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i muted that thread bc i don't rly care to make it an argument bc it's not. it's an observation bUT since soooo many of u wanna come for me and say whatever u want on god's internet, i'll clarify a couple of things
what informed the tweet is the tendency ive been seeing where asian americans are flattening the discrimination between the asian and Black communities into something that works the same way
i don't think it's self-loathing to point out that this "anti asian racism" stuff is reductive, but i do think that saying "we don't deserve safety" definitely is, & it misses the mark. we deserve care. i care about our well-being, but that comes with pointing out when we fuck up
language informs how we react to these events. how can semantics not matter when so many asian americans believes in more state-sponsored violence as the answer bc we think that "anti asian racism" is an individualized prejudice and not... more state violence
without clearing the room on semantics, we get celebrities/influences/news outlets running rampant with stuff like "asian lives matter" which IS anti Black. semantics matter. we shouldn't be co-opting a phrase from Black folks
"why sinophobia?" sinophobia affects not JUST chinese people. sinophobia is a direct extension of orientalism. one of orientalism's function is flattening all asians into caricatures in the western eye. what that does is keep us in a forever-foreigner status to the west
here's a fantastic thread on overseas us violence, and how it's ahistorical to simply look at this moment as an example of individual "anti asian racism" https://twitter.com/hermit_hwarang/status/1360245456819879937
