Why Trump's tweets vs. African Americans should concern the AAPI community

Reynold Liang was one of the four Asian American men attacked for being in a predominantly
white neighborhood in New York City.

DONALD TRUMP almost ruined my Thanksgiving. His early morning tweets on Thanksgiving Day should raise a red flag for Asian/Americans and Pacific Islanders.

While I give thanks for so many things in my life, the current regime in Washington is not one of them.

In response to a Washington Post columnist Greg Sergent's supposition that Trump tends to attack African/Americans but let white misdeeds or insults go without response, Trump tweeted at 3:31 a.m., "MAKE AMERICA GREAT AGAIN!" - all caps.

Instead of refuting Sergent's column's claims, Trump sends a message that - as a person of color - I interpret as, "Yeah - Make America  White Again."

Now, you might say I'm making a mountain out of molehill or that I'm too sensitive to racial jibes, but you have to see Trump's tweets or actions or executive orders in the overall context of Trump's political life, which I would say started when he began making birther accusations against President Obama in the spring of 2011.

“I have some real doubts,” Trump said in an interview on the “Today” show that year. He claimed to have sent his own investigators to Hawaii, where Obama was born. "I have people that actually have been studying it and they cannot believe what they're finding." Of course, that so-called evidence was never produced.

A strong argument can be made that his anti-black sentiments go back further when he took out a full-page ad condemning the Central Park Five, who were all African Americans,  and who were exonerated from that brutal attack on a female jogger. Another man, confessed to the crime in 2012 after DNA evidence linked him to the attack.

Trump still thinks the five boys, now men, are guilty of the brutal crime.

But, I'm digressing from my original statement. Suffice it to say, Trump's recent tweets vs. prominent and not-so-prominent African/Americans, plus his statements after the white supremacist rally in Charlottesville, VA, demonstrate that his animus against African/Americans still warps his world view.

In his blog, Sargent argued that Trump "goes out of his way to attack prominent African Americans," including basketball dad LaVar Ball and NFL athletes protesting racial inequities during the national prior to taking to the field.

Sargent responded on Twitter: "Trump's rage-tweets about LaVar Ball are part of a pattern. Trump regularly attacks high-profile African Americans to feed his supporters' belief that the system is rigged for minorities."

In San Francisco, this popped up.

For those of you who don't follow sports, Ball is the ego-driven father of some gifted sons who excel in basketball. His oldest son left UCLA early to play professionally with the L.A. Lakers. His younger son is still playing for the UCLA Bruins.

During a trip to China, young Ball was caught shoplifting along with two other UCLA players. The arrests occurred at the same time Trump happened to by in China. Trump claims he interceded and helped in the early release of the three college students. 

LaVar Ball said he had the situation under control and that Trump shouldn't take all the credit for his son's release. What motivated him to respond in such an off-handed manner is not known but he has a deserved reputation for making outlandish statements to bring attention to himself. 

But in reality, in the greater scheme of things in a world threatened by nuclear war, Russian meddling in U.S. elections and Supreme Court appointments, Ball is not worthy of a presidential response. However, Trump did respond in tweets posted around 2:30 a.m.:

"But it's hard to avoid noticing a gratuitously ugly pattern in Trump's responses, in which Trump vaguely suggests either that his targets are getting above their station, or that they're asking for too much and are insufficiently thankful for all that he has done for them," wrote Sargent.

Many white men who have criticized Trump don’t get the same backlash. The president has never tweeted about author Stephen King, who has publicly called him everything from “an idiot” to a “fake president.” Billionaire Tom Steyer recently started a multi-million dollar ad campaign calling for Trump’s impeachment. So far, Trump and the White House haven’t said a thing. The harshest comment about late night host Stephen Colbert's ridiculing the Trumpster almost daily, was a mild "unfunny."

Some of the prominent African/Americans that Trump attacked or belittled included ESPN reporter Jemele Hill, journalist April Ryan, NBA star Stephen Curry, Rep. Maxine Waters, D-CA., Rep. Frederica Wilson, D-Fla., and, of course, the majority of NFL players who took to their knees to make a statement about the racial inequities that still exist in our country.

Some Asian/Americans, especially those first-generation immigrants, still don't see the link between the civil rights of African/Americans and the well-being of the Asian/American community.

