypes that Asian women constantly have to confront.

A recent survey published by National Asian Pacific American Women's Forum shows that 62% of all hate incidents nationwide are reported by Asian American and Pacific Islander women. We wanted to take some time to talk about what this feels like for Asian American women. So earlier this week, I spoke with Amara Walker. She's a correspondent and fill-in anchor for CNN. So Amara, I want to go back to a year ago because I want to be very honest with you. I was appalled that shortly after those killings, police seemed to take at face value the killer's explanation for what happened. He denied targeting these victims because of their race, but instead claimed that he did what he did because he was struggling with a, quote, sex addiction. And I thought to myself, how can you so easily separate misogyny from racism here? Like, the only way you could do that is if you were not an Asian woman. And so I'm curious for

you, how did you feel as a journalist reporting this story in the early days after the shootings? I just remember being in such shock and then being overcome by fear that it could have possibly have happened to me. And then, of course, there was that feeling of anger. And it was a visceral anger because it was very personal to me. And maybe it's because I saw myself reflected in these Asian American women. And covering the story and hearing the suspect claiming that this was not racially motivated, but at the same time saying that he was trying to eliminate a temptation actually spoke to the fact that you cannot separate gender and race, especially for Asian women, right? And that's exactly what makes us much

more vulnerable. Our race and gender together is what makes us vulnerable to acts of misogyny, racism, and sexism. And whether you recognize it or not, subconsciously or consciously, this is our reality. You just cannot separate the two. Absolutely. I mean, I had this moment early on in the investigation where I was questioning myself, like where I was thinking, am I seeing a criminal investigation through my biased lens of personal experience? Because I was so angry that authorities seemed hesitant to name this as a hate crime early on.

And if I were bringing my personal lens into this, I was thinking, is that wrong as a journalist? I mean, how did you grapple with that piece of it? I got a lot of questions about that from viewers. You know, hey, is it fair that you as an Asian American woman should be covering the story? And others are saying, look, this is the only way to do it. We're so glad that you're covering the story as an Asian American woman because you are bringing a perspective that most do not understand, nor do they see. And that's because as an Asian American female, I've experienced, and I'm sure many of our colleagues, including you, we've experienced racism. We've experienced misogyny and sexism in such a unique way by being Asian American females that have been perpetuated by stereotypes.

And so our lens is reality. This is what we experience. And I think it's so imperative that we Asian Americans who are extremely underrepresented in the media must cover these kinds of stories to educate the public about what we endure on a regular basis. And to lean into our identity as we cover these kinds of stories. Absolutely. Absolutely. And I embraced myself and my identity during this period. You know, I struggled with it in the beginning because I said, well, you know, how can I be a neutral journalist? How do I cover this from a neutral point of view? But by trying

to be neutral is denying who I am and not bringing attention to the crucial aspects of this case. And so embracing my gender, embracing my race together, and talking about all the stuff, the racism, the misogyny, the sexism that we have endured and what these women have faced as immigrants to this country, working in this industry, the service industry, all of that came together while we covered this story. And I think what was so heartening was the outpouring of shock, but also support. And, you know, many people admitting that they weren't aware of this experience. And they were grateful.

There was a lot of gratitude to learn about it. I had that same range of reactions. People saying, thank you for talking about this. I didn't realize that's what you and other Asian women have been going through. Are you at all concerned, even as you and I and other journalists try to increase coverage of the violence against Asians in America, are you concerned that this is becoming the dominant story told in this country about people like us, that we are hated, that we are under attack? Look, it has become dominant because every day you turn on the news, especially if you live

in a city like New York, right? If you're working in the local news industry there, and I have many friends who are covering the Asian American hate attacks that have been happening there, day in and day out, there and in San Francisco. There needs to be a deeper conversation. Yes, absolutely, we need to be reporting that these things are happening. People need to be aware. And then the next step needs to be why. Why do they continue to happen and what can be done about it? And what's been so heartening is strangers and friends and colleagues have been asking me, well, what can we do? I mean, how do we support you? That's a very complicated question, but I think number one, talking about it, right,

is the first step, but that's one step of many. You know, how do we combat these stereotypes that make us easy targets? Well, we got to also talk about Asian American history in this country, not just talk about it, but we need laws to require these kinds of teachings, curriculum, our contributions to this country, how we have helped build up this country along with other immigrants to America, but also the way that we've been villainized, falsely victimized. Going back to 1875 to the Page Act where Chinese women were ostensibly banned from this country because of prostitution. And you and I, both growing up in California as two Asian women, I never learned about that in grade school or high school. I learned about that as an adult in recent years.

Me as well. Right? I had to educate myself about this. And then I, you know, I fell into a rabbit hole reading about that and then how that led to the Chinese Exclusion Act. But to also read, Elsa, about how for so many decades, since the 1800s, since I think it was 1850, is when the Chinese immigrants started coming to this country. And the anti-Asian sentiment, the stereotype and the myths that they're coming to this country to spread diseases, that they were sexual deviants, all of that, that was circulating way back when. And so why should we be shocked that the spa massacre happened? Why should we be shocked that perhaps this may have been motivated by hate? You know,

this doesn't happen in a vacuum. That was Amara Walker, correspondent for CNN. Additional reporting in this episode was from NPR correspondent Sandhya Dirks. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Elsa Chang.