The guardian
‘It’s time for people to hear us’: Georgian Asian Americans promise to stand up against hatred
The sensational response from local leaders reflects a change in a state where Asian American voices Nyit Yong, 49, were historically unheard of outside an H-Mart in Suwanee. “If I could talk to President Biden, I would ask him, does he have a plan to prevent further violence?” Photo: Jesse Pratt López / The Guardian Monday morning, the day before a 21-year-old white man killed six Asian women and two others in the metropolitan area of Atlanta, Dr. Michelle Au, who became Georgia’s first state senator of East Asian descent has. addressed her colleagues on state capital only months ago. She spoke of the spitting, stabbing, punching and other acts of violence directed at Asian Americans in recent years, including incidents in Georgia. She told her colleagues that “otherness, exoticism … and racism against Asian Americans is not new”, and talked about the problems of changing these conditions “when … not as voices as you are heard.” “We need help,” she begged. “We need people to stand up to us against hatred.” Unfortunately, this would not be the last time she addresses the issue. She will soon unite with her four Asian American colleagues at the Georgia meeting, as well as the growing number of community-based organizations that have formed in recent years, a reflection of how the state’s fastest growing population has become a part of life. has. the former cradle of the Confederacy. In the days after the killings, while national and international media wanted to explain the violence to their audience, it was Georgia leaders with surnames such as Au, Nguyen, Cho, Park and Yaqoob Mahmood who stood in front of cameras and tape recorders. . It was a striking local Asian American response to the tragedy – one that could have been unthinkable in Georgia just a decade ago. Members of the U.S. Korean Committee of Atlanta Against Asian Hate Crime hold a safe poster with poster. Photo: Dustin Chambers / Reuters The result could be that further steps are taken to counter historic unheard-of Asian-American voices in the city, state and the wider American south and what Bee Nguyen, Georgia’s first Vietnamese US state representative, calls ‘invisibility’ ‘described. “We as Asian Americans were taught to keep our heads down because our parents believed it was safer for us,” Nguyen said from the capital the day after the shooting. “What has happened is that we are now invisible and … it is invisibility that does not protect us from xenophobia, hate crimes or gender-based violence.” On Thursday night in a parking lot outside H Mart, the Korean American supermarket, in Suwanee, Gwinnett County, Sack Wichaisack Nguyen echoed. “The thing about Asian people is that when something happens to us, we do not want to draw attention to ourselves,” said Laos-born Wichaisack. Making people like Au and Nguyen at the center of the public reaction to this week’s tragic violence makes a difference, ‘he added. “It lets us be seen.” The 47-year-old owner of the construction company, who moved to Georgia in 2003, also noted how the Black community is reacting to violence driven by racism. ‘I see people in the Black community, when they come across something, they walk together … [and] I think Asian people need to be more aware. ”Nyit Yong (49) outside an H-Mart in Suwanee. “If I could talk to President Biden, I would ask him, does he have a plan to prevent further violence?” Photo: Jesse Pratt López / The Guardian “We are at the heart of the civil rights movement,” said Victoria Huynh, vice president of the Atlanta Center-based Center for Pan Asian Community Services (CPACS), which calls itself the “largest and oldest organization. in the Southeast to focus on issues and concerns of Asian Americans. ”“ Black community leaders set the scene and created opportunities for Asian Americans, ”Huynh said, adding that her organization’s work on issues such as voter involvement draws inspiration from the civil rights icons Martin Luther King and Congressman John Lewis.The increasing participation in public life by Asian Americans in Georgia, which began several decades ago, was most evident in last year’s general election because the number Asian U.S. lawmakers have increased to five for the first time, adding local officials in the Atlanta metro area. ett County, the second largest state of the state, the Asian vote was 8.5%, a record. Dekalb County, the third largest state, also offered election materials in Korean, becoming the first in the state’s 233-year history to provide access to voters in an Asian language. At the same time, increasing representation challenges the political dynamics of power in the state, which for much of its history has been drawn up in terms of black and white voters and elected officials. “With the growth of political power comes hatred and a setback,” said historian Keri Leigh Merritt. Historically, she said: “Black people have been seen as a threat