The growth of the white supremacy movement (with the implicit approval of the Trump regime) should concern all of us. While they make no bones about attacking African/Americans, Latinos and Muslims, history tells us they are talking about ALL people of color. Look at your skin.

"While few Asian Americans trace our roots to the Civil War, our history in this nation is deeply intertwined and impacted by white supremacy and nativism," says a statement from Asian Americans Advancing Justice. 

"At the turn of the 20th century, white mobs threatened -- and even lynched -- Chinese, Filipino, and South Asian immigrants, in part for fear they would taint (white) American culture. White supremacist groups helped to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first law to ban an entire ethnic group. And white supremacy birthed 'alien land laws,' barring 'non-citizens' from owning land at a time when mainly Asians could not become U.S. citizens, and anti-miscegenation laws, prohibiting interracial marriage (a law that in California specifically singled out Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and other Asians). White supremacy also paved the way for the U.S. government to violate due process and incarcerate 120,000 Japanese Americans, many U.S. citizens, during World War II -- an action upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Korematsu vs. United States and never formally overturned."

From one of the earliest recorded hate crime in the 1800s when the white supremacist group, Arsonists of the Order of Caucasians, set on fire four Chinese men who they blamed for taking jobs from white workers; to earlier this year when two South Asian man were shot, one fatally, while enjoying an after-work drink with co-workers in Kansas City, the rise of white supremacists can no longer be ignored by Asian/Americans.

Indeed, hate crimes against Asian Americans are rising and getting more violent in direct proportion to the growing boldness of white supremacists. We cannot stand idly by, nor can we ignore the growing atmosphere of hate in the day-to-day encounters on commuter trains, as we shop for holiday presents, as we meet with our friends in restaurants and bars, as our children are bullied, as our places of worship are marred with vandalism or set afire, 

We are not exempt from the ignorance of racists, the hatred of bigots or the actions of the current regime in Washington.

"White supremacy drives the (Trump's) Muslim bans, seeking to ban entire groups of people based on their national origin and non-Christian religion," continues the AAAJ statement. 

UCLA students protest attacks on Asians and Asian Americans on and near campus.

The AAAJ pointed two current policies that demonstrate the Trump regime's true sentiments towards Asian/Americans:

"First, when the President announced his support for the RAISE Act, an immigration bill that would gut the current family-based immigration system, which has brought millions of Asian, African, and Latin American immigrants into the U.S. and remade the racial demographics of the U.S. in the past 50 years. 

"And second, when the White House redirected federal civil rights resources to undo long-standing affirmative action policies. The administration’s purported claim to be fighting discrimination against Asian Americans flies counter to all other evidence that this administration and its allies and supporters seek to advance only the interests of fellow white Americans.

The DOJ questioning of Harvard's admission policies is not so much addressing some Asian/Americans' complaints, as it is more of an attack on the concept of affirmative action, the true goal of the Trump regime.

Years ago, Filipino/American essayist and author Carlos Bulosan wrote in his classic novel "America Is In the Heart":

America is also the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling on a tree. America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities are closed to him. We are all that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrant and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adams to the last Filipino, native born or alien, educated or illiterate - We are America!

When unarmed African/Americans are shot by police,'when Latinos are called rapists, drug-dealers and singled out to show their "proof of legal residency" along our country's southern border; when Muslims can't fly on airplanes without attracting suspicion; or targeted by immigration restrictions; we Asian/Americans are also being targeted, called racial slurs, bullied and harassed.
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Charlottesville: Asian Americans at a turning point

GROWING UP in California, my parents never talked about the Civil Rights Movement of the 1950s and 1960s. To them, the plight of African Americans and their fight for equality were distant events

To them, the March on Washington was for African Americans. It didn't affect Filipinos or Asian/Americans. (In fact, the term "Asian American" hadn't even been conjured up until the latter half of the 60s.)

I can't remember any of my teachers in my racially diverse high school discuss  what was happening in Little Rock, Selma and other parts of the South. The Vietnam War had yet to reach our living room TV screens.

I'm embarrassed to say, that post-WWII generation immigrants of my parents -- as much as we owe them and love them -- there was an awful saying they repeated from a popular racist ditty: "If you're white, you're right; if you're black, get back; if you're brown, stick around." (Ooo, boy, that was difficult to write.)

