Christina forever
February 15, 2022 8:31 PM Subscribe
(cw: assault, racial violence)
Early Sunday, Christina Yuna Lee, a 35 year-old Korean American woman living in NYC, was followed into her apartment and stabbed to death.
She is memorialized here, by co-worker Kenneth Takanami, with whom she had formed a support group following the Atlanta spa shootings in which six Asian women were killed, and by her community here.
Christina's murder comes only a few weeks after the murder of Michelle Alyssa Go, which sparked a conversation on the necessity of platform barriers for subways in NYC from some commentators.
Meanwhile, Asian-American hate crimes increased 339% in 2021. Additionally, over 10,000 anti-Asian hate incidents have been filed with the group Stop AAPI Hate as of November 2021. In their report, they state that "Hate incidents reported by women make up 62.0% of all reports."
For some of us, incidents like these are not one-off sensational news stories sparking momentary, superficial interest and reactions. For some of us, this is a lived experience, part of a long history of anti-Asian sentiment in the United States.
Conversations around hate incidents like these often have difficulty centering non-White perspectives, perhaps reflecting a lack of serious, studied representation. The fetishization of Asian femmes in the US is something that Asian femmes themselves have long advocated against. Chanel Miller once wrote about it, and it's a topic with that's been talked about much inside of Asian communities even as the intersection of race and gender is only briefly mentioned by the fourth estate in favor of broader issues that appeal more to the general zeitgeist.
Regardless, some AAPI groups have come up with toolkits by which some self-education and direct action can be taken. And while these actions are good, it can also be critical to learn how to stay in your lane and commit to actions in the kinds of places most appropriate to someone with privilege like yours.
She is memorialized here, by co-worker Kenneth Takanami, with whom she had formed a support group following the Atlanta spa shootings in which six Asian women were killed, and by her community here.
Christina's murder comes only a few weeks after the murder of Michelle Alyssa Go, which sparked a conversation on the necessity of platform barriers for subways in NYC from some commentators.
Meanwhile, Asian-American hate crimes increased 339% in 2021. Additionally, over 10,000 anti-Asian hate incidents have been filed with the group Stop AAPI Hate as of November 2021. In their report, they state that "Hate incidents reported by women make up 62.0% of all reports."
For some of us, incidents like these are not one-off sensational news stories sparking momentary, superficial interest and reactions. For some of us, this is a lived experience, part of a long history of anti-Asian sentiment in the United States.
Conversations around hate incidents like these often have difficulty centering non-White perspectives, perhaps reflecting a lack of serious, studied representation. The fetishization of Asian femmes in the US is something that Asian femmes themselves have long advocated against. Chanel Miller once wrote about it, and it's a topic with that's been talked about much inside of Asian communities even as the intersection of race and gender is only briefly mentioned by the fourth estate in favor of broader issues that appeal more to the general zeitgeist.
Regardless, some AAPI groups have come up with toolkits by which some self-education and direct action can be taken. And while these actions are good, it can also be critical to learn how to stay in your lane and commit to actions in the kinds of places most appropriate to someone with privilege like yours.
Men who attack women are fucking cowards. That racist men are cowards does not surprise, but the anger in me is
As for the time for police to intervene, last time I called 911 on a domestic violence issue in the next door apartment (fighting, someone being tossed around, someone yelling “let go of me, let go of me!” It took police something like 40 minutes to arrive… so that’s why. Police are rarely there to stop crimes in progress; most of the time they take reports and collect evidence of the crime that was committed. Sometimes they mediate disputes between families or neighbors. Mostly though, it’s reports.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:24 PM on February 15, 2022 [7 favorites]
As for the time for police to intervene, last time I called 911 on a domestic violence issue in the next door apartment (fighting, someone being tossed around, someone yelling “let go of me, let go of me!” It took police something like 40 minutes to arrive… so that’s why. Police are rarely there to stop crimes in progress; most of the time they take reports and collect evidence of the crime that was committed. Sometimes they mediate disputes between families or neighbors. Mostly though, it’s reports.
posted by [insert clever name here] at 11:24 PM on February 15, 2022 [7 favorites]
praemunire, that is so infuriating. I’ve cut my news habit down to the NYT, once a day in the mornings, and saw something in their coverage about a neighbor having heard something and gone to sleep, which was heartbreaking. To know that someone *did* understand what was happening as DANGER and *did* take the appropriate steps… ach. ACH ach ach.
