Category: Module 13

DB13 Danielle Singson

Phi’s article highlighted the much heated topic of police brutality. Police brutality has been a consistent issue within POC. Phi’s article talks about the attitudes of Asian Americans towards police brutality. He describes the anxious feelings many POC have when encountered with police officers and details the lengths they take to stay in good graces with the police. Bio Phi explains that as long as the aggression is not directed towards the asian community, many asians stand indifferent or side leaning towards law enforcement. Phi points out that although Asian Americans are often victims of police brutality, a vast majority of them still strongly support law enforcement and are pro police activists. For me, I think Phi’s objective is to reach asian communities and lead asian readers to realize the hypocrisy among them.  To be able to help them out of the “pick me” attitudes and step back to see that the asian community is also terrorized by the corrupt law enforcement and broken justice system. I find that this article encourages asian communities to align and support fellow POC and recognize that the BLM movement moves in alliance with all POC against a corrupt white glorifying system.

Zen brings up a relative topic of how Asian Americans tend to take a conservative stance regarding modern social and racial issues. She details on how multiple black perpetrated anti-asian attacks push asians to align with law enforcement. Zen also highlights the topic of affirmative action, how it affects the asian community and how it has pushed asians towards a conservative view due to the policy’s negative impact. I believe that Zen’s purpose was to challenge conservative asian views and encourage them to support minority communities and align with the BLM movement.

The main objective of the piece was to reach out to Asian readers and educate them on the struggles of being black as well as the harsh, unfair treatment that the black community faces in hopes of encouraging unity through the realization of common ground. I particularly liked how the author empathized with Asian struggle and did not dismiss it. I think that a lot of Asians do identify with white more than other POC because their history and cultural background. I think the glorification of being white stems from centuries of exploitation and lack of education which won’t go away anytime soon (as much as I want it to). Hopefully, more asians do come to a realization that racial issues affect them as much as it affects other POC and finally come together and unite to fight for a system that protects all.

Thuc Thao Tran #DB13

In Bao Phi’s article it is possible to see that racism towards Asians or Asian Americans is never ending. We can see from Duy Ngo’s story when he works for the police, but his safety is 0%. on the contrary, Bao Phi also felt very surprised and confused when he heard the story of Duy Ngo again “From Duy’s account: the squad car rolled up to him with its lights turned off as he lay prone, and the officers failed to announce their presence – all against regulation.  One officer then shot several bursts at Duy with a non-regulation MP5 submachine gun, shattering his left forearm, leg, and groin”. The resolution of that problem by the white police is extremely irresponsible. It can be said through Bao Phi’s article that even though we try to integrate, to change the way of life to become a white person, there is no meaning. Because it’s so obvious even in history, it’s right that it’s right to be like white people. But the treatment is never fair between people of color and white people.

More than that, through Zen’s article can be seen. The Asians protested in support of the NYPD because they were worried about their lives, it could be said there was too much violence against the Asians and the people who made it were black “Some of the more visible anti-Asian attacks were perpetrated by Black people, like the incident when an Asian man was sprayed with febreze on the subway”. But what Chinese immigrants want is the listening of the white policemen “But this is only the first step to more dialogue with them. Chinese immigrants know that the police aren’t good to Asians. They themselves have often encountered situations where they are treated poorly by the police because they don’t speak English fluently. So the conversations we need to have with them are really to start drawing the connections between these struggles and those of Black people.”