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Collected Item: “A Reminder of the Realities of the Asian Women in My Life”

Give your story a title.

A Reminder of the Realities of the Asian Women in My Life

What sort of object is this: text story, photograph, video, audio interview, screenshot, drawing, meme, etc.?

Photograph

Tell us a story; share your experience. Describe what the object or story you've uploaded says about the pandemic, and/or why what you've submitted is important to you.

On my way out to work today, my sister told me she loved me. It was an "I love you" filled with fear and uncertainty. I felt her words echo in my chest and I still feel them ringing in me as I write this post. Every Asian woman that I know and care about has experienced being undermined, fetishized, and harassed for being an Asian woman. For several of my close friends, this has led to sexual violence. I think that is why yesterday’s mass shooting targeting Asian massage parlors hit so hard for me. In his own words, he wanted to “eliminate the source of his temptations.”

It takes a lot more than " being at the end of your rope" or “having a really bad day” for someone to commit such a heinous crime. Believing Asian women are submissive and hyper-sexual, calling covid “kung-flu” or the “china virus”, and taunting Asian women with “me love you long time” has real consequences. It dehumanizes Asian women and makes them objects. Objects are easier to harass, sexually assault, and kill. We can not dismiss racism, misogyny, and xenophobia against Asians anymore. Lives are at stake.

Use one-word hashtags (separated by commas) to describe your story. For example: Where did it originate? How does this object make you feel? How does this object relate to the pandemic?

asian, women, stopasianhate, racism,

Who originally created this object? (If you created this object, such as photo, then put "self" here.)

Tien Cao

Give this story a date.

2021-03-17
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