On Anti-Asian Hate Crimes - And How You Can Help #StopAsianHate #StopAAPIHate

this isn't a video i thought i would have to do this was supposed to be a fun channel but with what's been happening with this rise in anti-asian hate crimes i feel like i have a responsibility to use my platform to say a few things and share my perspective if you didn't know in atlanta georgia in america on march 16th there was a mass shooting that targeted three asian-owned spas eight people were killed six of them were asian women the current motive given by the shooter himself is that he had a sex addiction and saw these spas as a source of temptation so eight people died because of his inability to control his penis and how he blamed asian woman for it the investigators are currently not calling it a hate crime though because the shooter himself said that it wasn't racially motivated okay so he drove past all the strip clubs in atlanta and killed six asian women at three different asian owned spas but race had nothing to do with it they want us to believe that it was one giant coincidence here's the thing people don't get to decide whether or not they're being racist being racist is not an either you are or you aren't thing racism is rooted in action more than intent when we have all grown up in a society structured on racial inequality we all have the capacity to do racist things even unconsciously what matters is whether you also have the capacity to acknowledge this reality and make an active effort to push back against the racial biases you feel and see i've seen some people say the spas were only chosen because strip clubs are more well defended than them and he's not racist because he also killed two non-asians and i'm just can we stop can we stop gaslighting people of color about whether racism exists just because you don't want to acknowledge how deeply it's entrenched everywhere can we stop with the mental gymnastics to explain why something isn't racist when the consequences of the actions on a specific community of color my community are so clear there is no competition between racism and misogyny they are not mutually exclusive motives this hate crime happened at their intersection because of his sex addiction claim there's been a lot of assumptions floating around about whether these spas offered sexual services but right now as of the day i'm recording this video there is no evidence that any of the victims were actually sex workers the six asian women killed were ages 44 to 74 and at least two of them were licensed to massage therapists even if it turns out that some of them were sex workers they still wouldn't have deserved any kind of violence but the fact that the shooter brought a sex addiction into this means he assumed they were sex workers which shows that he bought into stereotypes about asian women and the way people reacted to the possibility that they were sex workers making happy ending jokes and saying these women deserved what happened to them it's once again highlighted how vulnerable sex workers are when their profession is so stigmatized and criminalized especially sex workers of color listen no matter what a woman is doing no matter what she is wearing no matter if she chose to do sex work while knowing it's a dangerous profession she is not consenting to be violently murdered society is way too obsessed with putting the responsibility on women to police their actions so men can pretend like they are incapable of controlling themselves i don't believe men are mindless monsters i don't believe men get so possessed by their rage and anger that they physically cannot control themselves i believe that there is always a point where these violent offenders consciously decide that control is no longer important and the more excuses society makes for them the lower this threshold becomes it's true that we can't predict which men will become violent and why and when so it's always better to stay vigilant but as soon as we start asking well what was she doing when these violent crimes happen we create a societal environment that implies that as soon as a woman steps beyond the realm of acceptable female behavior she is seen as free game for assault and murder this mass shooting was pre-mediated it was not an act of madness the shooter chose to buy a gun shoot up an asian owned spa drive 40 minutes to a second asian owned spa had across the street to a third asian owned spa and then he was apparently about to drive to florida to shoot up more he was a frequent customer of some of these spas because he clearly fetishized asian women i don't want to hear any devil's advocates against this the devil does not need an advocate asian women have had a long history of being fetishized and over sexualized in the western context the first chinese women to land in the us afon moy was brought over by two white male merchants to be paraded around as an exotic spectacle that was eventually abandoned in poverty by them and ended up in pt barnum's circus the first restrictive federal immigration law in the u.s was the page act of 1875 and it effectively closed the open borders for the first time to prevent oriental women from entering because they were believed to be nothing but prostitutes and then imperialism and the world wars and us military presence in asia caused asian women to be seen as war trophies somehow there's this perception that asian women are more docile and submissive even though have have you met an asian auntie now i'm actually non-binary but the high fem way i present makes most people treat me like an asian woman so i'm including myself with them when i'm talking about