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I think it& #39;s useful to unravel "anti-Asian racism" into the two categories in which it exists in the spotlight right now: political strategy and interpersonal violence
Politically, racism is much too useful, which is arguably the biggest reason we keep seeing "racial tensions" flare up. Elections were decided not by the salience or urgency of BLM, for example, but by politicians& #39; ability to convincingly be on one side or the other
Both Rs and Ds, therefore, have a vested interest not in eliminating racism, but keeping it alive as a partisan concept rather than a human one
So the question really becomes: how do we, those who care, tip the scales and make racism and xenophobia (really, nationalism and jingoism) less politically viable?
It& #39;s a massive political convenience that politicians can conceive of this country as a bubble that& #39;s already been infiltrated by the people of color that live here, were born here, seek refuge here
Because if power in this country is ever in trouble, you can flip the racism switch very easily; our coexistence being constantly uneasy, always teetering, is a feature, not a bug
The Ds largely buy into this, as evidenced, for example, by so many of them wrongly treating BLM as some kind of a detente between two segments, both equally valid, coexisting in this country
Prescriptions that focus on managing interpersonal violence aren& #39;t sufficient because those kinds of incidents are then treated as separate from the fact that they& #39;re the main indication that pulling the racism switch has worked
If white folks are really mad at how Trump is handling this pandemic, they should really understand that the political convenience of racism, xenophobia, oppression is going to make rehabilitation of his image before the election a trivial matter
The way to fight that is to be very clear and direct about the emergency parachute he wants to pull, to acknowledge that racism works as political strategy in this country, even thought most white folks don& #39;t want to believe it
