Asian Lives Matter - Tumblr Posts
protect asian lives. say it with me.
“protect asian lives”
asians worldwide are being beaten and killed. and it keeps going unnoticed. if you are being silent, fuck you.
the amount of hate crimes against asians have risen 1900%. it’s not our fucking fault we are in this pandemic. asians arent a virus or a disease. leave us the fuck alone.
now say it again.
PROTECT ASIAN LIVES
hey! your faves are asian, too:
on racism, anti-asian sentiment, and breaking the silence
eight people were murdered in georgia a few days ago. it was tuesday, march 16th, 2021. six of the victims were asian women, and all of them died at the hands of one angry white man.
and, already, people are trying to dismiss it as yet another misogynistic attack on women. already, people are trying to skirt around the bigger issue here, which is that this was 100%, without a doubt, racism.
[i mean, come on. he didn’t go to a regular old strip club. he didn’t go to any other establishments that aren’t primarily asian. the very first spa the shooter attacked was called young’s asian spa. you can’t get much more direct than that.]
so, let’s talk about racism—and specifically, anti-asian racism in the united states, since that is what’s relevant here. let’s talk about how the first comments that i saw on twitter as these georgia murders were breaking, were jokes about how the victims didn’t get a “happy ending”. horrible, horrible comments about sex workers, and asian sex workers in particular.
let’s talk about the chinese exclusion act of 1882, which was the first instance of a law that restricted immigration into the united states. let’s talk about how chinese immigrants and even their american-born children couldn’t become citizens until 1943. let’s talk about the japanese internment camps of wwii, which uprooted the lives of tens upon thousands of japanese-americans in the united states. let’s talk about the page act of 1875, which effectively barred chinese women from entering the united states even before the chinese exclusion act that followed seven years later.
and if that’s not enough, let’s talk about more recent examples of racism and discrimination and microagressions. let’s talk about the 1970s myth that the msg in chinese food is bad for you, despite the fda now recognizing it as safe to consume. let’s talk about yellowface in hollywood, which happened as recently as 2017 with ghost in the shell and scarlett johansson. let’s talk about the innumerable stereotypical asian characters we see in movies and tv shows—from the incredibly offensive caricatures (looking at you, breakfast at tiffany’s) to the comic relief asian computer nerd sidekick or the quirky manic pixie dream girl.
let’s talk about cultural appropriation. about the fetishization of asian women, and “yellow fever”. about how asian men are degraded as effeminate. about how korean and japanese culture are so commonly fetishized to the point that we have names for those who are guilty of the act.
let’s talk about how this kind of racism runs rampant still, especially in the anime and kpop communities. the number of posts i’ve seen on my dash about these murders? painfully, heartbreakingly few.
and that? that fucking hurts. that hurts, when 95% of the blogs i follow are kpop blogs. that hurts, when my entire dashboard on sunday was filled with the racism and xenophobia of the “scammys” and how bts were snubbed. that hurts, when everyone was up in arms about that german radio host who made racist remarks about bts. that hurts, because we’re all on here, day after day, to celebrate the music and the accomplishments of seven korean men. seven asian men. but now that attacks on aapis have gone up 150% in the last year alone? now that asians are dying?
radio. fucking. silence.
and yeah. maybe it’s easier to rally behind the existing rhetoric. maybe it’s easier to pile on to the continuing conversation about the institutionalized racism and politicization of the grammys. maybe all of those things are easier than taking a good hard look at your own internalized discrimination, and how you yourself are complicit in anti-asian racism.
and look, this isn’t meant to be a targeted call out post. i don’t have anyone specific in mind as i’m writing this. this is simply meant to be a reminder, to check your own words and actions and to be aware of how they may affect others. to be aware of the struggles of your aapi friends and neighbors, and how they’ve been suffering in silence for so, so long.
so now, here we are. eight people are dead and that’s apparently what it takes to force this nation into a long overdue conversation about anti-asian racism and sentiment. it took the lives of soon c. park, hyun jung grant, suncha kim, yong a. yu, delaina ashley yaun, paul andre michels, xiaojie tan, and daoyou fen. and while they may be gone, we are still here.
and we can not and will not be your silent, model minority anymore.