Through the decades, that mantra has thankfully and gradually disappeared although it is showing signs of revival among the new immigrants from Asia who have no grasp or background of Asian American history. 

As AAPI people have become more attuned to the realities of America and it's dreams, as a group, we still struggle to find our place in our country -- as individuals and as a political construct  -- and rid ourselves of the "otherness" imposed on us by other people.

The events of Charlottesville, the uprising of white supremacists and the rise of Donald Trump, a leader who has no grasp of history and no empathy for people of color is forcing us to once again, seek a place in this current battle for America's soul because, whether we like or not, it is better at the table discussing these issues rather than retiring to the kitchen letting others duke it out.

The Asian Americans Advancing Justice, a coalition of five legal aid organizations, recently put out a call that perhaps best sums up why Charlottesville affects us why we should prepare ourselves the debates that are going on and the battles that are sure to come over race and what it means to be an American.

Here is the AAAJ's clarion call:

While few Asian Americans trace our roots to the Civil War, our history in this nation is deeply intertwined and impacted by white supremacy and nativism. At the turn of the 20th century, white mobs threatened -- and even lynched -- Chinese, Filipino, and South Asian immigrants, in part for fear they would taint (white) American culture. White supremacist groups helped to pass the Chinese Exclusion Act, the first law to ban an entire ethnic group. And white supremacy birthed “alien land laws”, barring “non-citizens” from owning land at a time when mainly Asians could not become U.S. citizens, and anti-miscegenation laws, prohibiting interracial marriage (a law that in California specifically singled out Chinese, Japanese, Filipino, and other Asians). White supremacy also paved the way for the U.S. government to violate due process and incarcerate 120,000 Japanese Americans, many U.S. citizens, during World War II -- an action upheld by the U.S. Supreme Court in Korematsu vs. United States and never formally overturned.

Given our history, we as Asian Americans cannot stand idly by and watch as white supremacists march through our neighborhoods. Even before this past weekend, hate crimes were surging upwards, including nearly 200 incidents against Asian Americans since January documented through our hate tracker (StandAgainstHatred.org) and the shooting of two South Asian immigrants, Srinivas Kuchibhotla and Alok Madasani, in Kansas earlier this year.

We as Asian Americans also must not be complicit in the white supremacist agenda of this current administration. White supremacy drives the President’s Muslim bans, seeking to ban entire groups of people based on their national origin and non-Christian religion. It drove last week’s one-two punches from the White House. First, when the President announced his support for the RAISE Act, an immigration bill that would gut the current family-based immigration system, which has brought millions of Asian, African, and Latin American immigrants into the U.S. and remade the racial demographics of the U.S. in the past 50 years. And second, when the White House redirected federal civil rights resources to undo long-standing affirmative action policies. The administration’s purported claim to be fighting discrimination against Asian Americans flies counter to all other evidence that this administration and its allies and supporters seek to advance only the interests of fellow white Americans.

Our nation is at a critical crossroads. White supremacist leaders like David Duke have seized upon Charlottesville as a turning point in moving their hate and nativism mainstream. Without clear and decisive leadership from the President or other administration officials or Congressional leaders, it falls on all of us to resist white supremacy, including efforts to be co-opted by white supremacists who do not and have never had our communities' interests at heart.

We call on all Asian Americans to join us in defending our vision of democracy – one where we protect the vulnerable amongst us, resist efforts to erode our hard-won rights and protections, and fight to advance progress for all marginalized communities. We pledge to challenge rising hate, to fight the President’s Muslim bans, to oppose the RAISE Act and the gutting of affirmative action, to fight deportations and defend DACA, to champion health care for all, and to ensure all voters can cast their ballots. We cannot do this alone, and we will be calling upon you to join us on the streets, in legislative chambers, and on the steps of the courts to stand up for our democracy.

RELATED:

• Trump eases up on white supremacists 
• AAPI politicians condemn white terrorism; Trump's weak response

It is critical for the AAPI community -- especially those recent immigrants who come to the U.S. with its abundance of opportunities available to them -- to know that it was not always this way. Affirmative action, census counts, data disaggregation, employment rights, equal pay, equal access to health care, the right to own land, the ability to marry outside your race, family reunification -- these things had to be fought for. AAPI have bled and died for these rights and opportunities we take for granted. While America was yet a dream in for the recent immigrants, Asian Americans were in the courts, the fields, in the halls of government, on the job and in the streets fighting for these doors to be opened.

