Anti-Blackness and Racism in the Asian Community

July 23, 2020 8:00PM ET

Sam Hyun, Commissioner of the Asian-American Commission of Massachusetts

• Josephine Kim, PhD, Lecturer on Education, Harvard Graduate School of Education

• Akriti Bhambi, M.Ed., Chief of Staff for MA State Rep Marjorie C. Decker

We would like to acknowledge that the term “Asian American” was developed by Asian American activists, not the US Census Bureau.

How would you talk to your parents or older adults that have immigrated here and found power by putting Black Americans down?

Josephine Kim: I’ve found success by highlighting parallel experiences of oppression, erasure, and marginalization that my family and ethnic group have endured and using those experiences as entry points for soliciting empathy for the Black community. It opens the door to naming the 400+ years of human trafficking, forced labor and slavery, segregation, deprivation, and senseless murders that Blacks have endured. From there, I begin with how much we owe to our Black counterparts, as birthright citizenship, voting rights, and land ownership (amongst a long list) would not have been possible for us without their forging the way.

Bilingual media sources and panel discussions have also been useful. For example, I was part of a bilingual panel discussion where immigrant Korean parents and their adult children tuned in together. We started out with a video (with Korean subtitles) of Black parents speaking with their children about how to respond to the police, and we had immigrant parents crying during the video. The bilingual session sparked conversations between multi-generations, painted a larger systemic and historical picture, and provided new language and words that both generations could use in their subsequent conversations. 

Some pieces of advice would be 1. to not get defensive or angry (as any hint of disrespect may shut down conversations with most older Asians); 2. to validate and listen to the older generation’s experiences of oppression first, so that their hearts and minds can hold greater capacity for empathy to the pain of others; 3. to approach these conversations as a prolonged, persistent interaction and not a one-off conversation. These loaded and sensitive conversations usually can’t happen in one setting, one time. They have to be routine and frequent; and 4. to not forget that a positive rapport buffers the potential falls in difficult conversations; hence, it doesn't hurt to develop the relationship first before broaching sensitive topics.