Fighting the Forever Foreigner: A Pushback Against Anti-Asian Violence, Erasure, and Xenophobia

Session Type: Invited Speaker Session

Abstract

In conjunction with the global coronavirus pandemic, there has been highly publicized growth in targeted anti-Asian scapegoating, rhetoric, violence, discrimination and hate crimes in the US and many western countries. While this most recent rise in Anti-Asian violence is disturbing, in many ways it is not surprising or unexpected. In this panel, participants will draw from their research and community experiences to discuss how current anti-Asian violence reflects historical discourses of foreignization and patterns of xenophobia, the impacts of anti-Asian violence across various Asian American communities, how anti-Asian violence (through erasure, policy discourse, monolithic representations, pitting of Asian Americans against other people of color groups) may be less publicized but perhaps more insidious, and how various Asian American communities have and continue to resist violence and xenophobic discourse by, in, and against their communities.

Sub Unit

• Social Justice Action Committee

Chair

• Betina Hsieh, University of Washington

Participants

• Varaxy Yi, California State University - Fresno

• Esther June Kim, College of William & Mary

• Jude Paul Matias Dizon, California State University - Stanislaus