Hello!

As an Asian American scholar, the anti-Asian violence of the early 2020s weighs heavily upon me. The social-political climate of the Trump and COVID-19 eras and the trauma and pain of racist, misogynist, and xenophobic discrimination have directly impacted my work and personal life.

 

I feared grocery shopping, taking my dog for a walk, and going to work. I watched my students hide in their homes for fear that they would get hurt if they went outside. While some of these fears have subsided, the fear I cannot let go of is that all this violence will be forgotten—that we will be forgotten.

 

As the height of the COVID-19 pandemic has waned along with hypervisible acts of anti-Asian racism, I am deeply troubled by the possibility that the violence, death, and racial uprisings were all for naught. My aim is that this study is a step towards making Asian American racial experiences a visible mainstay in conversations about race in the U.S.

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I believe that higher education can be a catalyst for social change and a means to a better life. Though higher education is shaped by the forces we seek to change (that is, systemic racism), I use my resources and positionality in the academy to combat oppression in all its forms.

 

Moreover, as a racial justice educator, I seek ways to progress curricula about race and identity that are inclusive of diverse perspectives, especially those that fall outside of the Black-white racial binary. I believe that attending to lived experiences that diverge from what is more well-known, such as Asian American and intersectional experiences, can be a catalyst for dismantling the systems of oppression in which our society is rooted.

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This investigation about Asian American racial identity and anti-Asian racism has been of both scholarly and personal interest to me, as it has served as a method for which I can make sense of the anti-Asian racism that has plagued our relationships and institutions.