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:41 PM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
posted by rrrrrrrrrt at 11:41 PM on February 15, 2022 [2 favorites]
Fuck the police and all that, but I hope this comment section doesn't derail into how cops are useless, etc. For the vast majority of the senseless killings of Asian American people, no response time by police would've been quick enough to prevent them. That Christina's death might've been prevented by a more competent NYPD says nothing about the structural racism+sexism that led to her being stalked and murdered, nor the killings of so many other Asian American people who should still be here with us today.
Anyway, thanks for writing this up, paimapi. Especially when so many of us are so tired and sad about these killings and are at a loss as to what to do. Metafilter hasn't been the kindest place to have these discussions, so I will try to keep this brief.
Hearing of another killing every few weeks, most of which don't make national news, throughout the pandemic has affected me and my loved ones deeply. Shane Nguyen the kindly food truck owner gave a ride to some strangers who then murdered and dismembered him. Woom Sing Tse the 71-year-old grandfather was walking through Chinatown when a driver pulled up on him, shot him seven times, pulled forward, shot him six more times, parked across the street, walked over, and shot his body nine more times. Not to mention the Atlanta killings: Asian women have to face this fear of racial violence at an amplified level. Christina's and Michelle's deaths have affected me and my partner particularly because they seem so similar to us -- I'm probably only a few degrees of social separation from either of them.
If you still think all of the recent anti-Asian violence is not racially motivated, please read the links in the main post. Asian people are generally dehumanized by Western society, which has both historically and recently led to awful, awful violence. It doesn't have to be this way. Please consider taking action, whether small or large -- the link in the main post about self-education and direct action seems great -- because even if violent racism can't be completely eradicated, we can still take steps to prevent it where we can. Rest in peace Christina.
posted by bongerino at 12:48 AM on February 16, 2022 [55 favorites]
Anyway, thanks for writing this up, paimapi. Especially when so many of us are so tired and sad about these killings and are at a loss as to what to do. Metafilter hasn't been the kindest place to have these discussions, so I will try to keep this brief.
Hearing of another killing every few weeks, most of which don't make national news, throughout the pandemic has affected me and my loved ones deeply. Shane Nguyen the kindly food truck owner gave a ride to some strangers who then murdered and dismembered him. Woom Sing Tse the 71-year-old grandfather was walking through Chinatown when a driver pulled up on him, shot him seven times, pulled forward, shot him six more times, parked across the street, walked over, and shot his body nine more times. Not to mention the Atlanta killings: Asian women have to face this fear of racial violence at an amplified level. Christina's and Michelle's deaths have affected me and my partner particularly because they seem so similar to us -- I'm probably only a few degrees of social separation from either of them.
If you still think all of the recent anti-Asian violence is not racially motivated, please read the links in the main post. Asian people are generally dehumanized by Western society, which has both historically and recently led to awful, awful violence. It doesn't have to be this way. Please consider taking action, whether small or large -- the link in the main post about self-education and direct action seems great -- because even if violent racism can't be completely eradicated, we can still take steps to prevent it where we can. Rest in peace Christina.
posted by bongerino at 12:48 AM on February 16, 2022 [55 favorites]
I don't understand why it took the cops more than an hour to get inside the apartment when they could hear her calling for help (if the media reports are accurate).
praemunire, some reports I've read (e.g.) describe the door to her apartment as being made of steel, which was additionally barricaded from the inside by the attacker. This article doesn't mention the steel door but states that the police had to call in a special unit to breach it:
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:21 AM on February 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
praemunire, some reports I've read (e.g.) describe the door to her apartment as being made of steel, which was additionally barricaded from the inside by the attacker. This article doesn't mention the steel door but states that the police had to call in a special unit to breach it:
Police officers who responded to a 911 call about a disturbance in a Lower Manhattan building on Sunday heard a woman screaming when they reached the sixth floor, but the door to the apartment where the screams had come from was locked.So the cops were in the building in time to hear the attack happening and tried to get inside the apartment, but it seems like the long entry time may have been a result of the unit having a steel door for protection that ironically hindered entry by the police.