this the news of this shooting shook us the insidious side effect of hate crimes is that it makes all the identity related traumas in your past resurface asian women were all reminded of the times we were harassed violated or assaulted by those who fetishized us we all have stories we have all been reminded that there is a significant portion of society out there that leers at us as objects of sexual desire instead of human beings it's made us all wonder which one of us is next how many more of us will die at the hands of some guy because of his yellow fever i really hope the news starts calling him a terrorist because i feel plenty terrorized this is why it doesn't matter if the shooter himself says he wasn't motivated by racism his crime has created all the social impacts of a hate crime it cannot be ignored that this shooting happened in a time where anti-asian hate crimes are spiking in general up 150 since last march and mostly against women and elders committed by people who were told to blame china for covid so they wouldn't scrutinize how their own government failed to control this pandemic even the sheriff who reported on the shooter was found to have shared facebook posts with racist anti-china covet shirts is it a wonder that he tried to get us to empathize with the shooter just had a bad day would he have tried to spread that rhetoric if the shooter was a black or brown man we're all having a bad year should we legalize the purge i used to feel safe i used to joke that as a short young asian girl i'm the least threatening category of person and that i always get waved through in one try at airport security which actually isn't even true whenever i come back from china i get scrutinized to hell and back for potentially bringing in counterfeit luxury stuff but there was some part of me that bought into the model minority myth that thought well at least we asians have a good reputation for being peaceful so people don't fear and hate us so much that they would guns down in the streets we only have to worry about being made fun of being overlooked being ignored being sneered at and not being taken seriously well clearly i was wrong the hatred for us has always been simmering under the surface of society and as soon as things turn to crap in a way that's associated with china all asian diaspora are not being targeted for violence because people can't even be bothered to tell us apart now i'm left wondering how i could have been so naive i even know my diaspora history asians and chinese people specifically were the original foreign peril in canada and the us their immigration laws were created because white people wanted to shut chinese people out even though these two countries could not have been built without chinese labor chinese people built the backbones of canada and america for example my province british columbia joined the canadian federation in 1871 on the condition that a railway be built to link it to eastern canada within 10 years many politicians wanted the labor force to be recruited from britain so they can maintain their image of a white canada but the prime minister john a macdonald broke it to them that using exclusive british labor will cost far too much so they had to either use chinese labor or not have the transcontinental railroad at all the dilemma was similar in america and so extensive chinese labor was used to build railroads there as well these chinese laborers lived in atrocious conditions and were only paid a fraction of what white workers were being paid for the same work and they handled the most dangerous and difficult stretches hundreds maybe thousands died while blasting through mountain ranges avalanches sometimes buried entire camps they were pushed to finish the railroads years ahead of schedule then when it came time to take the big celebration photos of the railroad's completions the white employers cleared the chinese laborers out of view before making a show of driving in the last bike themselves then they proceeded to talk about the projects as if they were pulled off by brave and innovative white pioneers instead of by up to a 90 portion of chinese laborers who weren't even allowed citizenship canada and america are only considered white nations because of the deliberate exclusion of people of color and the erasure of their work by white supremacists and this notion that only white people are true canadians and americans caused those of japanese descent to be herded into internment camps in world war ii even though their families may have been here for generations certain white people wonder why the pc crown nowadays have to bring race into everything well this is the answer race matters because your white ancestor made it matter because your white ancestors built a racial hierarchy and put themselves on top and you are still reefing the benefits of inequalities that were never fully fixed this is also why these conversations single white people out you have to realize what's been happening to everyone else because the world was violently shaped by colonization to prop you up some white people treat the term racist as if it's a slur against them and are more concerned with arguing why this or that isn't racist than doing the introspection to understand why people of color are feeling the way they do don't be one of them yes people of color also have the capacity to be racist but it's white people who overwhelmingly hold the power to turn their racial biases into systemic oppression if us singling out white people makes you uncomfortable when we're addressing issues of systemic racism you are part of the problem you are choosing