UCSB Global Studies Statement on Anti-Asian Violence

In the wake of the murders of eight people, including six Asian women, in Atlanta, Georgia on March 16, 2021, the Department of Global Studies extends our sympathies to the eight victims, and to their loved ones. We stand in solidarity and in shared grief with our Asian and Asian American students and their communities who have experienced gendered and racialized violence, and who might be feeling targeted, fearful, and angry at the escalating anti-Asian violence of the past few months.

We condemn anti-Asian violence and hatred in all its forms. Recognizing our responsibilities as educators, we understand this increase in anti-Asian racism to be part of a longer history of anti-Asian sexist violence, a history that over the past year of the pandemic has been re-animated and invigorated through white supremacist expressions of racist violence, hatred, and misogyny often sanctioned in federal-level and policy-level rhetoric and practices.

The history of anti-Asian violence is imbricated in global histories of violence and domination. That history is one and the same with that of globalization. European trade in Indian, Chinese and other Asian workers began in the 17th century. During the early 19th century, the British systematically indentured workers in China and India to replace slave labor and maintain plantation economies in the Americas and Asia. Chinese workers made up 9 of 10 workers who built the first US transcontinental railroad, completed in 1869. A significant portion of so-called coolie labor was not voluntary.  Contracts did not include return passage, workers were frequently re-indentured, and otherwise faced structural racism and exploitation in their new countries of residence.

Indeed, racism against Chinese people, and gendered and sexualized anti-Asian racism in particular, led to the first immigration restrictions by nationality in the history of the United States, in the Page Act of 1875. The Page Act prohibited the migration of all Chinese women, labeling them as “lewd” and "undesirable," and stereotyped Chinese women as engaged in prostitution and sexual “deviance.” This was followed by the Chinese Exclusion act of 1882, which barred Chinese immigration for 10 years and prohibited Chinese naturalization. Existing Chinese immigrant populations were also targeted by domestic policies. The first zoning ordinance in the US was enacted in 1885 in California to ban Chinese laundries and porters in particular areas—livelihood activities that were otherwise essential to growing cities. Asian and Chinese workers were also excluded from expanding labor protections. Samuel Gompers, President of the American Federation of Labor in 1898, opposed US imperialist annexation of the Philippines because he feared it would open "flood-gates of immigration from the hordes of Chinese and the semi-savage races'' and "engulf our people and our civilization,” expressing a widely-held attitude that normalized the dehumanization of Asian people.

More recently, US foreign policy has provided a state-sanctioned foundation for anti-Asian violence, through wars and the widespread use of napalm and chemical weapons in Vietnam, Laos and Cambodia; in the bombing of civilians in Hiroshima and Nagasaki, in nuclear tests and extensive military occupation in Okinawa, Guam, Hawaii, and more; and in the expansion of US military bases throughout the Asia Pacific, leading to the destruction of villages, communities, and ways of life. In particular, a century of US military operations in Asia has led to the expansion of the sex trade around bases, and reinforced the normalcy with which US soldiers are not held accountable for sexual violence against Asian women. We recognize that anti-Asian violence in the US is deeply tied to these histories of US empire, and that the gendered racial violence we are witnessing today emerges from over a century of US occupation in Asia, as well as its continuation in the hawkish rhetoric leveled against China by the Trump administration in its foreign policy and during the coronavirus crisis. As a department with a large number of Asian and Asian-American undergraduate majors, we are in solidarity with students who have personally experienced escalating anti-Asian racism in the past year due to these longstanding histories.

For this reason, and despite claims to the contrary, we understand the actions of the shooter in Atlanta not as the isolated actions of a troubled individual, but within a continuum of normalized, state-sanctioned violence against Asians and Asian American communities.We intend to follow and participate in active debates within Asian-American communities around increased surveillance and policing of the already-vulnerable.

We mourn the lives of Daoyou Feng, Hyun Jung Grant, Suncha Kim, Paul Andre Michels, Soon Chung Park, Xiaojie Tan, Delaina Ashley Yaun, and Yong Ae Yue. Additionally, we re-affirm our commitment to anti-racist education and commit to examining the biases and inequities inherent in our program. We endorse the Pan Asian Network’s demands list calling for more institutional support for Asian American Studies programs and the APIGSA, and for the allocation of campus resources to mental health programs and the creation of a Pan Asian Center. Our hearts are with students who feel increased fear in this time. As faculty in the Department of Global Studies, we pledge to join students in the movement to Stop AAPI Hate and the struggle against global racialized injustice more broadly.

Below, we have attached a resource list with links to statements, reportage, and resources that may be useful in making sense of this moment. 

 

To report Anti-Asian incidents, see:

https://stopaapihate.org/

https://www.standagainsthatred.org/

 

For Bystander training on how to safely intervene and de-escalate incidents of racist violence, see:

https://www.ihollaback.org/bystander-resources/

https://www.advancingjustice-aajc.org/events

 

Public Events

(upcoming) U Michigan online forum Friday, March 26, “Contextualizing Violence Against Asians Within the History of US Relational Racism.” It’s early (7:30-9 am pacific), FREE, NO REGISTRATION REQUIRED: https://umich.zoom.us/j/94866591981

Red Canary Song (Asian Migrant Sex Workers) Vigil recording: https://www.pscp.tv/w/1gqxvoYBEYeKB‍

Asian American Writers Workshop “Anti-Asian Violence and Black-Asian Solidarity Today” Lecture with Tamara K. Nopper, March 23, 3pm pacific: https://aaww.org/curation/anti-asian-violence-and-black-asian-solidarity...

