The shooting of eight people, including six Asian women, in Atlanta felt like an extension of the racist sexual harassment that I and so many Asian women are all too familiar with. Because the stereotypes of the model minority and the objectification of Asian women are considered "positive" narratives, we're told to take it as a compliment, when really, desire doesn't keep you safe, it puts you in harm's way.
The disease of these dehumanizing narratives is highly infectious and persistent. It was in Paris I was told I was too pretty for a Chinese, in Geneva where I've been followed home at night, in New York where I was groped on the subway. It doesn't matter if it was last week, years ago, or back to the 1875 Page Act, every one of those dehumanizing attacks stay with me. Forgetting makes it easier to live through, but I don't want to forget. It shouldn't take a mass murder for us to say it's wrong, it's all wrong. Now is the time for rage.
Thank you J Spagnolo and Sophia Marina for making my poem news. Read here.
Here are just a few of the brave, brilliant women who inspired me:
- https://www.vox.com/22336317/atlanta-georgia-shootings-racism-misogyny-targeting-asian-women
- https://www.newyorker.com/news/daily-comment/the-atlanta-shooting-and-the-dehumanizing-of-asian-women
- https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/us/racism-sexism-atlanta-spa-shooting.html
- https://www.theatlantic.com/ideas/archive/2021/03/cathy-park-hong-anti-asian-racism/618310/
