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December 16, 2013
On Saturday, December 14th, Suey Park launched an internet revolt with a hashtag that packed a powerful punch. #NotYourAsianSidekick was a top-trending topic on Twitter all weekend, and attracted the attention of the BBC, Al Jazeera and other online outlets. And as Suey Park put it, #NotYourAsianSidekick is “not just a trending topic, it’s a movement.”
The movement started a long time ago—there’s a lot of kindling under this Twitter fire, and Asian American women (and men) have been affirming their identities, voicing their dissatisfaction and reshaping reality for years. As a son of a single mother who immigrated to the U.S., I’ve seen directly the kinds of challenges that women face in a culture that is laced with subtle and not-so-subtle sexism, racism and discrimination, from micro-aggressions to macro-aggressions. To be sure, we’ve connected with a lot of positivity in the culture as well, but that space has been actively created by the struggles of individuals and communities—particularly African Americans—that have inspired many groups marginalized by a mainstream biased towards a male Eurocentric perspective.
I think the topic went viral for three basic reasons:
- The conversation has already been happening in our community for years, because we have been facing issues of misrepresentation, discrimination, stereotyping and marginalization in countless well-documented ways. The subject is real and pervasive, from media to education to health care and mental health to the corporate world. In this case, Twitter became a megaphone to voice concerns about an undeniable aspect of reality faced by all Asian Americans.
- The hashtag hit the sweet spot of being an informative message, slogan, spark, and rallying cry rolled into one. Those who knew, just “got” it, and it was easy to join the movement.
- It became empowering and reinforcing to join with others online. Geographically disparate Asian Americans were able to band together online and see that their voice had some impact on those watching.
My only caveat is that for the most part, we’re “speaking to the choir”, and that the internet is a fundamentally disembodied, unrelated form of communication. But perhaps this flood of messages will make people think just a little more. If it’s easy to join the movement, perhaps it will make it more likely that people will continue the movement in real-world ways.
The payoff, for me, will be in a changed landscape of acceptance, treatment, representation and advancement for all marginalized groups. Perhaps Suey Park and people like her will have more of a voice and power in decision-making circles. Maybe the AMA will think twice before greenlighting productions like Katy Perry’s. Maybe we’ll start to see more Asian American women and men in leading roles onscreen and in real life. Maybe we can dig deep and reject the mental schema that invalidates minority perspectives.
Of course, any time racism or sexism gets brought up, there’s a backlash. Some articles, such as this one by Grace Hwang Lynch, allude to the flamers. It’s clear that a significant number of (mostly white male) people feel resentful at “being blamed” —and can’t get past that to see the perspective of people, particularly women, who are relating their experience. Just as in the back-and-forth about Katy Perry recently, there are some people who just don’t seem to “get” stereotyping and discrimination, particularly against Asian Americans. They reacted defensively instead of empathically, and rant that people (like me) who point to problems are “weak” or “too sensitive.” No, sorry—you’re #insensitive. If your sense of personal power and security are created by invalidating, insulting and demonizing others—you’re not exactly being pro-social. #newsflash.
This typifies the disembodied relating of online platforms, where we divide into suburbs that vie for volume and attention, yet are unable to fully connect with each other. But it also points to deeper problems of a fragmented, polarized society. I would love to see an educational system that emphasized emotional intelligence, empathy and understanding the perspectives of others. Teaching Tolerance, a project of the Southern Poverty Law Center, does an excellent job of creating educational resources to combat hatred. The Center for Asian American Media also has a long list of films that can be used to generate dialogue. I recommend, for starters, the PBS series produced by CAAM “Searching For Asian America," particularly this episode about Lela Lee and her Angry Little Girls comic. (Available here.)
We’re in the “nicest part of the year”, the Holiday Season—a season filled with re-connections to family and friends. It would be great if we could expand our definition of community and family, and keep working on ways to decrease our self-centeredness—the message of not only all the world’s wisdom traditions, but also a fundamental lesson of modern psychology, and indeed, the only way that society works. Now, that would really be a Social Network.
(Update 12/17/13: A nice write-up by Jenn Fang with more detail about the backlash is here.)
BONUS FEATURE: I recently read an early version of my poem “Too Sensitive”, in response to Lady Gaga’s statement that people who protested Katy Perry’s performance were “too sensitive” Here it is, around minute 3:45. https://www.youtube.com/mY3AntjMmyM?t=3m44s
© 2013 Ravi Chandra, M.D. All rights reserved.
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