According to scholar Ta-Nehisi Coates, “Race is the child of racism, not the father.” If racism did not exist, there would not be the construct of race. This debilitating construct has divided the United States’ racial groups, resulting in a regressive lack of solidarity between marginalized communities. 

A.J. Mada is the Equity Coaching Academy director at the Race and Equity Center and a doctoral student studying educational leadership at the Rossier School of Education. 

“Western Europeans came across to the Americas and interacted with the Indigenous communities of the Americas and brought over with them enslaved Africans,” Mada said. “They realized very quickly that they were outnumbered and that they needed to create some level of hierarchy to distinguish themselves for a method of protection.” 

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Thus, a racial hierarchy was embedded into American society to instill a divide that ensured consistent white supremacy. In every system of oppression, those at the top create systems preventing the banding together of lower classes to prevent revolution. 

This white supremacy is pervasive and ingrained in the American system, from increasingly censored education to the 13th Amendment to the War on Drugs. Consequently, Americans, to some degree, developed a mentality of white supremacy. 

Asian Americans are the fastest-growing ethnic group in the U.S., with a current population of 22 million and estimated to reach 46 million by 2060. A 2021 Pew Center Research study found that Asian Americans are also the richest racial group in the U.S., with a median wealth of $320,900 — $70,500 more than white Americans. 

Karthick Ramakrishnan and Janelle Wong, two of the leading scholars on Asian American voting, define “Asian American” as a social construct “rooted in the exclusion of Asian immigrants from Whiteness as a qualification for US citizenship.” 

Asian Americans, however, are not a monolith. It can be minimizing to subject such a varied group, from socioeconomic status to racial identity, to one term. But in a society that creates racial monoliths, it is worth discussing the expectations of identity that impact those within that forced monolith.

Ramakrishnan and Wong reflect on the “racial prism” of the U.S., where Asian Americans “have been subjected to discriminatory exclusions but also immunized from [anti-Blackness] … Which is to say, even the worst off Asians — those burdened by refugee status, lack of citizenship, poverty, language barriers, and more — enjoy the boon of being not Black in an anti-Black society.” 

Asian Americans are still oppressed by stereotypes in American society, such as the “model minority.” 

“The notion of the model minority myth is white Americans using Asian Americans as this example to other communities of color, saying, ‘Well, why can’t you be like that?” Mada said. 

This uncalled-for comparison pits people of color against each other. It implements biases in our communities that view each other as competition rather than resources for solidarity. 

These biases are rooted in internalized racist norms instilled and practiced within different facets of the Asian American community. 

Mada said, due to the outdoor labor that the working class in many Asian countries does, “a lot of the anti-Blackness comes from just an ingrained cultural phenomenon that happens in Asian countries that being darker usually means you are of a lower socioeconomic status, thus equating that to anti-Blackness.” 

The Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965 abolished the National Origins Formula, which promoted immigration from Western Europe and minimized immigration from Asia and South America. The act would not have been implemented if it weren’t for the work of Black Civil Rights leaders. Without them, Asian Americans simply would not be in the U.S. in the number that we are. 

“If we take a very difficult look in the mirror and look at ourselves, our own communities, and the impacts that we have played towards anti-Black racism, then maybe we can start to make a change,” Mada said. 

It is time to have the difficult conversations. We are living in a country that is becoming increasingly intolerant of the rights of marginalized groups. It is now that we must come together and stand with each other. 

As Asian Americans, we must utilize our unique privilege to uplift others. We cannot uplift politicians like Vivek Ramaswamy or marry people like Vice President JD Vance. We cannot come to this country for our own economic gain and then neglect to pay taxes that support the communities that fought for our right to be here. We cannot keep our heads down anymore. We have established our place in this country, and we must call for change, no matter how uncomfortable it may be.