As police struggled with the door, at first they still heard her calls for help, but “then she went quiet,” a prosecutor, Dafna Yoran, said in a Manhattan Criminal Court hearing on Monday night. Another voice emerged, sounding like a woman and telling them, “‘We don’t need the police here — go away.’”
When a specialized police unit arrived and broke down the door, they found Christina Yuna Lee, 35, dead in her bathtub with more than 40 stab wounds. The second voice, Ms. Yoran said, was actually that of Assamad Nash, who had followed the victim into the building on Chrystie Street in Chinatown, forced his way into her home and stabbed her.
posted by star gentle uterus at 7:21 AM on February 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
That Christina's death might've been prevented by a more competent NYPD says nothing about the structural racism+sexism that led to her being stalked and murdered
Very true. I was thinking (in part) about the vigor of the police response to a report of screams on the sixth floor of a walkup in a shabby area on the border of the LES and Chinatown. A mile north, getting the door down might have been seen as more urgent.
posted by praemunire at 7:33 AM on February 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
Very true. I was thinking (in part) about the vigor of the police response to a report of screams on the sixth floor of a walkup in a shabby area on the border of the LES and Chinatown. A mile north, getting the door down might have been seen as more urgent.
posted by praemunire at 7:33 AM on February 16, 2022 [3 favorites]
the police response time derail reminds me of the sensationalized coverage of Kitty Genovese, which we may now understand was a total fabrication by the NYT which, in this case, is happily derailing a story about anti-Asian hate into a conversation about homelessness and how the unhoused should be generally feared and presumably eliminated from sight
if your only source of news is the NYT then I'm not confident you know what the fuck is going on with anything
posted by paimapi at 8:12 AM on February 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
if your only source of news is the NYT then I'm not confident you know what the fuck is going on with anything
posted by paimapi at 8:12 AM on February 16, 2022 [11 favorites]
Mod note: Hi folks, echoing the above, please resist the temptation to focus on details of the one case in a way that pre-empts discussion of the bigger phenomenon. Please keep the focus on the bigger picture.
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:05 AM on February 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
posted by LobsterMitten (staff) at 9:05 AM on February 16, 2022 [1 favorite]
I’m absolutely opposed to the carceral system as it exists today and im absolutely against jailing people for victimless crimes but in a lot of these cases it seems like there’s escalating instances of violence until someone gets murdered. There was a guy in Berkeley who had been in and out of jail for years for increasingly violent acts until he randomly stabbed a college student to death who was just walking on the street.
I don’t know what the ultimate solution is but there has to be be a way for the system to recognize this behavior and do something about it before someone gets murdered. And that solution doesn’t include police murdering people for selling loosies at a gas station.
posted by mikesch at 9:09 AM on February 16, 2022 [10 favorites]
I don’t know what the ultimate solution is but there has to be be a way for the system to recognize this behavior and do something about it before someone gets murdered. And that solution doesn’t include police murdering people for selling loosies at a gas station.
posted by mikesch at 9:09 AM on February 16, 2022 [10 favorites]
mikesch, I completely agree. In 2019, some guy stabbed a woman in the head with an ICE PICK in San Francisco after he had stabbed someone else in 2016. He recently was involved in three more stabbings in Hayward (two victims died) in 2021. All attacks were unprovoked. I fail to understand how a person who had engaged in this kind of violent behavior was still roaming the streets.
posted by extramundane at 10:45 AM on February 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
posted by extramundane at 10:45 AM on February 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
.
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 12:14 PM on February 16, 2022
posted by Ms. Moonlight at 12:14 PM on February 16, 2022
I can't help but compare Mayor Eric Adams response to the police officer who was shot and killed recently with this, it is pretty clear who he values in the city...
