American History through American Lives

Rationale

Race and Racism in America

Our social world is stratified by race from the way we talk, the way we wear our hair to what we eat. Kids are NOT too young to learn about racial justice, discrimination, prejudice and bias; teachers just have to learn effective ways to teach them. Recently, I interviewed my 8-year old nephew about racism, and he bravely and vividly recounted two racially charged incidents. In Pre-K, four boys shouted the racial slur “Ching Chang, Chinese boy” at my nephew; they cornered him in the playground with other intimidations. When I asked if he had told his teacher, he replied: “Yes, but she didn’t do anything. She just told me to stay away [from them].” Obviously, my nephew was taught to solve the race problem with invisibility and silence. When asked, how many times did this happen, he shouted: “Everyday!” That was at daycare when he was only 4-year old. In 2nd grade, during lunch, a white male student ridiculed my nephew with: “You are black! And you are a slave!”; this incident happened AFTER a class lesson and discussion about slavery. This time the teacher did talk to both parties, but again the same solution which had now become ingrained in my nephew’s head was: “I just stay away when I am faced with racism.” Today when asked if he wants to do it differently and talk to them, he continues to say: “No!”

No wonder in most high school cafeterias, all the black kids eat together, all the Latinx kids sit together, all the Asian kids eat together, and all the white kids sit together. In a research study (2014), 200,000 participants ranked their own racial group most positively, but the overall result - somewhat predictable, but dreadfully discouraging - conveyed the following racial hierarchy: Whites > Asians > Blacks > Hispanics.⁶

Teachers must recognize that race and racism profoundly impact our students from infancy to adulthood. I believe no one is born a racist, but everyone is born with an innate fear of the unfamiliar, and we all are taught to be biased toward people who are not like us. Racial hierarchy has been cemented in our American psyches and everyday lives. I am hopeful that if more students and more teachers study and value the American lives of people of color, the American school system and society will move toward greater equity for all people. According to the National Center for Education Statistics (2017), 50.7 million students were enrolled in American public schools; below is a chart that compares the percentages of teachers to students by race.⁷ While American schools are becoming more diverse, teachers are still mostly white.

The Chinese Virus

If you are Asian American, you may have encountered a few of the following explicit racist insults and implicit microaggressions: “Why do you people eat cats and dogs and bats and…? Go back to China! Why are you always so quiet? Don’t you speak? Don’t you speak English! Wow, you speak English so well. Who taught you English? You are so articulate. You are so smart in math. Why are you so loud? You talk like you are in a Kung Fu movie, do you know Bruce Lee? You are so cute and small! Where you are from, I mean, where are you REALLY from? Where is the best Chinese restaurant around here?”

As the world struggles with the death toll caused by COVID-19, countries like the United States, Canada, South Korea, Malaysia, Italy, France and Spain are reporting the surge of anti-Chinese racist attacks and xenophobia with signs like “NO CHINESE ALLOWED.”⁸ Parents in Ontario, Canada signed a petition to force families who recently returned from China to self-quarantine; members of its school board urge parents to not make assumptions that could fuel xenophobia and racism against the Chinese community because such request runs the risk of "demonstrating bias and racism," even when made in the name of safety.⁹ It is only human to want to protect yourself, your family, your livelihood and your country, but singling out a particular group of people (based on race or ethnicity) from going to schools, work, restaurants, and supermarkets is not addressing how a pandemic is spread from human to human contact.

In the United States, a score of violent incidents (near 1,900 reported as of June 9, 2020) against Asian-Americans has been recorded in the website Stop AAPI Hate, a tracking site launched by Russell Jeung, a professor of Asian American Studies at San Francisco State University.¹⁰ The website continues to be managed by the Asian Pacific Policy and Planning Council (A3PCON) and Chinese for Affirmative Action (CAA) to allow community member to report incidents of hate. Such xenophobia is reminiscent of the racism faced by American Muslims, Arabs and South Asians after the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. The senseless murders of Vincent Chin (1982), Thong Hy Huynh (1983) and Balbir Singh Sodhi (2001) were all racially motivated; these attacks show the xenophobia for Japanese, Vietnamese, Southeast Muslims, and all other “un-American” Asian Americans.¹¹ Other historical injustices include the detainment of immigrants at Angel Island, the internment of 127,000 Japanese Americans during WWII, the racial slur “gook” to describe Vietnamese refugees in public archives, and the displacement of 150,000 Cambodian refugees (1975-1994) in poor urban communities without inadequate financial and mental health support.¹² The Chinese Exclusion Act was the first law that excluded an entire group from entering the U.S., and it lasted for 61 years (1882-1943).¹³

At a White House press conference (March 18, 2020), President Donald Trump defended his habit of calling COVID-19 “the Chinese virus” by saying: “It’s not racist at all… it comes from China.”¹⁴ His staff jokingly referred to the pandemic as the “Kung Flu” virus. These racist labels reject the guidance of the World Health Organization (WHO). Viruses don’t care about national borders. Using geographic locations when naming illnesses is harmful because it incites hate and fear towards people who live in those locations. Past names like MER, West Nile Virus, Ebola and Spanish Flu have provoked a backlash of racial profiling. On May 2, 2020, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo made this blanket statement on This Week with George Stephanopoulos: “China has a history of infecting the world.”¹⁵ The fear of the COVID-19 pandemic is regenerating a surge of racism and fear of Asian-Americans that existed as early as the times of the Chinese Exclusion Act. These recent political bashings between the United States and China demonstrated the highest degree of Anti-Chinese sentiments since the 1989 Tiananmen Square massacre. China government officials were so outraged that some threatened the start of war with the United States.¹⁶ At home and in school, adults need to teach our children that the “China government” is a communist, one-party regime that should NOT be synonymous with “the diverse people of China” or “the diverse people of Chinese descent” living around the world.