to turn a blind eye to power dynamics because it makes you feel bad we were not asking you to sob in white guilt every day actually it's very annoying when you do that in front of people of color because it forces them to do the emotional labor of comforting you and it's pretty transparent that what you really want is to get patted on the back and be assured that you're a good person so no sobbing what we're asking you to do is to educate yourself and become more aware of the things people of color have to face but you don't understand that white privilege doesn't mean that you're all born with a golden ticket to life but that your ticket doesn't automatically mark you for systemic discrimination and violence an example of white privilege how this armed shooter was taken in alive even after killing eight people i will leave some links in the description below to resources you can read and ways you can help but what it comes down to is making yourself aware of the anti-asian violence that's going on donating if you can speaking up against any anti-asian racism you see and amplifying asian voices a huge reason that these hate crimes are happening that asians who aren't even chinese are being targeted because of anti-china rhetoric is because so many people see us as an indistinguishable monolith and that can't be fixed unless you hear our own stories and realize how different we are you can't go out and meet asian people in a pandemic i know but you can read books written by us watch movies made by us watch documentaries watch ted talks read articles just go out and learn and broaden your view i do my best on this channel in my books to share my perspective as a first generation chinese immigrant to canada but i'm not enough you should seek out other asian creators too i've been thinking a lot about the role media plays in egging these hate crimes on not just trump and his china blaming nonsense but also the daily legitimate reports about the terrible things the chinese government is doing like arbitrarily detaining two canadians to bully canada into releasing monzo committing genocide against the uyghurs and other ethnic minorities cracking down on hong kong's democracy pulling shady neo-colonious moves in southeast asia and africa and much much worse and we should criticize the chinese government international pressure is the only thing that can get them to back off but i'm wondering what this non-stop positioning of china as that ominous foreign boogeyman does to the perception of chinese people as a whole and other asians and pacific islanders by extension i used to not flinch when people would say china without information about kovid or china is playing the long game to world domination because i instinctively know that they're talking about the chinese government not ordinary citizens because i as someone who was born and raised in mainland china i'm well aware that the chinese government does not represent me but now i'm wondering if the average person who grew up in the west can conceptualize this if they're aware that the average chinese citizen has no political power or influence over whether these atrocities are happening you hear a lot about what the chinese government is doing but do you ever hear about what's happening in china for ordinary people do you have any idea what they're thinking whenever i speak up against white supremacy and the lingering impact of western colonialism there's always some guy in my comments who is like well china has a han supremacist problem and is colonizing africa right now yes and i criticize both the chinese and western governments but somehow just because of my name and face some people equate me to this ominous evil in their minds that it's china we can talk all day about how i don't even have chinese citizenship anymore i'm legally a canadian but i don't want to make it seem like it'd be okay to see all citizens of the people's republic of china as the enemy either if you want to know what it's like for an average chinese citizen imagine if trump and his goons appointed themselves your government leaders because of their connections and you had absolutely no option of voting them out imagine not even being able to criticize trump without worrying that the police might pay you a visit my family sees the stuff american comedians say about trump they see a selfie i took with justin trudeau and they are stunned in china politicians don't go on campaigns to win support they don't take selfies with random people they do what their higher ups tell them to do it's like ordinary citizens are base level employees at a massive company and civil servants are the managers we occasionally hear stuff about the top bosses like xi jinping but ultimately we have no influence on the direction they decide to take the company and in everything we see in public we have to maintain the position of oh yeah our company is the best however most mainland chinese people that i know are not blindly loyal to the ccp they've just been conditioned to not voice dissent out of fear of punishment but the grievances have their own way of slipping out there are endless sensitive terms that get automatically blocked on chinese social media but discussions still happen using all sorts of slang to bypass the filters the chinese people are always one step ahead of the censors we make jokes about getting invited to tea whenever we say something out of line we laugh at government propaganda we use vpns to go on youtube and twitter and facebook we mock the socialist values cj king loves to talk about because we're well aware that china has an attempted socialism in decades and