what we are seeing now
the disheartening mistreatment and demoralizing hostility hurled at our AAPI communities
choosing to shut our doors to this violence when we see it
choosing to be a bystander like that security guard of a luxury condo lobby in New York City
hoping to not recognize nor acknowledge the problem because
shutting the door allows it to become something we won’t be able to physically see-
so that means it’s not a problem anymore… right?
in
a nation that prides itself on the basis and principles of liberty, justice, equality, & even the Four Freedoms
in
a nation where they work their fingers to the bone to come to-
just to fulfill and live out this so-called “American dream” for decades upon decades
but we fail to condemn individuals who
only perpetuate the antithesis of this message
essentially it becomes
a nation that is simply battered and bruised by dishonorable extremism and an ineradicable taint of hatred
Why do we continue to romanticize and idolize this history?
the long history of cruel, brutish bigotry against their ancestors
Don’t we owe it to those individuals to learn about their history, about their experiences?
and if that history is not something that we can be proud of, why don’t we learn from those mistakes and course correct for the future-
as opposed to simply covering it up and turning a blind eye to it?
Where are the narratives of AAPI communities in our classrooms?
Why do we force naive youth of this next generation to seek out these stories on their own-
but at the same time, so easily hand them textbooks that preach constitutional origins of American history?
Amy Tan, Jhumpa Lahiri, Misa Sugiura, Mohsin Hamid, Viet Thanh Nguyen, Arundathi Roy, George Takei…
I never got to hear their sides of the story until I found them myself.
Why is our system built in a way where we only get to see the very tip of the mountain instead of the jagged edges and rough surfaces of the construction as a whole?
Where is the truth and authenticity under this institutionally crafted Eurocentric curriculum?
this is what we refuse to acknowledge.
but
simply closing a door doesn’t change anything
because
what we ignore still exists.
