How can Asian Americans efficiently advocate for equality Summary

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How can Asian Americans efficiently advocate for equality
About four in every ten Asian Americans have faced racist views over the past year, particularly since the Coronavirus pandemic took root in the country; this is according to the Peer Research Center (Ruiz, Horowitz & Tamir pars 1-3). With the 15th March 2021 mass shooting in three spas in Atlanta leading to the deaths of six Asian women, racial discrimination among this group prompts the need for a serious conversation. According to the U.S. Bureau of Census, Asian Americans are predominant among the fastest-growing population segment, accounting for 5.6 percent of the people and expected to grow to 37 million by 2050 (The Asian Population in the United States). Despite these high numbers, this group has faced inequalities since they immigrated into the country. The struggle for civil rights among Asian Americans traced its origin to the 19th century when the first documented instance of discrimination, the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, was signed into law. It singled out the Chinese people, banning their immigration into the U.S for a decade. The 1880s saw the lives of the Chinese become difficult due to discrimination, hate, and even attacks (Low 2-3). While the act was eventually repealed in 1868, this laid the foundation of racial inequality among Asian Americans, which is being witnessed up to date, thereby begging the question, in the context of racial discrimination and hate crimes that exist in the US society, how can Asian Americans efficiently advocate for equality.
When it comes to organizing social movements, violence against violence is never a solution. Social moments are one of the ideal ways to push for racial equality. Social movements are group actions instituted for the sole purpose of pushing for a change in a particular political or social matter. The fight for equality for Asian Americans began in Chinatown in 1974, when the group was forced into action to protest a developer’s snub of Asian workers. Local activists spoke up and held mass protests, which not prevailed on the developer but also led to the creation of grassroots movements (Beyond Activism: Four decades of social justice Pars 1-2). While these protests were largely peaceful, social movements have attracted unwanted consequences such as violence in some cases. For instance, The Black Lives Matter social movement organized several protests in Minneapolis, which quickly spread across the United States after the police killing of George Floyd. While the reason for the demonstrations was noble and justified, the demonstrations in Minneapolis, George’s hometown, experienced destruction of property, vandalism, arson, and looting. Consequently, the police applied brutal force on the protesters, while others faced arrests (Stockman pars 2-4). Such instances paint the need for social movements in a bad light, as they help push for change for a particular group of people. However, change cannot result from violence thus should be avoided at all costs.
The only way to achieve racial equality on the societal level is for people of color to work jointly. Like Asian Americans and other minority groups in the United States, African Americans have struggled with discrimination. African Americans have had to grapple with stereotypes of being criminals and violent, generalizations that have lead to police harassment, targeting, and unprovoked police killings. Other minority groups such as the Hispanics suffer profiling as drug dealers. Such situations put these groups in a vulnerable position as compared to white people. While the African Americans and Asians worked together in the late 1960s, a collaboration that led to the Third World Liberation Front Movement, today, no partnerships have been documented among the minority (Livingston). Minorities working together would be beneficial in pushing for their equality. According to research by the Pew Research Centre, 41percent of African Americans and 45% of Hispanics find the strategy of bringing different racial groups together as an effective strategy in pushing for equality (Achieving racial equality). As communities that share common struggles and constitute a significant population, their collaboration would consolidate their voices. Thus, this will make it harder to be ignored, thereby strengthening their fight against systemic racism. The partnership will also eliminate the preconceived notion that inequality towards non-white citizens is nonexistent since Asian Americans are successful individuals, which pits all other minorities against Asians. Consequently, it will enable them to focus on the agenda of improving their lives and attaining equality.
Another way to successfully advocate for equality is by creating problem awareness. While to a majority of the population, racism against minorities and its effects seem evident, many white people do not consider this a fact. According to Robert Livingston, research by Michael Norton and Sam Sommers in 2011 established that Whites in the U.S. believe that systemic racism against the black community has gradually decreased over the last five decades, with 57% of them believing systemic discrimination against white people has increased over the same period (Livingston par 5). Additionally, most white people refute racism as they think it only occurs as a deliberate action with malicious intent. Such beliefs are integral in Asian Americans pushing for equality, as they can utilize them as a foundation of creating awareness of inequality against them. For instance, they describe what inequality is to them, how it manifests, its effects on the Asian American race, and ways to make changes. Consequently, people who do not believe that racial inequality towards this population exists will have a wealth of information to convince them otherwise.
Taking political action...