This article first appeared in New English Review.
Last week's horrific shooting spree in Atlanta that targeted three massage parlors and killed 8 people, has put the topic of anti-Asian bias under the spotlight. In the past year, anti-Asian hate crimes have spiked, and much of it is believed to have resulted from the Covid pandemic, which originated in China. The bias crime narrative continues to surround the Atlanta shootings even though the suspect has reportedly told police he was acting out of anger over his addiction to sex.
Whatever the true motive, the topic of anti-Asian bigotry is of concern to me because of my life-long connections to Asian-Americans and Asian people in general. I grew up in West Los Angeles, and we had a large number of Asian-American kids in our schools, principally Japanese-American. This was back in the 1960s, with World War II only 20 years removed, and, yet, the Japanese-American kids were very popular in school. The term, "Buddha head", was used affectionately and used by the Japanese-American kids as well. As a young man, I frequented a Japanese-American church in Culver City, and later, spent three years in Thailand with DEA. I speak Thai and am very much attached to the Thai culture.
In the years I was teaching English as a second language at the University of California at Irvine, many of our students were from Asia, and the campus population as a whole was and still is largely Asian-American. I know I have written many negative articles about anti-Semitic expression at UCI, overwhelmingly as a result of the anti-Israel, pro-Palestinian movement, but the Asian-American student population at UCI has had nothing to do with that.
One thing I did notice along with the growing anti-Semitism and anti-whiteness feeling on campus was a certain degree of resentment that so many students, particularly in California universities, were Asian-American. That has resulted in many schools trying to find ways to reduce the Asian-American percentage in favor of more students from underrepresented minorities. That troubles me because I am a firm believer in meritocracy, and I also believe that the Asian-American kids tend to do so well scholastically largely due to the importance Asians have historically put on education, as well as parental involvement in their children's schooling.
I run the risk here of drifting into the "model minority" narrative, and I know that this designation troubles many Asian-Americans because it is a stereotype, albeit a positive one, and because it pits them against other minorities. In addition, there are cultural disparities among Asians of Japanese, Korean, Filipino, Thai, Vietnamese etc. descent, which are not immediately apparent to those unfamiliar with Asia.
But the reality here is that anti-Asian feeling is on the rise, probably for a variety of reasons, none of which are valid. It should also be pointed out (though many will not) that while the Atlanta attacker is white, the perpetrators of anti-Asian crimes cut across ethnic lines. We must counter this trend with the same determination as we counter other types of bias. It should not matter who the victims are or who the perpetrators are. It is all wrong, particularly when human lives are taken.
Hopefully, in the coming days, we will get a clearer picture of the motives of the Atlanta killer. If he acted out of bias, we need to know that, if, for nothing else, Asians know of the risks out there. If it was all about sex addiction, it adds to the growing concern we have over a mental health crisis that plagues our society. If, by chance, it was related to the Covid virus, we can be angry at China the country, and the Chinese government without blaming it on Chinese or Asian people. Those who attack Asians do so because they don't know them. Take the time to get to know them, and that bias will disappear. In the meantime, may God protect them from harm.
2 comments:
Good article.
The only addition that I have is that technically speaking, there is no "sex addiction" in the DSM-5. In other words, it's not a recognized mental disorder. There are sexual disorders, but that's not one of them. From my very limited understanding, people who frequently see prostitutes and/or watch pornography all day can have various motivations for doing so. For many of them, it's to disassociate. In other words, they're suffering from depression, and those things can act as distractions. It's similar to why people drink and take drugs. However, with alcohol and drugs, those substances also create a chemical addiction.
I think that we're also running into a problem by identifying these shooters as people who have mental disorders. While that very well may be true, that's not the reason why they do what they do. Millions of Americans have mental disorders. I have anxiety disorder that manifests into depression myself, and I take medication for it. Even off my meds though, I have no desire to go out and kill people. (I don't even own a gun.)
I haven't looked into this guy yet, but these shooters usually have a history of violent behavior (usually against women) and ties to white supremacy (even when they're not white! Remember that half-Filipino shooter who spouted white supremacist talking points?)
Also, there is a genuine level of acceptable contempt that people can show toward sex workers. This needs to change too. There's a reason why so many serial killers choose them as their targets - because society sees them as having little human value. (While never criticizing the Johns.)
So, what we likely have here is a deadly mix of racism, misogyny, and hatred of sex workers. Mix all of that together and add a mental disorder on top of it? There's a killer in the making.
Just looked him up - I think that we can also factor in his religious upbringing which teaches people to be ashamed of their sexual urges outside of marriage. I know that not all religions do that, but seems like his is one of them.
Thank you. I think most of us can agree that we are having a mental health crisis in this country. Whether the victims were sex workers or not, they were human beings with families.
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