it is in fact one of the most capitalist countries on earth if it were true that all mainland chinese people are brainwashed the government wouldn't need to crack down so hard on free speech i am chinese but i do not feel proud that the chinese government is getting so powerful it even makes me feel hopeless sometimes when i think about how other countries are too tangled up in their own messes and too economically dependent on china to seriously stand up to the ccp and chinese citizens themselves have too much to lose to rise up in a mass revolution it is so infuriating to see that a few hundred people up high in the ccp have their grip on that much power and there's currently no reliable force out there that we can depend on to take them down this is not what i want the future to look like i do not want the world to end up in a second world war that god forbid escalates beyond cold but at the same time that we're rightfully calling the ccp out for its atrocities western media has to be careful to not do it in a way that leads to the demonization of chinese people and other asians my friend anshii wrote a great article on how so many publications claim they're only talking about the chinese government when they're saying china but the language and imagery they use still play into xenophobic tropes and stereotypes and so they end up feeding into this image of chinese people as this vague evil looming over the world it's yellow peril yet again there needs to be nuance when we talk about china there needs to be a healthy balance of good and bad we shouldn't overly demonize and we shouldn't overly glamorize and we especially need to make the distinction that the chinese government the ccp does not represent the will of the chinese people we need to amplify more individual asian voices so we're not all grouped under the vague threat of china the balance is not easy to find i know i try my best to give a balanced view to demystify chinese culture and i've been accused of being both a chinese nationalist propaganda spreader and a sellout who lies to white people for clout okay ultimately i'm just one chinese person sharing my perspective because i'm tired of people knowing nothing about china and chinese culture but making assumptions anyway i have no reason to lie i'm not pushing an agenda for any country's government not china's not canada's and definitely not america's i only care about promoting the respect of human rights i am one person making content in quarantine i do all the writing and editing myself if something seems off about the things i share it's probably because the chinese experience varies hugely contradictions inevitably exist even the word chinese itself is really this cumbersome umbrella term that encompasses way too much so i am again urging you to consume more media by creators of asian descent not just chinese ones but those of all asian ethnicities only when you hear our unique stories can you see how different we are i have book recommendations on my instagram and website and in the future i will make videos recommending more content but that's still gonna be stuff i like and reflect my tastes so you should definitely seek out asian created content beyond that part of being a good ally is proactively doing the work to seek out resources and learn instead of asking people of color to spoon feed you finally i want to talk about the victims of the shooting xiao jiatan who went by emily was 49 she was a licensed massage therapist and owned young's asian massage in another spa in atlanta she had a daughter who recently graduated from the university of georgia it would have been her 50th birthday on thursday the 18th delana ashley young was 33 and was out for a spa day with her husband who was uninjured she worked at a waffle house near emily's spa and had a 14 year old son and 9 month old daughter paul andre michels was 54 and he was an army veteran who owned a business installing security systems he was doing maintenance work for emily spa and might have also been there to speak to her because he was thinking about opening his own spa dalio phone was 44 she was only recently hired by emily spa unfortunately as of the making of this video we don't know anything else about her hyuncheon grant whose family prefers her maiden name hyuncheon kim was 51. she was a single mother who dedicated her life to supporting her two sons her eldest son randy couldn't even retrieve her body because her legal family name is different from his and he couldn't find the paperwork to prove he was her next of kin sunchak kim was 69 she was a spa worker and a grandmother who was married for over 50 years and immigrated from korea to the u.s to give her family a better life she liked to line dance in her spare time sunshine park was 74 she was also a spa worker got along with her family very well and lived in new york before moving to atlanta yon ayu was 63. she was born in korea and married a u.s soldier stationed there before moving to the u.s in the 70s they divorced in the 80s but they had two sons together and their families remain close you can donate to support the families of these eight people in a fundraiser by the atlanta chapter of the nonprofit organization asian americans advancing justice which i will leave a link to in the description below along with a community fund that will go to other trusted asian american and pacific islander organizations even if you can't help financially you can still create change by spreading awareness i urge you to please share this video and to take the initiative to broaden your world view so stereotypes and demonization aren't all you see

