#Asians4Blacklives is not just a hashtag; these two groups of minorities have a long history together. As typical “model minority” and the “problem minority” at first glance it seems that African Americans and Asian Americans do not have any thing in common, but in fact they do. Often times Afro-Asian relations are seen or put into the negative light; however, the relationship is better than the media portrays it. This representation in the media has a had a negative impact on the Afro-Asian relationship; however, Asians continue to stand with African Americans.
The Afro-Asian relationship did not just magically appear. During the Vietnam war, African Americans were being forced fight the Vietcong, but they began to realize they should be helping them because they are being oppressed by the same group of people; white people. However, back home in America; African Americans and Asians relationship was going down hill because of Asians migrating to major cities such as: California, Chicago, and many more. African Americans felt as if Asians were coming into their community taking their jobs so they turned on Asians back in America. The media portrayed this relationship so much worse than it actually was. They painted the imagine so bad that the president at the time President Bush was forced to pay a visit because the Asians began to rise up as a community and protest. Asians and African Americans tend to overlook each other as being similar and realize they are under a very similar oppression. So, the strongest way to get through this is to join together. (Add another quote from second source)
African Americans have rallied to start a moment well known as Black Lives Matter. This organization comes at the wake of ample African Americans being killed senselessly by police. It is an effort to assure that people understand that Black Lives Matter and will always matter. Asians are having the same problem as blacks and are trying to work together. As one Asian American Activist explained it “systemic racism, it would be naive for me to pretend”(Mak). Instead of creating two different backgrounds and natives, which is what the media wants to see it is time that blacks and Asians come together and realize they have keyed in on the same goal to stop, systemic racism against both Asians and blacks. Also, while the media portrays the Blacks and Asians into two different stories when it comes to interaction with the system and police; however, they are very similar. In fact, Asians are patrolled just like blacks, as one Asian-American highlights, “Southeast Asians and Pacific Islanders face high rates of incarceration, and there are cases in which police have targeted South Asians because of their darker skin tone. Some activists point out a parallel to the civil rights movement.” Asians are in support with black lives not because they are just trying to jump on the bandwagon or pretend like they are in support. They want to join together as one to fight for the same issues because they can relate to blacks, even though the media oversees that connection.
The Asians and Blacks has been taking matters into their own hands. Asians in particular have started the conversation to show that they are in solidarity with blacks. According to a CNN article, “Hundreds of them came together over the past week to share their answers, collaborating on a crowd sourced ‘Letter for Black Lives.’” In this letter Asians look to reach out to the black community to join them and genuinely emphasized their understanding of what blacks are going through.
Morehouse Afro-Asian Archive 1:00 pm 