Our Duty to Combat the Racism and Sexism Directed at Kamala Harris and Others
Racist and misogynistic verbal attacks on Asian American women leads to greater violence. It’s up to all of us to demand change.
No Asian American woman, regardless of political party or loyalties, is spared from being the target for anti-Asian, anti-immigrant racism and misogyny.
Now that Vice President Kamala Harris has entered the presidential race, the onslaught of racist and misogynistic attacks she has endured will surely only intensify. As the first Black American and first Indian American woman to serve in her office as Vice President, her eligibility to hold the office of the president is already being scrutinized.
And it certainly didn’t take long for members of the far right to focus their hate-fueled attacks on one of their own—the wife of Republican vice presidential candidate JD Vance. Despite being a highly-educated, successful corporate litigator and mother, Usha Chilukuri Vance and her children have incurred the wrath of many online. For her Indian ancestry. For her faith. For the names given to her children.
I can’t say that it comes as any real surprise. We’ve seen it time and again, an experience common for both high-profile Asian American women, as well as everyday people in our communities. These kinds of racist, xenophobic attacks are not new and they are not exclusive to Vice President Harris or Vance.
We’ve seen it time and again, an experience common for both high-profile Asian American women, as well as everyday people in our communities.
This has held true for former South Carolina Governor Nikki Haley, Congresswoman Judy Chu, former Secretary of Labor Elaine Chao, Boston Mayor Michelle Wu, and so many others.
We know that the vast majority of women in our communities report experiencing racism and discrimination. Yet, anti-Asian “jokes” continue to be a seemingly accepted mainstay of popular culture and politics. Too many people feel comfortable maligning Asian Americans and immigrants in the name of political gain.
The “model minority” myth is dangerous for many reasons. It not only has been used to create and deepen the divisions among Asian Americans and other people of color, but it also continues to harm Asian Americans within our own communities. It invisibilizes the lived experiences and realities that many Asian Americans face.
When we talk about Asian Americans, that includes more than 50 ethnic groups who speak more than 100 languages. It erases the experiences of Asian American women who are overrepresented in frontline and low-wage work and the millions of Asian American women who experience some of the widest wage gaps while also serving as caregivers to children and elderly family members.
We must continue to cast light upon the ways in which Asian American women are talked about, stereotyped, invisibilized, hypersexualized, and dehumanized.
The myth has also created the illusion that Asian Americans - if we work hard enough, if we don’t complain, if we align ourselves with white communities and people in power - can overcome being regarded as perpetual foreigners. Upholding the model minority myth can be tempting when you have been indoctrinated by a society with a history of pitting racial groups against one another. Being considered exceptional can provide perceived safety and belonging to people who want to build a life for themselves and their families.
But the model minority myth is a lie and for too many people in this country, Asian Americans will always be regarded as invisible, at best, and expendable or a threat, at worst.
Many of the attacks on Harris, Vance and other Asian Americans have been centered around the “Great Replacement Theory,” which has been accepted by many white nationalists as a conspiracy to replace white, Christians with people of color and immigrants. It is often described as an “invasion” and recently has been the underpinning of the way some people talk about the southern border or the influx of Indian immigrants into the U.S.
As a society, we cannot simply brush off verbal attacks and racist misogyny as acceptable speech. At the height of the COVID-19 pandemic, we saw that racist rhetoric of the “China virus” contributed to increased violence and hate-induced attacks against Asian Americans, including the murders of six Asian American women in Atlanta, devastating the lives of their families and the communities in which they lived.
Acts of verbal abuse and violence lead to the acts of physical abuse and violence against members of Asian American communities. We must continue to cast light upon the ways in which Asian American women are talked about, stereotyped, invisibilized, hypersexualized, and dehumanized.
Working towards real systemic change in a world that recognizes and addresses the real harm caused by anti-Asian and racialized misogyny will take all of us speaking up against these kinds of attacks that have been allowed to go on for far too long.
