Recently I read a book about the Chinese community in and around Sacramento. Many of them huddled in smaller, less urban areas because of anti-Chinese violence in San Francisco Chinatown; as well as to flee white supremacists who killed them, at various points throughout the late 19th and early 20th century.
That gives me more perspectives when I read stories like these.
Some people really like to portray this part of America as a paradise for racial and sexual minorities, but I think that belief hampers any actual growth in these areas.
In the late 1800s, Antioch had a series of tunnels connecting their Chinatown to different areas because Chinese people were not allowed to walk above ground after sunset.
I say this because when I speak of having experienced anti-Chinese attacks in San Francisco, or my queer friends being discriminated against in different ways up and down the Bay Area, cis straight white people often say, what, here? I thought we don’t have that stuff here??
I don’t even know where to begin, other than to cry / laugh
At the same time I’m also very skeptical of many of the Stop Asian Hate people. I feel like many of them don’t know how to separate their legitimate feelings of having been targeted and attacked especially through early Covid, from the reactionary politics sweeping ‘liberal cities’ right now. The one that says put more people in prison, punish everyone. It’s a weird time out here
Esp as the loudest of the StopAsianHate group (wait, legit ask too, is SAH still a thing? I usually refer to it as like, a dead movement… from the start imho, but that’s just me being spicy) were absolutely not the ones facing the worst of the anti-Asian harm caused by COVID…
@thedandeliongrove i'm also deeply skeptical of how much 'asian' they include in that category. i've certainly seen a lot of discrimination towards southeast and south asians in that movement, which makes me meh about it
This exactly is what I remember from watching SAH from TikTok during 2020/2021.
Esp as it absolutely galvanized reactionary Han Chineseness, and heard lots about the tea of some Han Chinese “activists” absolutely shouting down other non-Han Asians to, yeah, speedrun cooptation to try to become celeb activists 😒😒😒
@thedandeliongrove lol they were absolutely shouting down han chinese filipinos and vietnmaese people as well. a lot of weird local sf politics now is around 'getting the conservative pro-police chinese american vote' ugh
@skinnylatte oof, yeah I feel that and appreciate the noting of that; def my own journey with SAH and unpacking Han Chinese politics is seeing the milieu I’m from (Mandarin Speaking Han Chinese Mainlander Professional-Managerial Immigrants) just… really double and triple down on reactionary tales of victimization.
So many sob stories of smelly lunchboxes, name calling, and failed admissions… and yeah, the unmasking of their desire to shout over the BLM uprisings 😒😒😒
@thedandeliongrove i'm suspicious of any han chinese N american identity that doesn't also investigate its own anti-Blackness and classism. without that, everyone just ends up becoming simu 'white women won't date me but i'm hot' liu. lol
(a lesbian couple friend experienced this in palo alto, home of stanford... in 2023: post office staff refused to work with them for passport renewals for baby until 'the father' can show up) ahahahhaha
we may not have codified bigotry, but it doesn't mean it isn't here
@grumpasaurus@fuzzychef@skinnylatte Thanks for the thread and y'alls contributions! I've learned more. Truckee in California chased the Chinese out of town with violence. It became the "Truckee Method."
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