Channel: Xiran Jay Zhao

Views: 208,106

Rating: 4.9571834 out of 5

Keywords:

Id: aYEf8K7cEtQ

Length: 19min 49sec (1189 seconds)

Published: Mon Mar 22 2021

Reddit Comments

[u/GelatinousPumpkin]

You can feel their emotion in this video and they’re spitting facts. Sadly people who needs to watch this video wouldn't.

[u/HistrionicJester]

Omg i love them! They really do help educate people on the Asian American racism in the U.S., they're the one who told me about all of the things that happened with the Milan (2020) film

Edit: correct pronouns, didn't mean to misgender i didn't know their pronouns

[u/Aomine]

This is so important. As a Chinese American, I've felt overwhelming sadness the last few days. I felt numb at the shootings, it wasn't until I watched the video of the poor elderly grandmother sobbing her poor heart out as the white man who punched her was carried out on a stretcher that I felt grief cascading through me. That could have been my grandma. That could have been my own mother. Yet I can't even summon the energy to feel angry; all I've done is what I've been taught growing up - staying quiet, shutting up, and compartmentalizing, get back to work and do what needs to be done, focus on my immediate responsibilities and worry about my feelings later. Watching this video is cathartic because Xiran has given voice and shape to the jumbled sadness I've felt into an articulate, passionate argument. Why do we focus on the shooter's intent? His actions have said it all. Additionally, their commentary on how western media equates the CCP = Chinese citizens could not have been said better. We are NOT a fucking monolith.

[u/Kamirose]

Thank you for sharing this! I am subbed to Xiran and have watched all of their videos but this one's not in my sub box. I wonder if Youtube is suppressing it...

Their words in this video are very powerful. I hope the video gains traction.

[u/OnceInABluMoon]

This lady literally made a whole ass youtube channel in response to how bad the Mulan live action movie was and all her content since has been chef's kiss. She's awesome and powerful.

**Oh, getting further into the video apparently they are non binary.

[u/aokaga]

Xiran Jay Zhao is a chinese canadian YouTuber who makes videos in regards to Chinese inspirations in media. However this video talks about the recent issued with anti-asian hate crimes and their rhetoric. I find that, even though this is not a beauty channel per se (although they do discuss and talk about chinese beauty in some of their videos), it's important to share here.

E: also, I am not going to try and make a summary of the video because I do believe you need to sit through it. Sit through it and listen, and learn. In this day and age we're too used to being spon fed information, so this time I will not contribute to that. For the HOH and deaf, I watched the video with the auto generated subtitles since I'm ESL and they speak very clearly so the captions pick up very smoothly. Sorry that the video as of right now does not have proper captions.

E: fixed pronouns. Let's remember they're non binary, preferred pronouns they/them.

[u/Meredithia]

Wow! That video was incredibly powerful. I'd never heard of their channel, but now I'm subscribed and I'm following their IG for book recs. Thank you for sharing.

[u/Zomble_Womble]

Thanks for sharing this, I've really enjoyed their other videos and it's great that they are saying what needs to be said. It hits extra hard from their point of view of someone who grew up in China as well.

Also really appreciated their segment on the victims at the end too, I teared up at that part.

[u/MangoPeachSmoothiez]

This video was really important, thank you for posting it and for introducing me to them.