By Demetrius Dillard
Acts or attitudes of hatred perpetrated toward any race, minority or ethnicity should be diametrically opposed to the utmost.
History overwhelmingly proves the countless hateful attacks toward Black Americans in particular over the past four to five centuries. While the Black community has progressed in some areas, they still experience oppression and have to suffer the bitter realities of White supremacist racism to a much greater extent than other races and ethnicities.
Some of the most prominent Black scholars and historians, dating back to John Henrik Clarke, Dr. Yusef Ben-Jochannan and others, have noted the flaws in the prevalent multicultural ideologies that group all so-called minorities together as one, to create a false sense of ‘equalized oppression’ so to speak.
It wasn’t until recently, perhaps over the past 30 years or so, that phrases like ‘Black and Brown people’, ‘minorities’ or ‘people of color’ have been used in mainstream society to essentially suggests that Blacks, Hispanics, Asians and Pacific Islanders, Middle Easterners and other non-white ethnic backgrounds have identical struggles as it relates to racism in the U.S.
Noted Black author and historian Claud Anderson said in a lecture that in the years immediately following the Civil Rights Movement, the hegemony grouped Hispanics (or Latinos/individuals from Spanish-speaking countries) with Black people to create the false impression that oppression of the two demographics were equal.
One of the most recent observable examples with this idea of multicultural false equivalency was with the latest incidents involving attacks on Asian-Americans in Georgia and and shortly thereafter in New York. Subsequently, the hashtag #StopAsianHate went viral and continues to trend on virtually all social media platforms.
According to an article by Brookings Institute writers Jennifer Lee and Tiffany Huang note that Asian Americans have experienced increasing rates of hate crimes since the onset of the pandemic in March 2020.
“Since March of last year, there have been over 3,000 self-reported incidents of anti-Asian violence from 47 states and the District of Columbia, ranging from stabbings and beatings, to verbal harassment and bullying, to being spit on and shunned,” the article says. “While being spit on is offensive, in the time of coronavirus, it is also potentially lethal.”
Again, racially motivated attacks or any action taken against a group of individuals that’s rooted in hate or prejudice is beyond despicable and should never be taken lightly.
However, influential political figures, celebrities and civic leaders have seemed to have exaggerated this recent crisis, equating it with the plight of Black Americans. Quite interestingly, Black people continue to face a troubling police brutality crisis, suffer from various forms of discrimination and systematic racism including housing, access to wealth, employment and voting, among many others.
Soon after the anti-Asian attack, lawmakers introduced anti-hate crime legislation designed to address a rise in hate incidents directed at Asian Americans. The bill, according to the White House, would “create a new position at the Department of Justice to facilitate the review of hate crimes and provide oversight of hate crimes related to COVID-19.”
The introduction of the new legislation prompted President Joe Biden to take action rather quickly, while pieces of legislation geared toward addressing issues facing disadvantaged Black Americans have been seemingly ignored. For instance, the Emmett Till Lynching Act has been on the table for more than two years, but Biden and many other political figures have seemed to been silent on what many consider an urgent piece of legislation.
Biden’s Anti-Asian Hate Crime Bill was a great idea, but it was met with opposition by those who felt he should apply the same efforts toward the social advancement and protection of Black Americans – most of whom suffer from the lingering effects of slavery and ongoing Jim Crowism.
“Across our nation, an outpouring of grief and outrage continues at the horrific violence and xenophobia perpetrated against Asian American communities, especially Asian American women and girls. As President Biden said during his first prime time address, anti-Asian violence and xenophobia is wrong, it’s un-American, and it must stop,” says a March 30 White House press release.
“Today, President Biden is announcing new actions to respond to the increase in acts of anti-Asian violence, and to advance safety, inclusion, and belonging for all Asian American, Native Hawaiian, and Pacific Islander communities.”
Also, the White House announced $49.5 million in funding from the Department of Health and Human Services for AAPI (Asian-American/Pacific Islander) survivors of domestic violence and sexual assault. Yet, there has been overwhelming silence on the Emmett Till Lynching Act.
“If you went out of your way begging Black people to vote for you, why haven’t we got an executive order or any other activity coming out of the Oval Office from President Biden to protect Black people from police? Look at what he’s doing with the ani-Asian hate [bill],” said scholar Umar Johnson in a recent interview with The Breakfast Club in reference to Biden.
“President Joe Biden signed an executive order that is exclusive to Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders. I don’t have a problem with that, but if you can protect the Asian American and Pacific Islander from violence, why can’t you do the same thing for Black people?
“If the Senate was able to pass the Anti-Asian Hate Crimes Bill… 96 to 1 with almost no opposition, why is it that the Emmett Till Lynching Bill still has not been aproved? Why is it that there have been over 200 different anti-lynching bills introduced in the U.S. Congress, and not one of them has been approved by the U.S. Congress yet?… look at the racism.”
Something else to consider: the #StopAsianHate hashtag was met with little to know White opposition, while the #BlackLivesMatter hashtag was met with stark opposition and has become one of the controversial statements on social media for years.
The late great Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. said it best: “Injustice anywhere is a threat to justice everywhere,” but the question yet remains – what about us?
