Frequently Asked Question: Who Cares?

“You put so much emphasis on race, why does it even matter so much to you?”

“Why do these situations make you so upset?”

“The more we talk about racism the more power we give it”

“Give me one reason why you care about racism so much”

That is a dose of friendship realness that I have received over the years about my passion for the Asian American community, racial politics, and my overall loathing of racism. 

I, for one, think it’s an outrage that people are not more outraged. 

Sometimes I feel like the odd one out amongst my young Asian American peers for caring, what I believe to be, a normal amount. But after constant battles against racism coupled with the indifference of my peers, I am honestly concerned about the current state of humanity and the prevalence of such racial hatred and ignorance. Why is there such a deficiency of caring about racism?

Partly to blame is the absence of minority history education and the lack of dialogue about the richness of different cultures within public schools. Also is the representation of minorities in the media as constantly stereotypical and othered. The mainstream models and characters in TV and film leave little for those that do not fit into that mold to relate to.

Because of this, there is a general lack of caring, and worse, a tendency to internalize, truly believe and sometimes advocate the hegemonic racist notions, creating a self-racism. I’ve seen this self-racism occur when people are embarrassed to be a part of their own race, a problem that I find all too common amongst my peers.

I feel the urge to blog about my reflections and experiences concerning race because for one, it helps me process my own thoughts and situations that I’ve been through. I also believe that it is crucial for the public to be exponentially more aware of the racism, marginalization and disparity occurring around us and impacting us on a daily basis.

Many have utterly tuned out any kind of racial insensitivity, disregarding certain situations or actions as “not a big deal” or “not my problem”. I want people to know, especially those in the Asian American community, that racism very much affects us every single day- from the ingrained attitudes of the ignorantly hateful, to the codified racism within systems and institutions, to the images in media that continue to influence generations into perpetuating stereotypes and prejudice.

All I can really tell you is that caring about these things is more important than I could ever explain, and being passionate and caring about it is something I will never be apologetic about.