to white supremacy – but now there are other threats.” Merritt pointed to the rebuilding period, where dozens of black lawmakers came to power in Georgia, soon followed by a period of violence that resulted in a lack of representation in the assembly for nearly a century. “A big reason why the reconstruction failed is because no one was held accountable – not the slaveholders, not the confederates,” she said. “It could happen again,” she said, referring to the Trump administration’s incitement to violence against Asian Americans during the Covid pandemic and the January 6 storm in the U.S. Capitol, and the lack of consequences for such actions until at present. Nyit Yong stood in the wind outside H Mart on Thursday night, trying to understand things she’s seen more of recently than ever before in her two decades of Georgia. “Some white Americans, deep down, have this stereotype about Asians,” the 49-year-old IT professional said. “But for the past four years, the leader of the country has brought it to the fore.” An Asian strip mall in Suwanee. Photo: Jesse Pratt López / The Guardian She referred to Trump’s insistence on linking the coronavirus to China or Asia, and how it encouraged racist expressions of everyday white Americans. Yong said she was concerned about her safety, and that of her daughter, a student at the University of Georgia. “I texted her yesterday and told her to be careful, to be aware of her surroundings,” she said. Like Wichaisack, she came up with the idea of buying guns for protection. ‘I have Chinese friends who own gas stations. “They considered getting guns,” she said. Yong also feels encouraged by the platforms granted to Asian American leaders in Georgia following Tuesday’s violence. “They bring out our voice, our problems,” she said. She mentions Joe Biden’s visit to the city. “If I could talk to him,” she would ask him, does he have a plan to prevent further violence? “She also asked herself, ‘Why can a young man have such a feeling towards Asian women – where did he get it from? Why do we still have people in this country who are so racist? Who taught him that? Aisha Yaqoob Mahmood is the executive director of the Asian American Advocacy Fund, one of the organizations that joined with others to ensure that “we are most affected” by Tuesday’s violence – the families of the victims and the communities. where they come from. of. Mahmood has lived in Georgia for 22 years and sees the number of types of organizations increasing during that period. She recalls trying to raise awareness in 2015 of an incident in which a white man shot dead three Muslim students in neighboring North Carolina. “I felt I did it alone and begged elected officials to pay attention,” she said. Now, she and many other people are meeting with members of the community affected by the recent killings to help with anything from translation to legal support. Flowers and signs are displayed at a temporary memorial outside the Gold Spa. Photo: Alyssa Pointer / AP Victoria Huynh, at CPACS, has also been organizing what she calls ‘listening sessions’ with community members over the past few weeks as concerns about the wave of violence against Asian Americans have increased. People are “traumatized”, she said – “to see images of violence from across the country, with someone like our grandfather, our aunt, our uncle.” “If it had happened 20 years ago, it would have been different,” she said. “Now we are more equipped to respond to something like that.” The two organizations and others held a press conference midweek to discuss their response. Mahmood said he hopes that more attention will be paid to the many different Asian American populations living in the state, and that “elected officials in Georgia will see what our needs are.” “Our communities have changed,” she said. “We hope Georgia will change with it.” April Chung said outside a Korean BBQ Chicken restaurant on Thursday night, “It’s time for people to hear us.” The 28-year-old man, who arrived from South Korea to Buford, Georgia, ten years ago, said: “This week I broke my heart – that this man is aiming for Asians.” She said she’s concerned about her parents ‘safety, and that’ I’m a little scared to go to Walmart or [supermarket chain] Kroger. Chung looked at several local Korean newspapers from a nearby shelf, including one of which the reporter spoke to a witness to the murder. On the same day, another local Korean outlet would be the first to speak to the son of one of the victims. Chung said the outlets, though small, have an edge over English-language media: community ties, including a shared language. “For Korean culture, we walk together when something happens,” she said. When asked what she would say to Biden if she could, she paused and replied after a pause, “I’m still emotional.” Then she adds: ‘He would understand what it means to be a victim, what it means to be in a foreign land. By doing so [meeting], I hope the people who think Asians are bad – they can change their minds. ‘