Asian-Americans & African-Americans: Why is There so Much Tension?

I keep seeing both groups fight and argue with each other and it breaks my heart. I need y’all to know why we ended up like this in the first place.

1. “Asians Have Always Been Treated Better Than Black People”
So first, we have to start from the beginning. Before the 1960s, Asian immigrants were seen as “apes, lesser men, primitives, children, madmen, and beings who possessed special powers” due to a racist depiction of—

Asians called the “Yellow Peril.” They were seen as a threat to western society and were often beat up, murdered, and lynched simply for being Asian. Black people and Asian people were always treated with the same amount of disgust and violence. Because of this, they often—

supported each other and the Yellow Power Movement was even inspired by Black folks who were bravely fighting for their rights.

2. “What Damaged Their Relationship?”
Very simple question there— the “model minority” concept. Now, what is this, you ask? Model minority is a term used to describe a minority group who is more successful than other minority groups, and therefore is looked upon as the—

standard for a minority. This term was first used in an article essay called “Success Story: Japanese American Style” that was written by a white man. It was extremely problematic because though it praised Japanese people for having “strong work ethics and family values,” it—

also used those words to degrade other minorities (especially African-Americans), saying that these traits prevent Asians from becoming a “problem minority.” They especially used this to insult African-Americans. It was basically like saying—

“Asians experience racism in this country, but because of hard work, they’ve stopped being discriminated against, so why can’t you?” White people used this as tool to try to bring down Black people and their movements. And as you can guess, even if they were writing all these—

articles pretending that we were successful, Asian-Americans were still being oppressed with the same amount of violence and disgust as Black people. White people kept publishing these types of articles and the more they were published, the more the model minority was spread—

the less support Asians had for their movement. The originally negative stereotypes were replaced with better ones. Asian-Americans being discriminated against slowly became normalized and nobody took them seriously. White people erased the previous stereotypes of us being—

poor, dirty, uneducated “Chinamen” and suddenly started calling us hardworking and educated middle-upper class citizens. Because they put Asians higher than Black folks, there was tension.

White people realized we both had power. took advantage of their position, and purposely created a gap between us in order to break down the power we had together. They set us up to hate each other, and it slowly started to work.

3. Latasha Harlan
Because of the model minority being spread, tension slowly started growing between African-Americans and Asian-Americans. The video of Rodney King being beat had just been revealed and riots were present everywhere, especially in LA where many Korean-Americans—

lived. The tensions only worsened when soon after, a 15 year old girl named Latasha Harlan was shot by a Korean store owner named (Soon Ja Dun), who claimed that she was afraid the girl was trying to loot her store. What’s worse is that though she was supposed to serve 16 years—

years in prison, judges let the Soon Ja Dun go and she served no prison time. And because of this, the once close friendship that Asian-Americans and African-Americans has were gone.

4. “So, Are All Asian-Americans Privledged?”
Yes and no. A majority of East Asian immigrants (Chinese, Japanese, Korean) tend to be successful, however, Southeast Asians (Thai, Lao, Hmong, Cambodian, etc.) are not. It’s come to my attention that people don’t know the difference—

between the two and how badly it affects the image of an Asian-American. Many Southeast Asians come to the U.S. as a result of the Cold War. The Cold War was basically a petty fight where Russia and the U.S. couldn’t stand that each other’s governments were different. One side—

wanted democracy (U.S.) and the other wanted communism (USSR, sorry my mistake on the post above). So what did they do? Conquer countries in Southeast Asia and caused multiple civil wars (ex: Vietnam War, Laos Civil War) within those countries, which lead to genocide of innocent—

people who were forced to be on the wrong side of the war. When these people immigranted to the U.S., they came with no money and the only place they could live was in low income neighborhoods. They usually never grow out of that cycle, and continue to live there for generations.

These Southeast Asian immigrants are also seen as the dirty, poor, uneducated, and the “lesser” Asians. SEA stereotypes are basically what’s left of the harsh Asian stereotypes of early America.

White people often refer to SEAs with those stereotypes and degrade them. You ever see a weaboo say they love Asian women, but then then their backs when they see a Filipino? Yeah. What makes it worse is that many older East Asians see SEAs with those stereotypes as well.

“Okay, So if They Struggled Too, Why Do They Hate Black People?”
This is simply a theory for me, but I believe it makes sense. The more minority model articles that were published, the more actual East Asians started to believe them. However for Southeast Asians, I think—

That because most end up in low income neighborhoods as their first home, they aren’t used to what happens there. I am personally SEA and someone who grew up in a low income neighborhood, and many people there commit crimes (specifically stealing) in order to survive. Because of—

horrible and racist Redlining system that was enforced, POC, especially Black Americans were forced to live in low income neighborhoods, rather than suburbs (Redlining benefitted young white couples). Because majority of the population was African-Americans, these SEAs thought—

They were seeing a pattern. After being stolen from multiple times, and most likely each time being from an African-American, they assumed that all Black folks were bad. It’s wrong, but it makes sense. My had a long conversation with my mom the other day about—

this issue and said she sees African-Americans from low income neighborhoods as “bad” because my family and other relatives have had the same repeated crime done to them, they they think Black = bad and do whatever they can to keep them out. However, the catch is, they see—

(including my mother) sees African-Americans from suburban areas as good. In the end though, it’s a very damaging perspective and creates a gap between low income Black families and higher income Black families.

“So, What Do We Do?”
First of all, I’m here to call out dumbass Asians. STOP APPROPRIATING AFRICAN-AMERICAN CULTURE. You look like stupid as shit when you’re faking a blaccent, wearing dreads, and having gold grills on your teeth. You are insulting and offending Black folks by—

populating their stereotype. It’s offensive and damaging. If someone started putting chopsticks in their hair, pulled their eyes back, and spoke in a horrible Chinese accent and called it “the trend” what would you feel like? Fucking exactly. Sit your ass down.

A majority of young Asian-Americans today are against racism. Please educate your parents, family, and relatives about the history of African-Americans and Asian-American’s relationship together and explain to them why they should change their perspective if they are wrong.

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Also, sorry for all my grammatical errors (I know probably have a lot lol), I type faster than I think Please feel free to ask me if you didn’t understand a certain part or I messed up a sentence.