How Asian American Women Experience The Intersection of Racism and Sexism In America

Speaker 1: 00:00 For Asian-American women, racism and sexism are two things experienced at the same time. Last week, shooting rampage in the Atlanta area, underscored that when eight people, six of whom were Asian women were killed, law enforcement immediately took the shooter's words. As fact stating his motive was sex addiction and had nothing to do with race, but many people in the Asian-American Pacific Islander community say racism and sexism have a long interconnected history in this country. Joining me to discuss is Kristin Sasaki PhD, who is an assistant professor of ethnic studies at UCS di Kristen. Welcome. Speaker 2: 00:39 Hi, thanks for having me. Speaker 1: 00:41 Can you describe the ways in which Asian American women experience racism and sexism? Speaker 2: 00:47 Sure. So the recent Atlanta killings, I think exemplify the intersection of racism and sexism that Asian-American women deal with in this country on a daily basis. And I really don't think that you can disconnect race from sexism or racialized violence from gender based violence. And we see this narrative that is coming out of the shooting in Atlanta with the shooter, telling the police at the spa is he open, fired on represented, you know, this temptation he wanted to eliminate. And these were working class Asian American women, women with lives and loved ones. And longs defense reduces these women to an embodiment of his sin and this, this conflation of massage parlors and sex workers without any nuance, I think is, is something very specific to anti-Asian racism against Asian women. Speaker 1: 01:39 And have you personally experienced this? Speaker 2: 01:42 I mean, sadly, yes, I have. Uh, a lot of times in places I think where you least expect it, like while grocery shopping, someone will make a massage monistic comment while I'm picking out apples or something. So growing up as a Asian American woman, I mean, you know, this is our reality. We are invisibilized in so many different ways where views viewed as a fetish, um, an exoticized eroticized sexualized object that on one hand is expected to be quiet and on the other is understood as, as you know, this dangerous temptation, Speaker 1: 02:20 Where does this racialized sexism or racialized misogyny against Asian-American women STEM from? Speaker 2: 02:28 That's a great question. You know, I think our country has had a long history of sexual violence against Asian women. And we see it as early as the 1875, uh, page act, which is a U S federal law that was directed at barring Asian women in general and Chinese women in particular from entering the United States under the assumption that they were sex workers or apt to become sex workers. So, you know, this is not something you at all it's been going on for centuries. And you know, when Speaker 1: 03:00 You heard police in Georgia say the shooting wasn't about race, but about an alleged sex addiction, the shooter said he had, what were your immediate thoughts? Speaker 2: 03:10 I mean, honestly, I thought they're wrong. And my second thought was, you know, I know our community is going to speak out about this. And so, uh, I, you know, I'm, I'm glad we are, and I'm glad we're having this conversation. Speaker 1: 03:23 What do you think of the way the Cherokee County Sheriff's office responded to the rampage shooting? The officer said the shooter had a bad day, the same officer's Facebook page revealed racist post about the Corona virus. I mean, do you think he, or even the way this has been investigated is one example of a larger problem in terms of getting needed attention to justice when it comes to violence against the AAPI community? Speaker 2: 03:49 Yes, I do. I think the Asian-American community in general has been told that we don't really experience racism and this type of violence against our community is oftentimes swept under the rug by political authorities. And although we've been voicing our concern for decades and centuries, even it's gotten little media coverage or any political attention. Speaker 1: 04:10 And do you think that the, the model minority myth feeds into that idea that the community does not experience racism? Speaker 2: 04:18 Definitely. I mean, even if you look at one of the first times it's used, you know, in 1965, by Daniel Moynihan who was then secretary of state, he uses the term model minority as he compares Asian-Americans, you know, quote success, success in this country to what he calls the failure of, of black America. And I think that type of discourse continues to haunt and hurt our BiPAP communities today. Speaker 1: 04:44 And what do you think needs to be done to help people better understand how Asian American women in particular experience racism in this country? Speaker 2: 04:54 You know, um, oftentimes when we complain about anti-Asian racism and gender violence, our concerns are brushed away and minimized. And I really hope that starts to change. And what we need to do is understand the intersectionality of these types of systemic violence against BiPAP communities, um, and Asian American communities, and, and be in solidarity with each other. And for the past year, there's been a lot of media focus upon particular individual acts of violence against our communities with organizations like stop API hate, um, reporting individual acts of violence against Asians and Asian-Americans, and this has been a really useful tool. But I think what has also happened is that the ways that this is covered is as individualized acts of violence. And what we need to do is demonstrate that they are really symptomatic of systemic racism and violence against our communities. Speaker 1: 05:48 And how has this history of racialized sexism harmed AAPI women in the U S Speaker 2: 05:54 I mean, I think in general, you know, are invisibilized, um, and right now it's impacting our mental health, um, and, and our ability to feel safe out, out in the world, out in the U S Speaker 1: 06:13 I've been speaking with Kristin Sasaki PhD, who is an assistant professor of ethnic studies at UC SD. Kristen, thank you very much for joining us. Thanks for having me.