After Chinatown murder, Adams’ commitment to Asian community is questioned (Gothamist):
Despite the chilling nature of the crime, Adams did not attend a press conference with public officials and Asian advocates on Sunday to address the incident, which police have not yet determined to be a hate crime. The mayor, a former police officer, has made a point of responding to the scenes of violent crimes, including the one that involved Go.
“Do I wish the mayor were there? Absolutely,” said Benjamin Wei, the founder of a nonprofit group called Asians Fighting Injustice who was at the press conference.
“It was a three-line response,” she said, adding that Adams had failed in the statement to sufficiently acknowledge the brutality of the killing and the fact that the community has been targeted since the start of the pandemic.
posted by rambling wanderlust at 1:23 PM on February 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
After Chinatown murder, Adams’ commitment to Asian community is questioned (Gothamist):
Despite the chilling nature of the crime, Adams did not attend a press conference with public officials and Asian advocates on Sunday to address the incident, which police have not yet determined to be a hate crime. The mayor, a former police officer, has made a point of responding to the scenes of violent crimes, including the one that involved Go.
“Do I wish the mayor were there? Absolutely,” said Benjamin Wei, the founder of a nonprofit group called Asians Fighting Injustice who was at the press conference.
“It was a three-line response,” she said, adding that Adams had failed in the statement to sufficiently acknowledge the brutality of the killing and the fact that the community has been targeted since the start of the pandemic.
posted by rambling wanderlust at 1:23 PM on February 16, 2022 [4 favorites]
I don’t know what the ultimate solution is but there has to be be a way for the system to recognize this behavior and do something about it before someone gets murdered.
It seems to me we know what has led to this spate of anti-Asian crime, namely the demonization of Asians by our previous president and his cadre of right-wingers. The solution is going to necessarily involve pushing back against that racist narrative, and racist narratives in general. What makes doing so particularly difficult is that racism is like a retrovirus permeating American culture. When you try to attack it head-on, it goes into hiding and mutates into a stealthier form. And the organism itself refuses to acknowledge it is even sick.
Speaking of a refusal to acknowledge, a lot of us black people don't want to acknowledge the reality that far too many of these attacks are being perpetrated by our community. As black people we also need to accept that we too are very American, and deeply infected with racism, ineluctably so. When blacks attack Asians, it's racist. We don't get a pass because we are historically victims of racism ourselves. We don't get a pass if we perceive Asians as unfriendly interlopers in "our" neighborhoods. Nobody gets a pass on anything. Just as we expect white allies to educate themselves and to inoculate themselves against racist narratives, we must do the work as black allies to our Asian American brothers and sisters.
posted by xigxag at 1:54 PM on February 16, 2022 [15 favorites]
It seems to me we know what has led to this spate of anti-Asian crime, namely the demonization of Asians by our previous president and his cadre of right-wingers. The solution is going to necessarily involve pushing back against that racist narrative, and racist narratives in general. What makes doing so particularly difficult is that racism is like a retrovirus permeating American culture. When you try to attack it head-on, it goes into hiding and mutates into a stealthier form. And the organism itself refuses to acknowledge it is even sick.
Speaking of a refusal to acknowledge, a lot of us black people don't want to acknowledge the reality that far too many of these attacks are being perpetrated by our community. As black people we also need to accept that we too are very American, and deeply infected with racism, ineluctably so. When blacks attack Asians, it's racist. We don't get a pass because we are historically victims of racism ourselves. We don't get a pass if we perceive Asians as unfriendly interlopers in "our" neighborhoods. Nobody gets a pass on anything. Just as we expect white allies to educate themselves and to inoculate themselves against racist narratives, we must do the work as black allies to our Asian American brothers and sisters.
posted by xigxag at 1:54 PM on February 16, 2022 [15 favorites]
fwiw, while the previous regime and its supporters were quite bigoted towards asians, i'd like to point out that this problem is not exclusive to conservatives and the right wing.
posted by i used to be someone else at 8:55 AM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
posted by i used to be someone else at 8:55 AM on February 17, 2022 [3 favorites]
[T]his problem is not exclusive to conservatives and the right wing.
