This is a topic near and dear to me. Since childhood, I understood very early on what racism, discrimination, and bias were. When you experience it continuously, it’s undeniable—it guts you at your core. I may not have had the intellectual words to describe it back then like I can today, but the feeling is visceral—the same—then and now. Sadly, I can say it’s a familiar feeling and for my parents too.
My parents gave their all to ensure a better life for their six children in the U.S. A better future than in war-torn, poverty-stricken Vietnam. Due to the Vietnam war, both maternal and paternal grandparents starved to death. Famine is one of many life-altering effects from war—all wars—not just the Vietnam War also known as The American War in Vietnam. So what are families to do? They migrate to much less inflicted places, like the United States. Often times, the only choice is to do so by any means necessary.
The U.S. originally belonged to Indigenous peoples until they too experienced a war, genocide, forced migration, re-education schools brought onto them by immigrant Europeans. Like most immigrants, these Europeans fled their motherland for freedoms not granted in their homeland. So instead, they left to colonize and design the United States of America as it is today.
As a history lover, history—for me—is everything. It determines and shapes our present and future. History is too often written by the winners. I would not be surprised if, for many of you, my brief video of Asian American Pacific Islander history provides new information. I truly hope so. But here-in-lies the problem—such omissions and ignorance continue to breed and justify bias, discrimination, racism, white supremacy, and the status quo in America, vis-a-vis the recent rise in anti-Asian bias and violence. This also hits closer to home because a friend’s mom was a recent victim of such violence in San Jose, California.
Hence, let’s all elevate the necessary visibility to this abhorrent rise in violence towards our AAPI elders and communities, support Asian/AAPI owned small businesses, and the organizations doing something about it:
In community,
Jenny