Look, I'm Asian.
When I heard, saw the pictures of people who look like my parents, grandparents, friends, aunts, and uncles, people who have faces and postures and accents I associate with safe, comfort, family. To see pictures of those people on the floor, blood on their faces, faces that look so similar to mine, and think this could be my mom. my dad. my best friend. my little brother. this could be me.
Please stop it. Stop hurting people.
And I don't mean one person in Georgia, but the people here. Yesterday, I saw some comments on a post, where people were saying they deserved it, we deserved it. Why? Because of a decision the country us or our ancestors once lived in? A country we don't even live in, some of us who haven't live in for generations?
Would you blame yourselves for locking children in cages, for murder? Would you go out in the street to shoot people, saying that it's their fault their government did these things?
I saw some (presumably) Black people say that we are part of the racism, Asians have helped and stood by while people were hurt.
Well, isn't that what you're doing now? Helping and standing by while people are hurt? Believe it or not, not all Asians are the same person. What if a Black person did me wrong? Would when the time came, would I not give help? Would I stand by? Isn't the entire point to not judge people by the color of their skin? We should be united, helping each other. But instead, we are participating in one type of discrimination while fighting against the other. Everybody.
The events that unfolded over the past 24 hours in Atlanta were not isolated incidents. Hate crimes against Asian Americans have increased nearly 150% in the US in the last year.
Last June, in the wake up of yet another uprising in hate crimes committed by white supremacists, we released the following statement:
White supremacists, Nazis, and other purveyors of hate can fully fuck off. They are not welcome here.
These words are as true today as they were then. We stand with the Asian American community. If you see hate speech on Tumblr, please report it. That shit is not tolerated here.
To help the survivors and families of yesterday’s hate crimes, please consider donating to a nonprofit like the Atlanta branch of Asian Americans Advancing Justice if you can. If you can’t, consider spreading the word. We’ll list more resources and reblogs over on @action as we find them.
As always, please make sure you are taking care of yourself as well. If you’re struggling for any reason, please reach out to any of the free and confidential counseling services listed here.
Post Credit: Impact on Instagram.
I haven't been on this account for a while, but I wanted to talk about something. I don't have many followers but I still want to talk about it.
Right now it's a dangerous time for asians, not just in america. And as as someone who is asian, I have been more alert.
I wanted to talk about how the people I find posting or talking about this have been in the asian community or other POC . Rarely do I find a white person posting about it.
Comaring this to the Black Lives Matter movement, there are a lot less white creators talking about this, and reenforces the fact that issues with the asian community are often overlooked. If you don't adress the black lives matter movement, youre judged, but if you don't adress the issues that asians are facing, people wouldn't bat an eye
This is in no way an attack on anyone or community, I just want more white people to focus on Asian issues. If more white people start talking about it, their mostly white audiences will also be imformed and pass it on. Asian creators speaking out about it is also very important, but if you check, a lot of their audience is also in the asian community and/or is caught up on the situation. So people need to spread this information on to a wider range of people.
!!TW: This post will include stuff about racism, sh**tings, death, and many more graphic things. Don’t view if you’re sensitive to these things!!
I got some more links surrounding the situation about the Asian woman shooting with the white man that happened not too long ago, here are some TikTok links relating to them, also adding in a few more links spreading awareness on other problems. I may have a small platform but I will do my best to speak up.
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSVN8B6/
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeSV1G9w/
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeS4w1BR/
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeS4w9Xx/
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeS4vKSM/
https://vm.tiktok.com/ZMeS4vE7F/
I’ll paste more links if needed but these are all of the important things you have to know about.
Black Lives Matter, and Asian Lives Matter. Please help. Do what you can.