Sure, but as xigxag pointed out, Trump's rhetoric--particularly his anti-China bombast including blaming the country for COVID-- emboldened racists, normalized white supremacy and correlates with an increase in violence and hate crimes directed at AAPI people without objection by the GOP or its leaders. It's especially infuriating that Trump is, in his usual gleeful and disingenuous way, is attempting to weaponize racism in his favor, characterizing Christina Lee's murder as evidence of general incompetence by all Democrats holding elected office. Similarly, Trump attributes prosecutors Letitia James and Alvin Bragg's motivation to bigotry and political suasion as part of his victim narrative. See also: Republicans claiming to be the "Party of Lincoln" when the 16th president would be run out on a rail by today's GOP.
posted by carmicha at 1:22 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Sure, but as xigxag pointed out, Trump's rhetoric--particularly his anti-China bombast including blaming the country for COVID-- emboldened racists, normalized white supremacy and correlates with an increase in violence and hate crimes directed at AAPI people without objection by the GOP or its leaders. It's especially infuriating that Trump is, in his usual gleeful and disingenuous way, is attempting to weaponize racism in his favor, characterizing Christina Lee's murder as evidence of general incompetence by all Democrats holding elected office. Similarly, Trump attributes prosecutors Letitia James and Alvin Bragg's motivation to bigotry and political suasion as part of his victim narrative. See also: Republicans claiming to be the "Party of Lincoln" when the 16th president would be run out on a rail by today's GOP.
posted by carmicha at 1:22 PM on February 17, 2022 [2 favorites]
Sure, the previous regime going all in on anti-China shit was blatant and obvious, but I'm also a bit tired of pretending that it's entirely one-sided, given the fact that:
- liberal heavyweights like Jon Stewart pushed the lab leak conspiracy theory
- bipartisan legislation is written targeting China (c.f., Schumer's Endless Frontier/US Innovation & Competition Act)
- Americans of all stripes loudly proclaiming Eileen Gu and Beverly Zhu as "traitors"
Like, yes. Fuck Trump and all that. But don't try and gaslight me by saying that it's just a Republican, conservative problem, this anti-Asian sentiment, the sinophobia, the xenophobia. Let's not pretend that with a lot of these anti-Asian violence there isn't a quick urge on the part of a lot of people to try and divert the conversation from racism: the right because they want to pretend it doesn't exist, the left because there's sometimes an instinct to intersectionalize everything to the point of erasure, and the center because they want to pretend that this is not what America is.
posted by i used to be someone else at 1:39 PM on February 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
- liberal heavyweights like Jon Stewart pushed the lab leak conspiracy theory
- bipartisan legislation is written targeting China (c.f., Schumer's Endless Frontier/US Innovation & Competition Act)
- Americans of all stripes loudly proclaiming Eileen Gu and Beverly Zhu as "traitors"
Like, yes. Fuck Trump and all that. But don't try and gaslight me by saying that it's just a Republican, conservative problem, this anti-Asian sentiment, the sinophobia, the xenophobia. Let's not pretend that with a lot of these anti-Asian violence there isn't a quick urge on the part of a lot of people to try and divert the conversation from racism: the right because they want to pretend it doesn't exist, the left because there's sometimes an instinct to intersectionalize everything to the point of erasure, and the center because they want to pretend that this is not what America is.
posted by i used to be someone else at 1:39 PM on February 17, 2022 [6 favorites]
If that's in response to my comment, I think I made it clear that my opinion is that racism is part of the American DNA as a whole, and not exclusive to any party. Like I said, nobody gets a pass. I've encountered plenty of otherwise Democratic people who lowkey opine things about "foreigners" not worth repeating in this space. However this particular wave of anti-Asian aggression quite clearly to me has Trumpism as the proximal accelerant. But this is all derail, actually. Let's just agree that anti-Asian sentiment is wrong regardless of origin and ought have no quarter anywhere.
posted by xigxag at 2:58 PM on February 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
posted by xigxag at 2:58 PM on February 17, 2022 [5 favorites]
I'm also a bit tired of pretending that it's entirely one-sided, given the fact that:
- liberal heavyweights like Jon Stewart pushed the lab leak conspiracy theory
- bipartisan legislation is written targeting China (c.f., Schumer's Endless Frontier/US Innovation & Competition Act)
- Americans of all stripes loudly proclaiming Eileen Gu and Beverly Zhu as "traitors"
It's not one-sided at all, and the smug morally superior liberals are definitely gaslighting you about it and using you to score points against their enemies. I've definitely seen it too.