White supremacists would like to use us as a wedge against other communities of color. They would like to separate us from others who share our struggle. They would like to divide us from each other. We must not let this happen.

Filipino American author Carlos Bulosan wrote in America Is In the Heart words that still ring true: "America is also the nameless foreigner, the homeless refugee, the hungry boy begging for a job and the black body dangling on a tree. America is the illiterate immigrant who is ashamed that the world of books and intellectual opportunities are closed to him. We are all that nameless foreigner, that homeless refugee, that hungry boy, that illiterate immigrant and that lynched black body. All of us, from the first Adams to the last Filipino, native born or alien, educated or illiterate-We are America!"


The violence that occurred in Charlottesville was violence against the AAPI community. It was as much an attack against the AAPI as it was against the African/American, Native American and Latino communities. When Heather Heyer was killed, a sister was struck down.

America is at a crossroads. We are at that crossroads. In the weeks and months to come, we will determine which America will emerge: one where one group reigns over all; or an America that welcomes that refugee, shelter the homeless, feed the hungry, clothe the naked.

The history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders is an ongoing struggle to know our role in American history and how we have arrived to Charlottesville last week; how we have come to this America of 2017. 
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Hate groups converging for anti-Muslim marches.

TAKING A CUE from the dozens of anti-Trump marches organized for women, the environment, immigrants, science, workers and the truth, hate groups will be staging marches in 25 U.S. cities this Saturday (June 10).

The anti-Islam rallies planned nationwide is being seen as further evidence of the growing cooperation between white supremacist, neo-Nazi, anti-government, and Islamophobic hate groups, says the Council on American Islamic Relations.

The leading sponsor of the rallies, Brigitte Gabriel’s ACT for America, has been designated as a hate group by the Southern Poverty Law Center (SPLC). The SPLC has named "Brigitte Gabriel" as a member of the nation's "Anti-Muslim Inner Circle."

Gabriel has argued that, “America is at stage two Islamic Cancer.” She believes “every practicing Muslim is a radical Muslim,” a Muslim “cannot be a loyal citizen of the United States,” and that Arabs “have no soul.”

The Southern Poverty Law Center describes ACT for America as the “largest grass roots anti-Muslim group in America,” claiming more than 525,000 members and 1,000 chapters.

“Act for America is a hate group. Period. Its rallies are hate marches. Full stop,” said Corey Saylor, director of CAIR’s Department to Monitor and Combat Islamophobia. “We encourage all Americans who value religious freedom and reject bigotry to take part in peaceful and lawful local activities challenging these hate rallies.”

What is alarming is the convergence of hate groups -- white nationalists, Nazis, the KKK and anti-government groups -- that seem to be working in coordination with each other.

While the ACT events are set to attract a number of white nationalists and others, their acceptance of neo-Nazi Billy Roper — an outspoken racist for years— is telling. ACT has come under fire already this year for the extremism of its members. Allowing Roper to organize one of the March Against Sharia events is yet another example of the figures ACT embraces.

Roper indicated that he was on a recent call for rally leaders, which was organized by ACT. He also divulged that a number of anti-government figures were also on the call. He called the conference call “productive.” Roper said he has been organizing his event for weeks, calling it a “stand against Muslim immigration.”

In previous marches organized by the hate groups, counter protestors have shown up and sometimes resulting in violence between the two groups. Police departments in several of the cities are bracing for the violence that might occur.

CAIR said it is assisting local communities in responding to the hate rallies with peaceful educational events and activities focused on promoting mutual understanding and challenging bigotry. 

[NOTE: To learn more about local responses to the hate rallies, contact the nearest CAIR chapter by going to: http://www.cair.com/cair-chapters.html]

Report documents increase in hate vs. South Asian/Americans

SOUTH ASIAN AMERICANS Leading Together (SAALT) held a Congressional briefing Thursday (March 23) to address the uptick in hate violence nationwide and highlight recommendations for change, as outlined in its recent report, “Power, Pain, Potential.”

