Hello Miss Young,
I read your piece with great interest; I'm always intrigued when someone writes an opinion piece such as yours, who truly has no skin in the game. You state we need " we need facts, not moral panic and politicized narratives" correct. Thing is, you don't need to have a sense of panic about any of this, because you are not an woman of asian decent, however, I AM, and I am very panicked about what has been happening, since certain individuals have turned the narrative of the covid pandemic into such lovely phrases such as Kung Flu, the Chinese virus and so on and so forth.
The tone of your first sentence is quite callous in my opinion "midst ongoing concerns about an apparent spike in violence against the Asian-American community, a horrific killing spree that seemed to primarily target Asian-American women erupted in Atlanta on Tuesday." Seriously? An apparent spike? You make it sound quite fantastical, as if the Asian community had seen ghosts and their perception was a bit off. The "killing spree (seemed) to primarily target Asian-American women" , it didn't "seem" to target them, IT DID.
In the very next paragraph, once again, you go where no asian person would go, trying to get into the mind of the man who slaughtered eight people with this insensitive remark, " A killer’s words can provide useful information, but he could be lying, trying to spin his actions in a way he thinks is positive, or fail to fully understand his own motivations." Its nice to know you have already given this person the benefit of the doubt, by stating "he could be lying, trying to spin his actions into a positive narrative, or failing to understand his motivations..." It sounds like you are trying to spin this narrative yourself, how convenient, since, once again, you have no skin in the game.
In one paragraph, you take offense to the possibility that "white supremacy" might have an integral part to play by this statement " Unfortunately, in an “anti-racism moment” that has turned to a wave of moral panic, the reaction to the Atlanta attack has also included distorted narratives that blame “white supremacy” well ahead of the facts — and sometimes twist the facts as well." Are you even aware of the intersectionality of racism and misogyny that Asian American women face on a daily basis? https://www.npr.org/2021/03/19/979336512/for-asian-american-women-misogyny-and-racism-are-inseparable-sociologist-says
Nancy Wang Yuen, a sociology professor at Biola University who specializes in race and ethnicity in media, told NPR that removing racism from the conversation ignores the history of hypersexualization and fetishization of Asian women in the U.S. Let me introduce some terms to you, terms you might not be aware of, because I highly doubt you have had experience with them. Submissive, exotic, china doll, terms that can put an asian women in a very precarious predicament, to say the least, then to be viewed as somehow promiscuous because of movies like Full Metal Jacket and egregious phrases that demean women and views them as prostitutes. I can tell you I have heard these phrases and the panic is very real. These situations have been instituted by WHITE SUPREMACY, especially within the military, or are you not aware of this? https://www.jbu.edu/assets/faculty/resource/file/faculty_profiles/preston_jones/navy_and_asia.pdf
I could go on through your article, trying to point out certain things that I just don't agree with, but honestly, I don't want to do the homework for you. I am truly tired of people like you, who, for whatever reason, take the side that you do. I will though leave you with your own statement..."Thus, while white racism against Asians certainly exists, Asian-Americans simply do not fit easily into the narrative of omnipresent white supremacy." Unless you have walked in an Asian persons shoes, lived their life and looked at the world through THEIR EYES and not your own, your statement falls flat. And it shows just how ignorant you are when it comes to how Asians have been treated since arriving onto these shores and ones who are born here, but hey, your eyes aren't slanted, they're just half open, only seeing what you want to see
