| sundin13 said: Is it really so far-fetched that White Supremacy would be at the root of Black-on-Asian violence? Let's break things down real quick. When we hear "white supremacy" we largely think of individuals who hold the belief that whites are inherently better and that they should have the power in society, but that isn't what we are talking about here. In this context, White Supremacy refers to the system of values in our society which places traits commonly associated with whiteness above traits associated with non-white groups. This can be something as simply as valuing light skin tones over darker skin tones, or something more cultural such as valuing a nuclear family set-up over other types of family structures. It also speaks to the series of beliefs and ideas which have largely been created and perpetuated by white individuals in power (more on this below). (...)Because these values and beliefs emerge from power, it is often a pretty safe assumption that these broad, culture-wide sentiments can be attributed to White supremacy to at least some degree. Now, what about Anti-Asian racism in the era of covid? I feel like you would pose little objection to the belief that this largely emerged from whites in power, be they White Republicans in politics, or white talking heads on Fox News, but I'll provide a source anyways: https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/01419870.2020.1839114 So, when a black person commits anti-Asian violence because of the beliefs they hold about the victim's role in the coronavirus, what stands at the root of this? Largely, racist sentiments perpetuated by whites in power and internalized by other communities. And the history of Black-Asian tensions have been going on for much longer than Covid. It is largely through white racism that a sense of competition between minority groups emerged (similar to the tension with Mexican immigrants described above). This article breaks down some of the history of Black-Asian tensions pretty well, but you can also look into the "model minority myth" if you want to do further reading: https://www.vox.com/22321234/black-asian-american-tensions-solidarity-history Now, does this mean that you are to blame, or that any of this is a criticism of you personally? Of course not. This type of defensive attitude is something I see all too often and it is altogether misplaced. I work in the sciences. One of the most important things that we learn is about cognitive biases. It doesn't make me evil or bad or stupid for these biases to exist within my head. It is simply a part of human nature. However, it is through learning and understanding in which I am able to ensure that I don't act upon these biases. The same thing applies for racial biases. It doesn't make you a bad person to have biases in your head. Everyone does. That is the power of white supremacy. However, learning and understanding can help immensely in not just ensuring you aren't perpetuating White supremacy, but in dismantling it. |
I don't really get the connection you're making between everything you're saying and your omnipresent 'white supremacy'.
You're making a perfect link between racial supremacy and xenophobia, which I find very questionable. If a virus originates in one country and then causes other countries to go through a disastrous year, isn't it logical then that quite a few people will develop a hatred against that one country, even if they do not believe in racial superiority at all? For instance, there was a lot of anti-German sentiment in Europe after World War II, but no one believed that they were racially superior to the Germans.
Couldn't the anti-Asian sentiment of the 'whites in power' simply be mostly a result of this logical xenophobia, rather than a major cause? Just like the anti-Asian sentiment of a lot of black Americans is. Or just like the anti-Asian sentiment of a lot of African people is, despite not watching Fox News or being directly part of 'a system of white supremacy'.
The fact that anti-Asian sentiments are more common among white people can simply be explained by the fact that black people are generally more used to discrimination, and thus tend to be more considerate when judging people by their ethnicity.
Edit: just to be clear - when I say that xenophobia is 'logical', I do of course not mean that it's also reasonable or justified.
