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Amy Wang About the author and the Alliance of Chinese Americans San Diego (ACA) Scholarship: Ms. Amy Wang is a recipient of the ACA Scholarship. She is currently a junior at Westview High School (San Diego, CA). This article is a part of her work within the ACA Scholarship programs. The views and opinions expressed belong solely to the author, and do not represent those of ACA and its members. ACA Scholarships are established to encourage API youth’s involvement and awareness in community events. In the midst of the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, on certain corners of the internet, it’s possible to find threads that remind internet citizens that “we hate the government, not the people.” In discussion boards and forums, the idea that Americans, and the rest of the world, are rallying against Putin’s evil, authoritarian regime, is a common one. As one news article read, “Russian people are not their government. Don't blame them.” Another post, which gained tens of thousands of views, was a reminder “not to target Russian Americans making a living.”
This outcry is undoubtedly necessary, considering just how inflamed the resentment against Russia has been, recently, given the conflict and the toll that it had on civilian lives. Similarly, the constant churn of the 24-hour news cycle has meant new, and all the more startling war-related headlines every day, ones that pull at the psyche and turn people against each other. At times, this has meant calls for open warfare against Russian civilians that reach hundreds of upvotes, on the front pages of major discussion pages on Reddit, or the rapid spread of anti-Russian misinformation, in the form of Instagram stories that are posted and then reposted, again and again. In this way, pro-Russian-people neutrality, or even positivity, is undoubtedly a good thing, and a mindset that we should encourage. After all, even in the face of such a fraught situation, no one wants Russian-American grandmothers to be attacked based on the actions of a foreign dictator, thousands of miles away. The notion that Russian Americans may share certain responsibility for what is happening back in a country that they may not have been back to in years is ludicrous. It's wonderful that logical people know that Russian-Americans have nothing to do with this increasingly inflammatory war, and that most regular Russian people are innocent of the crimes of their leader. This hasn’t meant that all Russian-Americans have escaped attacks and vitriol—indeed, some Russian-Americans are reporting verbal aggression and financial losses, especially for restaurants and other businesses with visibly Russian branding. For the most part, however, most violence has been concentrated in the direction of the aggressor country, rather than the people of said country. Still, the Russian invasion of Ukraine has had ramifications on social media interactions, which have become increasingly uncomfortable, at times. While I don’t mean to try and equate the two nuanced and emotional traumas of different situations, watching this unfold has made it almost impossible not to draw parallels between public animosity towards Russian nationals, and the same enmity towards Chinese Americans that existed during the height of the pandemic. When tensions between China and the US were high at the beginning and the middle of the long-lingering pandemic, Asian American elders were attacked in the street, brutalized for the mere fact of their ethnicity. Anti-Asian hate crimes and incidents rose 342% last year across America (and as much as 1900% in metropolitan areas). Trump stoked xenophobic and sinophobic fears by calling the virus “kung flu” and repeatedly misrepresenting the pandemic as a political situation, instead of one of world health. Personally, this realization of my own inescapable and perpetual status as an easily-identifiable foreigner has been a painful one, as I’ve come to terms with the fact that western society will never accept or defend people like me because I cannot pass under the radar of “otherness”. While to some degree, even Russian-Americans can “pass” as simply Americans, it’s impossible for most Asian Americans to do so, and that only makes things worse. In many instances, sinophobia has been normalized as a smart and sensible evaluation of the threat that China poses to the global world order. Even in the recent situation, it’s been impossible to escape the criticism of anti-Chinese political advocacy, especially as the scope of the war grows. The Ukrainian-Russian conflict has drawn criticism against China, and that leaves Chinese Americans in an awkward situation, one that is only poised to get worse as the CCP maintains its “neutral” stance. Instead of pushing against the idea that all Chinese people are a monolith that is responsible for the decisions of their government, in the way that they have pushed against this same idea in the context of the Russian people, some news outlets reduce Asian Americans to a singular, threatening mass. This dehumanization is deeply damaging, and should be resisted. Ultimately, beyond the Ukrainian-Russian conflict, it’s important to remember the strength that we can find in unity of ideals, instead of division by race or ethnicity. Whether we are considering the war in Europe, or the economic parrying between the US and China, at every level, it’s fruitless to blame people who had no control over what their leader was doing. About the author and the Alliance of Chinese Americans San Diego (ACA) Scholarship: Ms. Amy Wang is a recipient of the ACA Scholarship. She is currently a junior at Westview High School (San Diego, CA). This article is a part of her work within the ACA Scholarship programs. The views and opinions expressed belong solely to the author, and do not represent those of ACA and its members. ACA Scholarships are established to encourage API youth’s involvement and awareness in community events
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