Here's another to add to your list: Biden's commerce secretary calling for the U.S. and Europe to kneecap innovation in China.
What happened to the free market and the belief in honest competition? What happened to people trying to better themselves? Maybe it doesn't count if you're Asian.
Just two weeks before Christina Yuna Lee's death, I posted a concern on Metafilter about how so many homeless were being pushed into New York City's Chinatowns.
https://www.metafilter.com/194169/Falling-through-the-cracks-of-the-American-Dream#8201844
My comment was deleted. You can see the posturing about homelessness used to justify the deletion.
I'm sure those same folks are eager to say noble things about Christina here too. I'm sure those people don't live in conditions that challenge their virtue signaling.
Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. After all, there's plenty of precedent:
MeFites eagerly stereotyping Marie Kondo and defending a white woman's ignorance
MeFite hypocritically tagging China for environmental crimes while giving a pass to a country -- surprise! -- of white people
MeFite blaming China for poor working conditions in America -- and conveniently overlooking exploitation from their own ruling class
posted by Borborygmus at 12:50 PM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
- liberal heavyweights like Jon Stewart pushed the lab leak conspiracy theory
- bipartisan legislation is written targeting China (c.f., Schumer's Endless Frontier/US Innovation & Competition Act)
- Americans of all stripes loudly proclaiming Eileen Gu and Beverly Zhu as "traitors"
It's not one-sided at all, and the smug morally superior liberals are definitely gaslighting you about it and using you to score points against their enemies. I've definitely seen it too.
Here's another to add to your list: Biden's commerce secretary calling for the U.S. and Europe to kneecap innovation in China.
What happened to the free market and the belief in honest competition? What happened to people trying to better themselves? Maybe it doesn't count if you're Asian.
Just two weeks before Christina Yuna Lee's death, I posted a concern on Metafilter about how so many homeless were being pushed into New York City's Chinatowns.
https://www.metafilter.com/194169/Falling-through-the-cracks-of-the-American-Dream#8201844
My comment was deleted. You can see the posturing about homelessness used to justify the deletion.
I'm sure those same folks are eager to say noble things about Christina here too. I'm sure those people don't live in conditions that challenge their virtue signaling.
Maybe I shouldn't be surprised. After all, there's plenty of precedent:
MeFites eagerly stereotyping Marie Kondo and defending a white woman's ignorance
MeFite hypocritically tagging China for environmental crimes while giving a pass to a country -- surprise! -- of white people
MeFite blaming China for poor working conditions in America -- and conveniently overlooking exploitation from their own ruling class
posted by Borborygmus at 12:50 PM on February 19, 2022 [2 favorites]
Just two weeks before Christina Yuna Lee's death, I posted a concern on Metafilter about how so many homeless were being pushed into New York City's Chinatowns.
