Ep 130 | Richard Chen: The History of Social Injustice and Discrimination Toward Asian Americans

Talking Taiwan

A note from Talking Taiwan host Felicia Lin:

The wave of Anti-Asian hate crimes over the past year have largely been attributed to blaming the Chinese for the spread of the Coronavirus. However, Asian Americans have experienced hate, social injustice and discrimination since they started immigrating to the U.S. I’ve invited Richard Chen on to the podcast to talk about the history of discrimination toward asian americans, and some of the major events that have galvanized Asian Americans in the past. Richard is Creator of StopAAPIHate.us, Board member of Asian American Action Fund.

Founding moderator of the FB group Asians Now a FB group of Asian diaspora for social awareness.

Here’s a little preview of what we talked about in this podcast episode:

• What motivated Richard to create StopAAPIHate.us
• Why the model minority myth is problematic
• Asiatic exclusion league
• Yellow Peril
• Page Act
• Chinese Exclusion Act
• Geary Act
• Tydings–McDuffie Act
• Asiatic Barred Zone Act
• Immigration Act of 1924
• Burning of Santa Ana Chinatown
• Japanese internment camps
• The Murder of Vincent Chin
• Rodney King Incident and the 1992 LA Riots

Related Links:

Richard Chen on Twitter: https://twitter.com/richardc020

Asian American Action Fund: https://aaafund.org

AsiansNOW, a 14,000 member Facebook group to raise the Asian diaspora's social awareness: http://facebook.com/groups/asiansnow

StopAAPIHate.us: https://stopaapihate.us

Xenophobia and racism related to the COVID-19 pandemic: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xenophobia_and_racism_related_to_the_COVID-19_pandemic#New_York

Anti-Chinese sentiment in the United States:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anti-Chinese_sentiment_in_the_United_States

Atlanta Spa Shootings: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2021_Atlanta_spa_shootings

Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA): https://www.aaja.org/

Asiatic Exclusion League: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Asiatic_Exclusion_League

1875 Page Act: https://www.history.com/news/chinese-immigration-page-act-women#:~:text=On%20paper%2C%20the%20Page%20Act,for%20the%20purposes%20of%20prostitution.%E2%80%9D

Why Santa Ana, CA Deliberated Burned Down Its Chinatown in 1906: https://www.ocweekly.com/santa-ana-deliberately-burned-down-its-chinatown-in-1906-and-let-a-man-die-to-do-it-6446664/

'Model Minority' Myth Again Used As A Racial Wedge Between Asians And Blacks: https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2017/04/19/524571669/model-minority-myth-again-used-as-a-racial-wedge-between-asians-and-blacks

The model minority myth says all Asians are successful. Why that's dangerous: https://www.nbcnews.com/news/asian-america/model-minority-myth-says-asians-are-successful-dangerous-rcna420

Geary Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geary_Act#:~:text=An%20Act%20to%20prohibit%20the,persons%20into%20the%20United%20States.&text=The%20Geary%20Act%20was%20a,Congress%20on%20May%205%2C%201892.

https://immigrationhistory.org/item/geary-act/

Tydings–McDuffie Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tydings%E2%80%93McDuffie_Act

Asiatic Barred Zone Act aka the Immigration Act of 1917 and the Literacy Act: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1917

Immigration Act of 1924: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Immigration_Act_of_1924

Angel Island: https://bit.ly/3wjiW0m

Japanese Internment Camps: https://www.history.com/topics/world-war-ii/japanese-american-relocation

Murder of Vincent Chin: https://www.history.com/news/vincent-chin-murder-asian-american-rights

National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP): https://naacp.org/

American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU): https://www.aclu.org/

Asian Americans (PBS documentary): https://www.pbs.org/show/asian-americans/

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SkIjSx2Ax0U

We Need To Talk About Anti-Asian Hate: https://youtu.be/14WUuya94QE

Anti-Asian violence has surged in the US since COVID-19. But it didn't start there: https://www.today.com/news/anti-asian-violence-history-anti-asian-racism-us-t210645https://www.today.com/news/anti-asian-violence-history-anti-asian-racism-us-t210645