Asian Hate: A Kindergarten Class
















Asian Hate: A Kindergarten Class
by Senuki Elvitigala

#StopAAPIHate #RacismInSchool #RacialSlurs

It was a bright, colorful day at your local elementary school, and the class was in high anticipation for their recess while they enjoyed lunch. After all, they deserved a break from all the essential addition and subtraction, coloring within the lines, and naps during class time. A conversation between two students is depicted. For context Student 2’s guardian has packed them a healthy, traditional meal popular within their culture for lunch.

Student 1: “What’s that?”

Student 2: “Oh, it’s just my lunch.”

Student 1: “Seriously? Why does it smell like that?”

Student 2: “What do you mean?”

Student 1: “It smells like something that came from a trash can. Haha-”

Let’s face it; kids are blunt. But I wonder how kids’ bluntness has more generally transformed into borderline racist comments over the past few years, as depicted in this conversation. The answer: racism has slowly been integrated into current day norms and society. Take a look at this article regarding one of the NBA’s basketball legends, Jeremy Lin. 1 ESPN, the most prominent sports broadcaster in the world, posted an article describing him as a “Ch*nk in Armor,” talking about his achievements. 2 It is widely known that the term “ch*nk” is very offensive to the Asian community. How did no one out of the entire ESPN publishing team not notice this? This is a clear example of how ‘undermined racism’ has slipped its way into society and tormenting attacked communities. Additionally, interviews with members of the Asian community can confirm the long-lasting effects of these attacks on mental health. Linsey Shen, a sophomore in high school, states, ”Since I was young, I’ve always learned to suppress my culture...I would get distressed when my mother packed traditional foods for lunch, and refused to eat. I was always scared of those kids who bullied students of the same race, calling them dastard racial slurs...It really affected how I presented myself, and made me believe that I wasn’t valid unless I abided by societies’ norms.” Being a member of the South Asian community, I can confirm her thoughts. I have always been afraid or embarrassed to express who I am to my peers. In students, this can lead to suppression of personality, an extensive effort in trying to fit in, and most harmfully, repression of culture in our future society. 3 If this racism continues, future society will lack diversity, which roots back to our beginnings. Losing diversity would mean we lose a piece of history, forever forgotten in our unaccepting society.

Beginning to stop this integration of racism in a society starts with minor tasks one can contribute. These actions include joining the StopAAPIHate movement, donating to reputable hate-stopping organizations, participating in a campaign, or something even as small as creating a poster. 4 This can then factor into the bigger picture: small acts of the contribution that makes Asian pride and identity clear to hateful groups. The faster society realizes this ‘undermined racism’, we can work to eliminate it from society for good.



Sources

1 Greenberg, Chris. “ESPN Racist Jeremy Lin Headline: Network Apologizes For

Insensitive Headline For Knicks Loss.” HuffPost, 18 Feb. 2012,

www.huffpost.com/entry/espn-racist-jeremy-lin-headline-mobile-apology_n_1286277.

2 Statista. “Leading Sports Media Companies on Social Media in the U.S. 2020,

by Actions.” Statista, 18 Feb. 2021,

www.statista.com/statistics/260162/usa-sports-media-companies-social-media-engageme

Nt.

3 Combating Hate Crimes against Asian American and Pacific Islander

Communities. Dispatch, cops.usdoj.gov/html/dispatch/04-2021/asian_hate_crimes.html.

Accessed 21 Sept. 2021.

4 “Home.” Stop AAPI Hate, 17 June 2021, stopaapihate.org.


5 Zhang, Yan, et al. “Hate Crimes against Asian Americans.” American Journal of

Criminal Justice, 2021. Crossref, doi:10.1007/s12103-020-09602-9.

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