this reminds me of the hidden history of the LA Riot -
the structure of the city pushing lower-income immigrant and Black families together ie out of rich and gentrifying predominantly white neighborhoods, the surrounding racist cultural discourse pitting the 'model minority' against the 'criminal', the internalization of that belief by its members as they struggle under white supremacy, the lack of material wealth in both groups as a result of generations of oppression leading to the flashes in the pan -
the murder of an innocent Black girl by a Korean immigrant who were both promised the American dream
the mutilation of Rodney King by the LAPD and subsequent exoneration of the white supremacists who enacted it, allowed to live out their days as if their killing were just a bad dream
and then the riots, where the LAPD posted up in predominantly white, gentrifying and gentrified neighborhoods almost as if they encouraged the violence of justified anger to be unleashed onto the Korean immigrant neighborhoods, the ones they left completely undefended, the ones they allowed built in lower income spaces to be shared with the Black communities
these Korean stores that were then 'defended' by Korean immigrants trained by the US military to oppose their own countrymen in the wake of millions dead for the sake of America's geopolitical power -
all of it leading back to this one truth, that we live under white supremacy in every fucking facet of our lives, that it's pervasive and defines so much of why things happen, and that it deliberately, whether consciously or not, pushes the oppressed against one another, to fight against one another, to direct justified rage against one another instead of at the white-run and favored institutions who created these environments for them
and us, the ones who see it, who point it out, who grapple with understanding it, who live with it and yet are denied the spaces to work these thoughts out or to air them, being told always that
it's some other issue
there are more important conversations going on
it's racist to talk about race
it's racist to worry about these deliberately racialized spaces made just so by white supremacy
as they say: same shit, different day
posted by paimapi at 7:09 AM on February 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
this reminds me of the hidden history of the LA Riot -
the structure of the city pushing lower-income immigrant and Black families together ie out of rich and gentrifying predominantly white neighborhoods, the surrounding racist cultural discourse pitting the 'model minority' against the 'criminal', the internalization of that belief by its members as they struggle under white supremacy, the lack of material wealth in both groups as a result of generations of oppression leading to the flashes in the pan -
the murder of an innocent Black girl by a Korean immigrant who were both promised the American dream
the mutilation of Rodney King by the LAPD and subsequent exoneration of the white supremacists who enacted it, allowed to live out their days as if their killing were just a bad dream
and then the riots, where the LAPD posted up in predominantly white, gentrifying and gentrified neighborhoods almost as if they encouraged the violence of justified anger to be unleashed onto the Korean immigrant neighborhoods, the ones they left completely undefended, the ones they allowed built in lower income spaces to be shared with the Black communities
these Korean stores that were then 'defended' by Korean immigrants trained by the US military to oppose their own countrymen in the wake of millions dead for the sake of America's geopolitical power -
all of it leading back to this one truth, that we live under white supremacy in every fucking facet of our lives, that it's pervasive and defines so much of why things happen, and that it deliberately, whether consciously or not, pushes the oppressed against one another, to fight against one another, to direct justified rage against one another instead of at the white-run and favored institutions who created these environments for them
and us, the ones who see it, who point it out, who grapple with understanding it, who live with it and yet are denied the spaces to work these thoughts out or to air them, being told always that
it's some other issue
there are more important conversations going on
it's racist to talk about race
it's racist to worry about these deliberately racialized spaces made just so by white supremacy
as they say: same shit, different day
posted by paimapi at 7:09 AM on February 26, 2022 [1 favorite]
these Korean stores that were then 'defended' by Korean immigrants trained by the US military to oppose their own countrymen in the wake of millions dead for the sake of America's geopolitical power -
all of it leading back to this one truth, that we live under white supremacy in every fucking facet of our lives, that it's pervasive and defines so much of why things happen, and that it deliberately, whether consciously or not, pushes the oppressed against one another, to fight against one another, to direct justified rage against one another instead of at the white-run and favored institutions who created these environments for them
yes. it was disturbing that the lapd chose to cut koreatown loose; korean americans defended their stores because they felt nobody else would.
to see those koreans now used by right-wing figures as exemplars against blm protests rather than desperate people trying to keep their livelihoods in an environment where white leadership saw them as disposable...
vile.
posted by i used to be someone else at 3:30 PM on February 27, 2022
all of it leading back to this one truth, that we live under white supremacy in every fucking facet of our lives, that it's pervasive and defines so much of why things happen, and that it deliberately, whether consciously or not, pushes the oppressed against one another, to fight against one another, to direct justified rage against one another instead of at the white-run and favored institutions who created these environments for them
yes. it was disturbing that the lapd chose to cut koreatown loose; korean americans defended their stores because they felt nobody else would.
to see those koreans now used by right-wing figures as exemplars against blm protests rather than desperate people trying to keep their livelihoods in an environment where white leadership saw them as disposable...
vile.
posted by i used to be someone else at 3:30 PM on February 27, 2022
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posted by praemunire at 9:06 PM on February 15, 2022