Asian American Twitter (which I just discovered is a thing) is very angry about @AndrewYang& #39;s latest op-ed saying the best way for AAs to tackle discrimination is to dig in to "American-ness" and fight for a cure.

Unsurprisingly, he got "Cathy Newmanned." https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2020/04/01/andrew-yang-coronavirus-discrimination/">https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/...

Andrew here acknowledges the reality of racism, that it is a deeply-embedded (sometimes barely-disguised) neural program often made worse under specific circumstances.

He& #39;s clearly making an appeal for empathy and humanity in understanding the roots of this problem.

He underscores that racism is immoral, but highlights that simply yelling "don& #39;t be racist" to someone who is actually being racist is not effective.

He& #39;s a solutions guy. He calls for a pragmatic approach to "improve the encounter" he described.

People are mad, I think, because he doesn& #39;t immediately take a victimhood posture, and rather, looks inward and asks, what can *I* or *we* do differently?

Perhaps he didn& #39;t show sufficient anger about the depravity of racism.

This is anathema to modern social justice activism.

Here& #39;s where he gets Cathy Newmanned. The reading is that Andrew thinks Asian Americans have to prove their loyalty to Americanness.

That& #39;s not what he& #39;s saying.

He& #39;s saying that it *helps* change the circumstances in which racism flourishes.

His essay is a call from within the community (not imposed from outside) to be aware that our identities are pawns in a larger geopolitical game.

After all, national solidarity matters most at times like this.

He& #39;s asking: is there anything we can do to reinforce it?