When my friend FaceTimed me yesterday, she was teetering on the verge of tears. She was picking up bread at the grocery store, when a White man approached her, punched her five times on the arm, and ran away, shouting racial slurs targeting Asian Americans. Her arm was covered in bruises. “I could literally get hit just because of my skin color,” she said, holding back tears. This incident is not isolated. An elderly Thai immigrant died after being shoved to the ground during his morning walk. A Filipino-American was slashed in the face with a box cutter. A Chinese woman was slapped and set on fire. In one night, a single man killed eight people at three Asian spas. These are just a few examples of the many incidents of violence committed against Asian Americans over the past year.

Many attribute these recent acts of violence against Asian Americans to the rising fear and anxiety caused by the coronavirus pandemic. But violence committed against Asian Americans has prevailed during the past centuries. Since the beginning of Asian Immigration into America in 1850, anti-Asian sentiment has found expression in the Chinese Exclusion Act and the phrase “sick men of Asia.” It is more likely that the coronavirus pandemic served as a catalyst for releasing pent up aggressions against Asian Americans that has long been accumulating. 

Efforts have been made to tackle anti-Asian hate crimes. Tracing back to the 19th century, the aftermath of the Civil War saw the addition of the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution, which granted all US citizens "equal protection of the laws." More recently, President Biden signed the Covid-19 Hate Crimes Act on May 20 to address the recent surge that has taken place. On July 14, Illinois became the first state to require the teaching of Asian American history. However, legislation often fails to go beyond the symbolic purposes of demonstrating a legislature’s political position. As sociology professor Natasha Warikoo notes, legislative changes "are signals by legislators of priorities and where they stand and about what's important." The long history of anti-Asian sentiments makes a formidable opponent to the enforcement of anti-Asian hate legislation. In the face of long-held anti-Asian sentiments, something more substantial than symbolism is needed. 

Recognizing the inadequacy of these symbolic gestures, many parents have taken upon themselves to educate anti-racist children. A popular method is color-blind parenting, which entails avoiding the topic of race to raise un-racist children. But research shows that ignoring racial differences only fuels racism. According to Rebecca Bigler, a developmental psychologist studying the development of prejudice, when racial discussion is withheld from them, children “make up reasons, and a lot of kids make up biased racist reasons.” Dr. Bigler adds that children have the proclivity to believe that white people enjoy more privilege because they’re smarter or more powerful. She proposes that such misconceptions can be prevented with open conversations about race.  When parents educate their children about race, their children are more likely to turn out to be unprejudiced. Her proposal is validated by the study conducted by Brigitte Vittrup and George W. Holden. The result of their study reflects that White children who have received talks from their parents about race become less prejudiced over time compared with their peers who did not have such conversations with their parents. Dr. Bigler’s study shows a similar result. He found that White children who had learned about racial discrimination demonstrate more positive attitudes toward Black people than children who were not exposed to that curriculum.

Ultimately, racism is not driven solely by individual prejudice. It is a system of inequity bolstered by racist laws and policies. In a world living with the repercussions of racial segregation and white supremacy, in order to break from our racist past it is imperative for open conversations about race to be held, for the burden of educating on Asian hate to be lifted from Asian Americans. 

Yes, the mentioning of past oppressions is unpleasant, but it is only when we recognize the prejudice that is entrenched in our society, when we recognize its perniciousness and unravel the system that fuels it, that equality will be achieved.