EQUITY & INCLUSION
Countering Racism Against Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders
By Sara Wildberger I
n mid-February, at Lunar New Year, hundreds of volunteers organized to escort older Asian Americans to keep
them safe during the holiday. While the support was a testament to the best of us, the reason it was needed was almost un- speakable: Attacks on Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders (AAPI) had become overt, violent, and often particularly targeting older AAPI women. The sickening rise in violence toward
the vulnerable may be in part attributable to myths, foolishness, and some outright lies about the source of COVID-19 (and it bears repeating that there is not yet any clear scientific evidence pinpointing the start of the outbreak). But a look at U.S. history shows such
violence is neither sudden nor unique to this time. Dr. Keith Tsz-Kit Chan, LMSW, PhD,
is an assistant professor at the Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College,
WHAT CAN WE DO?
The Stop AAPI Hate (
stopaapihate.org) website offers current news and opinion pieces, a place to report an incident, safety tips in multiple languages, information and historical context—and this list of some of the ways to help.
• Share safety tips with employees, residents, friends, and family on what to do if encountering or witnessing hate.
• Work with your faith-based organization, community service group, or senior living community to issue a statement denouncing anti-Asian racism and to encourage everyone to work toward racial justice.
• Learn about the history of violence experienced by Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the United States, and support others in learning and raising awareness of these realities.
• Support local Asian-owned businesses. These businesses began seeing a decline in business even before the first case of coronavirus was confirmed in the United States and stay-at-home orders were enacted.
34 SENIOR LIVING EXECUTIVE MAY/JUNE 2021
City University of New York. He also serves as a Congressional Fellow in the U.S. House Committee on Ways & Means and as an NIH/NIA-funded Asian Resource Center on Minority Aging Research (RCMAR) Sci- entist. He came to New York City with his family when he was 9 and was a first-gener- ation college student on a full scholarship— and his mother worked for a decade as an in-home caregiver. Recently, he and colleagues in social work and aging gathered to give a webinar on the issue, tracing its roots and looking at ways to raise awareness and preserve the safety and freedom of older adults.
Q. In the webinar, you spoke of the many groups and cultures meant when we talk about Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. Can you go into some of that? A. Speaking broadly, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is a term that’s been used to
Equity & Inclusion
Dr. Keith Tsz-Kit Chan, LMSW, PhD Assistant professor Silberman School of Social Work at Hunter College, City University of New York
include more than 30 distinct ethnic groups who speak more than 100 languages. AAPIs are by no means a monolithic group. However, there is a broader historical
context, dating back to the 19th century, which points to structural racism and vio- lence that continues to shape the everyday lives of AAPI people in the United States. In the 1960s, the term Asian American really became a collective identity, as part of the Asian American movement, which was actually in solidarity with the civil rights movement of the time. I think there’s always this kind of ebb and
flow in terms of about what constitutes the Asian American and Pacific Islander iden- tity—to be able to acknowledge the differ- ences, but also to see the broader context as to how we can advance the social justice agenda.
Q. Can you explain the “model minority” myth, and why it’s a problem, even though it might appear to some to be a positive image? A. Beginning in the 1970s, Asians were referred to—controversially—as the “model minority.” This was used to justify
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52
