“I Bet You’re Good at Maths”

This title above is one of the endless, and quite frankly, insulting stereotypes regarding Asian people all over the world. Many of these stereotypes arise from people who have come to these conclusions by resolving the actions of a certain majority, and applying these to all who look similar. 

Just imagine, if about five to six students in a classroom were interested in football, perhaps representing a local team, then all students of that ethnicity in an entire school should not be expected to perform well and be interested in football as well, should they? Well, this isn’t the reality for ethnic minority groups…

Now, we can up the ante in this scenario and say that if a number of people from China are exposed to the coronavirus, then all of East Asian descent worldwide should be shunned or avoided, should they?

Yes, this mentality might seem quite bizarre, but sadly many, many people still have these deep-rooted ideals of internalised racism. How can this be?

An example of this systemic racism against a marginalised group is evident in the Asian-American community, most especially in recent months. Tragically, hate crime against Asian Americans has cascaded into a dangerous state of predicament. Across 16 of America’s largest cities, there has been a staggering 164% increase in anti-Asian hate crime in the first quarter of 2021, in relation to the same time period in 2020.

We have seen communities protesting against societal beliefs, both physically, and on social media platforms. The #stopasianhate posts of late have been a wakeup call to the world that this is a more serious problem than we ascertain it to be, presenting the gruelling reality being endured by these innocent people every day.

Every day, I see more and more reposts on social media highlighting the truly abhorrent spiking increases in Asian hate crime, affecting people of all ages. One article truly resonated with me, a frail 65-year-old woman in New York kicked viciously to the ground by a man in broad daylight, whilst many civilians simply stood by and watched.

Bystanders. This is a big part of the problem.

Bystanders. People that watch, watch and do nothing. However extreme the attack, they stand unmoving when one is falling victim to the truly detestable brutalities of irrational human hate. How can you simply sit back and allow this? How, as a morally aligned human being, watch a barbaric attack and not even call the police?

Many different minority racial groups, not just Eastern Asian ethnicities, have also faced the menacing attempts of silencing by the most ignorant of society. This can be seen in the spark of BLM battles due to the problem of widespread corruption within the police force, most especially in the USA right now, with the rise in police brutality increasing rapidly.  Comments, microaggressions, such as, “I bet you’re good at maths,” have been heard too many times to count, these subtle undertones of racism completely dismissed as mere light humour by society.

Hearing comments, like the mentioned, are destructive, they make society regress further than it already has. People shouldn’t have to put up with hate purely for being a certain ethnicity. We all need to think about our choices and the decisions we make on a daily basis, and treat others with the same basic humane respect that we also want to be treated with.

Hold this quote with a firm grasp, encapsulating our past, present and future:

“When the mob, and the press, and the whole world tell you to move, your job is to plant yourself like a tree beside the river of truth, and you tell the whole world, ‘No, you move.’” – Captain America, Civil War (Marvel Comics)