Hollaback! “Bystander intervention to stop anti-Asian/American harassment and xenophobia” training session, March 29, 12-1pm pacific: https://www.ihollaback.org/event/bystander-intervention-stop-anti-asian-...

 

Statements/Sign-ons

Red Canary Song statement: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1_Q0mFJnivTZL5fcCS7eUZn9EhOJ1XHtFBGOG...

Chinese Canadian National Council Toronto Chapter and Butterfly (Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network) Sign-on statement: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLScaF9sNT8o13HB9AtmKZMzaSfl3MWab...

Butterfly sign-on: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSftvwRE2LEsfL24fvtygAHdqN8qHSjc...

Asian Americans Advancing Justice Atlanta:

Community response: https://www.advancingjustice-atlanta.org/news/communityresponse‍

Korean: https://www.advancingjustice-atlanta.org/news/communityresponse-kr

Sign-on Statement: https://www.advancingjustice-atlanta.org/aaajcommunitystatement

Donations for community support https://actionnetwork.org/fundraising/support-georgias-asian-american-co...

Community Resources Offering Form: https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfYfnPRfl0twPE4TtCODbpdZ50UnY97...

Barnard BCRW statement and resources:: http://bcrw.barnard.edu/defending-asian-women-defending-sex-workers/‍

UIUC AAS/GWS Statement: https://gws.illinois.edu/news/2021-03-18/aasgws-statement-anti-asian-vio...

 

Reportage and Perspectives

Society and Space forum on anti-Asian violence, edited by Professor Charmaine Chua: https://www.societyandspace.org/forums/anti-asian-violence

Connie Wun, Ignoring the History of Anti-Asian Racism Is Another Form of Violence https://www.elle.com/author/227672/Connie-Wun/‍

Jennifer Ho’s CNN Op-Ed: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/17/opinions/to-be-an-asian-woman-in-america-...

Anti-Asian Violence in America is Rooted in US Empire: https://www.thenation.com/article/world/anti-asian-violence-empire/

Pawan Dhingra’s CNN opinion: The most effective way to fight back against anti-Asian hate: https://www.cnn.com/2021/03/21/opinions/fight-back-anti-asian-hate-educa...

How Racism and Sexism Intertwine to Torment Asian-American Women: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/18/us/racism-sexism-atlanta-spa-shooting...

Violence against Asian Americans and why ‘hate crime’ should be used carefully: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/violence-against-asian-americ...

NBC Asian America popular press framing: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/racism-sexism-must-be-conside...

How Red Canary Song is advocating for migrant sex workers: https://www.papermag.com/red-canary-song-interview-2641163041.html

Deeper than Hate: https://roarmag.org/essays/atlanta-spa-shootings-racial-violence/‍

The Answer to Anti-Asian Racism is Not More Policing, Kayla Hui, Truthout, March 17, 2021 https://truthout.org/articles/the-answer-to-anti-asian-racism-is-not-mor...

Stop Asian Hate: Connie Wun on Atlanta Spa Killings, Gender Violence & Spike in Anti-Asian Attacks, Democracy Now, March 18, 2021

 https://www.democracynow.org/2021/3/18/atlanta_shooting_rampage_anti_asi...

A Letter to My Fellow Asian Women Whose Hearts Are Still Breaking, R.O. Kwon, Vanity Fair, March 19, 2021 https://www.vanityfair.com/style/2021/03/ro-kwon-letter-to-asian-women‍

Asian Women Are Facing a Terrifying Rise in Hate Incidents, The Cut, March 17, 2021

https://www.thecut.com/2021/03/asian-women-are-facing-a-terrifying-rise-...

Eddie Conway and Dylan Rodriguez, Real News Network, “COVID-19 Pandemic Illuminates Anti-Chinese Racism And Xenophobia” https://youtu.be/GT4ud5xXI2U‍

Ju Yon Kim, “The Story Does Not Begin in Georgia: A Letter to Students About the Recent Shootings”: https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2021/3/20/kim-letter-to-students/

 

Additional Resources/Reading

Butterfly Report on Protecting the Safety of Workers in Holistic Centres and Body Rub Parlours by Allowing Them to Lock Their Doors: https://t.co/NrVFrqyLVu?amp=1

Carceral Feminism: The failure of sex work prohibition: https://robynmaynard.com/writing/carceral-feminism-the-failure-of-sex-wo...

From Carceral Feminism to Transformative Justice by Mimi Kim: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1xtF_9x3G1d4JsMgaRFGU4KVgMi1Lzww1/view?u...

Anti-Carceral Feminism by Mimi Kim: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0886109919878276

Revolting Prostitutes by Molly Smith and Juno Mac: https://www.versobooks.com/blogs/4114-cops-borders-and-carceral-feminists

TransformHarm.org: https://transformharm.org

SDSU reading list: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1IQUPe7e52Kus-8AE33xuSOuo7j1uXw6VgfP4...

Black and Asian Feminist Solidarities reading list: https://www.blackwomenradicals.com/blog-feed/black-and-asian-feminist-so...

“Don’t be a bystander” video by BCRW and Project NIA: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=krgcbiRu0ys

 

(Statement written by the Global Studies faculty)