美国生活中一个可悲的现实是，虽然种族歧视和不公正每天都存在，但只有血才能买到关注。上个月，当亚特兰大大屠杀使反亚裔种族主义成为全国关注的焦点时，一个事实引起了人们的关注:亚裔美国人面临的系统性不公正一直是美国历史和现实的一部分。
美国的主流话语将亚裔美国人遭受的种族不公正与对“白人至上”的批评紧密联系在一起。正如一些亚洲民权活动家所说，这是一个政治上方便的选择。近年来，由粗鲁、粗俗和更暴力的保守派右翼对白人至上主义和特朗普主义的批评一直是美国媒体的主导话语。换句话说，亚洲人所遭受的不公正只是助长这种批评的又一个证据。然而，问题是亚洲人遭受的种族虐待要复杂得多。
这并不是说特朗普和他的白人至上主义盟友没有加剧亚洲人遭受的不公正。事实上，有大量的数据和案例证明了这种联系。在大流行期间，特朗普对所谓的“中国病毒”和“功夫流感”等污名化名称的宣传显然助长了对亚洲人的歧视和攻击。圣贝纳迪诺加州州立大学仇恨和极端主义研究中心最近的一份报告显示，2020年针对亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民的犯罪增长了145%。
然而，要系统地面对针对亚裔美国人的种族歧视问题，重要的是要记住，这不是特朗普发明的新问题。一系列简单的问题可以揭示反亚洲种族不公正发生的基础。有多少美国人知道，是中国劳工的辛勤劳动，建造了美国第一条跨洲铁路?有多少美国人知道美国第一部针对特定族群的反移民法是1882年的排华法案?有多少美国人意识到今天强加给亚裔美国人的所谓“模范少数民族”刻板印象掩盖了亚裔美国人内部许多亚群体面临的社会经济困难?
和非裔美国人面临的种族不公一样，亚裔美国人面临的种族不公是系统性的，有历史根源。美国文化给亚洲人贴上的许多标签虽然看似积极，但却忽略了最重要的部分:将亚洲人视为同龄人。
伊利诺伊州众议院刚刚通过了一项法案，要求从2022-2023学年开始，在公立小学和中学教授一个单元的亚裔美国人历史。这样的举动可能是一个正确的开始。但是，如果历史可以作为参考的话，我们有理由担心，这样的措施将是那种只有在枪击屠杀之后才会出现的罕见举动。更大的问题是，一旦这一波关注过去，这个国家能否继续采取持续的行动来改善亚洲的种族环境。
Justice for Asian-Americans requires sustained action
One of the sad realities of American life is that while racial discrimination and injustice exist every day, only blood buys attention. Last month, when the Atlanta mass murder put anti-Asian racism in the national spotlight, one fact was brought into focus: systematic injustice faced by Asian Americans has always been part of American history and reality.
The mainstream discourse in America has closely tied the racial injustice suffered by Asian-Americans with the criticism of "white supremacy". As some Asian civil rights activists say, this is a politically convenient option. In recent years, the critique of white supremacism and Trumpism held by the crass, vulgar and more violent conservative right has been the dominant discourse in the American media. The injustice suffered by Asians, in other words, is just one more piece of evidence to feed such critique. The problem, however, is that the racial mistreatment suffered by Asians is far more complex.
It's not that Trump and his white supremacist allies aren't exacerbating the injustices suffered by Asians. In fact, there is a lot of data and cases proving this connection. During the pandemic, Trump's promotion of stigmatized names such as the so-called "China Virus" and "kung flu" has obviously contributed to the discrimination and attacks against Asians. A recent report by the Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino, showed that crimes against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders jumped by 145% in 2020.
To systematically confront the problem of racial discrimination against Asian-Americans, however, it is important to remember that it’s not a new problem invented by Trump. A series of simple questions can reveal the ground on which anti-Asian racial injustice takes place. How many Americans know that it was the hard work of Chinese laborers who built the first cross-continent railroad in America? How many Americans know that the nation's first anti-immigration law against a specific ethnic group was the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882? How many Americans realize that today the so-called “model minority” stereotype imposed on Asian-Americans is masking the socioeconomic difficulties faced by many subgroups within Asian Americans?
Like the racial injustice faced by African Americans, the racial injustice faced by Asian Americans is systemic and has historical roots. Many of the labels that American culture places on Asians, while seemingly positive, miss the most important part: a perception of Asians as peers.
The Illinois Lower House just passed a bill mandating the teaching of a unit of Asian American history in public elementary and high schools starting the 2022-2023 school year. Such a move might be the right start. But if history is anything to go by, it seems reasonable to worry that such a measure would be the kind of rare move that only comes about in the wake of a shooting massacre. The bigger question is whether, once this wave of attention has passed, this country can continue to take sustained action to improve the Asian racial environment.