SAALT, a national South Asian civil rights organization, was joined by eight members of Congressional leadership and community partners in an urgent discussion on combatting the surge in hate violence aimed at South Asian, Muslim, Sikh, Hindu, Arab, and Middle Eastern Americans across the country.

“As President Trump continues to test-fire Muslim bans, this administration appears intent on intensifying efforts to ignore and provoke hate violence,” stated Suman Raghunathan, SAALT's Executive Director. 

 “The President has a sworn duty to protect the rights and safety of all Americans. Today’s briefing with Congressional leaders is an important step in making sure President Trump doesn’t escape his responsibilities.”

The South Asian/American communities have experienced devastating violence in recent months, including deadly shootings in Kansas and Washington State, numerous arson attacks and vandalism of mosques, businesses, and homes nationwide, and mounting fear by our communities across the country.

"It remains critical for elected officials to speak out early, loudly, and often against hate violence and policies that fan the flames," said Rep. Grace Meng, D-NY.
These tragedies are building upon the historically divisive Presidential elections, which, as documented in “Power, Pain, Potential,” saw over 200 incidents of hate violence and xenophobic political rhetoric against our communities nationwide. Notably, 95 percent of incidents were animated by anti-Muslim sentiment and 1 out of 5 xenophobic comments emanated from then-candidate Trump. This is a 34 percent increase in these incidents in less than a third of the time covered in our 2014 report, “Under Suspicion, Under Attack.”

Members of Congress who joined the briefing include: Rep. Judy Chu (CA-27), Chair, Congressional Asian Pacific American Caucus; Rep. Raul Grijalva (AZ-3), Co-Chair, Congressional Progressive Caucus; Rep. Ami Bera (CA-7); Rep. Mark Takano (CA-41); Rep. Grace Meng (NY-6); Rep. Pramila Jayapal (WA-7); Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (IL-8); and Rep. Ro Khanna (CA-17).

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Heroes among us: Tracey Tong defends Muslims from verbal attack

Tracey Tong defended a Muslim couple from a verbal attack. She didn't know she was being taped.

WHAT WOULD you do when faced with an act of bigotry?

With all the crazies carrying concealed weapons, would turn away? Walk away? Or would you dare to get involved? Intervene? Come to the victim's aid?

A woman who intervened to stop racial abuse on a New York City subway train said she had previously “promised herself” she would step in if an abusive situation arose, according to Colorlines.

Video of the incident, which has been widely shared on social media, showed 23-year-old Tracey Tong coming to the aid of a passenger being berated by an older woman.

The attacker, who said she was from Puerto Rico, was captured on camera berating the couple, “Why are you here?" she shouted at the couple. "Why are you in this country? You are not one of us.”

One nearby rider, with a noticeable accent — asked the woman to stop being rude. The woman can then be heard yelling back, “no, you don't understand ... you are not even from here! I am. I was born in America,” the woman says.

That's when Tong, whose father is Chinese, stepped in.

The 23-year old Tong told the Guardian that the woman was attacking an African/American woman wearing a hijab and a man who appeared to be from the Middle East.

On Thursday (March 17), Tong told the Guardian that a “rush of adrenaline” helped her jump in. “I had been seeing all these crazy videos online of all these people being so racist, against people’s religion, skin color and all that stuff, and I would always get so mad and furious. I promised myself if I ever witnessed that I would totally freak out,” Tong said.

In English and in Spanish, Tong asked the attacker where she was from, trying to make a point about the country's diversity.

“I am born here and I don’t like the way you are treating her,” Tong tells the woman.

“We are all in this together. Whether you like what’s going on in the government or not, fuck it, you got to deal with it. You are a grown woman.”

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Tong, whose father is of Chinese descent and whose mother is from Peru, steps in and asks the woman in both English and Spanish to stop berating the pair off camera, eventually succeeding.

“I am born here and I don’t like the way you are treating her,” Tong tells the woman.

After speaking to her in Spanish, Tong switched back to English.

“We are all in this together. Whether you like what’s going on in the government or not, fuck it, you got to deal with it. You are a grown woman.”

“I am not asking you to be quiet. I am asking you to please respect her ... In Spanish, in English, in Chinese, in French. Whatever language you want me to tell you,” Tong said.

The woman attacker remained quiet for the rest of the trip until she got off the train without incident.

We should all be Tracey Tong. #StopHate

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