Read on Twitter
Ok. I’ve got more info on the Chinese American voter suppression campaign that I heard about from family last night last night. This is going to be a very long thread. https://twitter.com/kenyatta/status/1313706978468933632
In early March my Chinese-American relatives in California were looking for COVID info so they found their way to their old Sacramento-area church support group in WeChat.
There was a lot of helpful video in the WeChat group: news clips from China & Taiwan, local health stats, & tips from doctors on how to avoid the virus. b/c this was a Christian group, the videos were shared with appeals to Not Go Against God and to Protect the Next Generation
As groceries became harder to come by in the Bay Area, my fam were directed to join a more local Chinese American Mom support group on WeChat. There they found info on where to find Asian vegetables in the East Bay and advice on how to make their own hand sanitizer.
They saw a lot of video there as well — more news clips from China and videos of Chinese American doctors sharing COVID advice. My relatives said that these videos were (again) about “protecting the next generation”.
b/c they used this phrase multiple times, I asked if they read it in a message or in replies and they said no, that, somehow, these videos just were about that. They defended the content as not "political” and repeated not going against God and protecting the next generation.
They remember seeing videos in both groups about how gender neutral bathrooms would cause men dressed as women to "cause harassment" and "put babies at risk", that this went Against God and that the Democrats did this.
They watched a lot of Ring camera-type videos of crimes being committed against Asian people and small businesses supposedly in Cali. The messages would claim that this violence was because Kamala Harris “established a rule” that made “anything under $950 not a crime” (Prop 47).
There was video in Mandarin from “news organizations” that “California is upside down” -- crime, COVID, & the wildfires were all the Democrats’ fault, especially Harris. The Christian WeChat group reinforced the message that all of this was because the Dems went “against God”.
The same doctor who gave good COVID advice to “protect the next generation” now appeared in videos about taxes. That the “Special Asians” immigrate to Cali and work very hard but the Dems use taxes to “take away from people and give to people who don’t work hard”.
Another video (not sure which) stated that the Special Asians are very afraid in CA and would go home to China if they could. Instead they are starting to move to other states. (There was maybe screenshots of mainstream @sfchronicle stories about people fleeing the Bay Area)
The doctor's message is there is no future for older Chinese Americans, that they “must sacrifice so that we may protect the next generation.” He urges them to think for themselves and his expert analysis is that even fi they do not like Trump they cannot vote for Biden/Harris.
Some thoughts: I asked for screenshots but they don't have any. I've asked for videos but they've deleted them. They know that I consider this problematic. In order to encourage more sharing, I've been very appreciative of their sharing this with me.
From my own day job work, I know that this kind of work takes time. Somebody built up trust + helped solve real world problems (COVID health emergency) so that they could later flip that trust into influence on another topic (politics)
For more on how this kind of domain influence transfer works, see this thread by @_MAArgentino or read any of @peretti’s work on the Nike Sweatshop Email. https://twitter.com/kenyatta/status/1303366642970304512
While I can work with family on counter narratives, I don't know who will work on the others in the WeChat group.
I worry that they have no counter narratives. Nobody is speaking to them in Mandarin, on the platforms they are already on (WeChat, WhatsApp), in the formats (video) or the authoritative voices that matter (Doctors, news orgs).
I keep seeing stories about how the events of 2020 in America are affecting other populations but stories about the Asian American experience are lacking.
I’m cherry picking but an example: this @WSJ report on the effect of the K shaped economic recovery of diff populations doesn’t once mention Asian Americans https://www.wsj.com/articles/the-covid-economy-carves-deep-divide-between-haves-and-have-nots-11601910595
These are people being left out of national narratives and so they are building their own story based on what they’re hearing from the only people bothering to make media for them.
