I consider myself a staunch multiculturalist. This position is pretty much congenital, as I am well aware of my own diverse cultural inheritance (with Italian, Irish, Swiss, and French ancestry), and a personal commitment to all of the folkways of my forebears. Similarly, being a New Yorker, I have been exposed to people from all over the planet, and I revel in being able to interact with them, eating their food, celebrating their holidays, learning about their traditions. It pains me to note that attacks on individuals of Asian heritage are on the rise:
I actually touched upon the topic of anti-Asian, specifically anti-Chinese bias about a year ago, expressing my solidarity with ALL persons of goodwill who reside in this country. The most repugnant feature of this rash of attacks is that seniors are the targets. There is nothing I despise more than a bully, especially a bigoted bully. I look at the victims of these crimes and I see friends' parents, mentors of mine, neighbors. I may not have the largest platform, but I felt an obligation to amplify this story, to be one of the allies sought by Asian-American communities. Our former divider-in-chief is now out of office, kicked off from social media... it's time we undo the damage he inflicted upon our supposed-to-be United States.if you aren't on asian twitter, it's possible you haven't seen the stories of recent violence against asian elders. here's what you should knowhttps://t.co/184OeIgCAL
— bettina makalintal (@bettinamak) February 8, 2021
B^4, it's horrifying, for all the reasons one might imagine. And worst of all is that out here on the West Coast, East-Asian-Americans have been here for over a century, they're just as much Americans as any white person, any Black person.
ReplyDeleteThank you for amplifying this.
This has been happening my whole life. 40 years ago these same thugs mugged my friend and left her lying in the street. She spent a week in the hospital. She was an American of Armenian descent. They called her an "Ay-rab" and told her go back where she came from. She was an 18 years old college girl.
ReplyDeleteThis happened in LA.