Episode 503: Janelle Wong
In conversation with Janelle Wong, Board Member for AAPI Victory Alliance and Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland, on the rise of violence against the AAPI population in the US and in the voting patterns of the AAPI community.
Links:
Our End Credits are read by Sonya Daniel.
Two Broads Talking Politics is part of the DemCast Podcast Network.
TuneIn | PlayerFM | iHeartRadio | Spotify
If you have any trouble finding us on your favorite podcasting platform,
email twobroadstalkingpolitics@gmail.com to let us know.
We're also on social media!
Facebook | Twitter | Instagram
Sign up for our email newsletter!
You can support our show on Patreon.
Musical credits:
"Are You Listening" from Elephant Shaped Trees by IMUNURI.
Released February 3, 2018.
Composed by André Pilette, with the help of Adam Garcia, Stephanie Leary, and Dan Wilson.
Lyrics written by Stephanie Leary.
Produced by André Pilette and Stephanie Leary.
Mixed by Brett Ryan Stewart of The Sound Shelter in Nashville, TN.
Mastered by Michael Fossenkemper of Turtle Tone Studio in NYC.
Song used with permission by the band.
Episode Transcript
This transcript is AI-produced and may contain errors. Please check back a few days after the episode airs for a cleaned-up version of the transcript.
———————————————————————————————-
Teddy 0:00
Hi, this is Teddy, and you're listening to Janelle Wong a board member for AAPI Victory Alliance and Professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland on Two Broads Talking Politics. Thank you, Professor Wong for recommending the book Front Desk to me!
Kelly 0:38
Hi everyone, I am Kelly. This is Two Broads Talking Politics. I am here today during Asian American Pacific Islander Heritage Month to speaking with Janelle Wong, who is a board member with AAPI Victory Alliance and a professor of American Studies at the University of Maryland. Hi, Janelle.
Janelle Wong 0:57
Hi, how are you doing, Kelly?
Kelly 0:59
Great. So there is so much we can talk about today. Let's start with very recent news that Joe Biden just signed into law a lot that had bipartisan support, which is unusual these days. That was this COVID-19 anti hate crime act that was specifically in place because of the rise in violence against AAPI people in this country? Can you talk a little bit about what you know what that bill is, what it's doing, and how a group like API victory reacts to something like that passing?
Janelle Wong 1:42
Yeah, thank you so much. I, you know, I think this is a really important piece of legislation, because it is one of the few times that I personally have seen in legislation that has come about as the result so quickly of AAPI, organizing, and, and it is a sign of, I think, attention to the uptick in anti Asian violence that we saw after the start of pandemic, but it has also been a matter of controversy within the Asian American population. And that's because, you know, the rise in attention to anti Asian violence really has come about at the exact same time as the nation's reckoning with race and the George Floyd murder. And so I think the community has really been grappling about what extent to what extent we want to move to look to law enforcement to address especially street crimes, and individual acts of violence and so on. You know, I think there's, there's there was was some initial hesitation among some organizations, and there still is because there is a real fear that this could lead to over reliance on law enforcement. But on the other hand, if you read the bill carefully, this is actually the heart of this legislation is, are are some measures that advocates have been pushing for for a long time, the bill, while it has been prompted and has has had momentum because of anti Asian violence, it actually addresses hate crimes against many protected categories, including women, it has its, it has a gender based component has sexual orientation, and other racial groups too. So that's one thing that I think is really important, if it's not an a PI only build, the other part of it is that it is not about policing, it is actually focused on better data collection. And that is something that many organizations, including Asian American organizations have been pushing for, so that we can understand the kind of groups that are being targeted, for instance, sick Americans, after 911, who were targeted, we want to see that kind of granular data, so we know who is facing hate. And then finally, there is a there is a restorative explicitly restorative component in it so that it in not every case, but in the cases where it makes sense, then it is it is focused really on a kind of restorative justice model. And that's very different from your kind of doubling down on policing, and criminalizing people. So I think it's pretty thoughtful in that way.
Kelly 4:36
So what does this rise in violence over the past year and a half or so what does that look like? You know, what, of the data that we have? What What is that telling us about who is affected what kind of violence This is?
Janelle Wong 4:51
Yeah, I think it's pretty clear that we saw after especially Trump, use the terms, the China flu and then kung fu that What it wasn't just Trump's words, but other elected officials started to adopt this language. And, you know, historically, when there are times of anxiety, especially and and kind of a gnat, a feeling of national vulnerability, and an Asian country is blamed, there can be backlash. Now, that's very different from, you know, calling out China on human rights, for instance, that doesn't lead to backlash, but a kind of, kind of blaming Asian people for a kind of specter of contamination. And that's something that we've seen throughout history. And that is what we are experiencing at this moment. And after that rhetoric started to, to take off after the start of the pandemic, and we did see a rise in especially different kinds of hate incidents, and what does that look like the data show some different things. So the first thing is that the vast majority of these incidents are mostly verbal assault, right, there's some property damage, and then about 10% are physical violence or assault. And, you know, it is mostly happening to people who are sort of middle aged in on the street, in public transportation areas, and in businesses, and then but there are also cases where young children have been targeted, or about 6% of the victims, according to stop API hate the hotline are elderly people. But I think what's also critical to note at this moment of attention to anti Asian hate is that this is actually not these incidents are not confined only to Asian Americans. So what our data show and I also am a senior researcher at API data, we did a survey with Survey Monkey, and our data show and lots of other surveys show this as well, that about 10% of black Americans, about 10% of indigenous in the US, especially Native Americans, and Pacific Islanders are an that next are also experiencing, maybe from different sources, but are experiencing racially motivated violence. And, you know, so this is a kind of this, this goes deep to the heart of racism in America, it is not just affecting one group, it affects us in different ways it can be motivated by different stereotypes. And that's a very interesting part of this story to our data show that Asian Americans Latinx Pacific Islanders are the most likely to be asked, Where are you from, by people, assuming they're not from the US, or people asking them if they speak English by people assuming they don't speak English. But compared to other groups, like black Americans, Asian Americans are the least likely to experience police brutality and police misconduct, they are the least likely to report housing discrimination, they are the least likely to say that a teacher discourage them from continuing their education because of their race. And so what does this show that for Asian Americans, they are both experiencing the effects of long standing stereotypes of forever foreigner stereotype. And simultaneously, and sometimes confusingly, the model minority stereotype which paints them as Uber competent. And here you can see how Asian Americans really lift up this complex kind of configuration of race in America.
Kelly 8:52
Yeah, and so and this is, of course, like any racial group, not a monolith. And there are a lot of different ethnicities that go into and national origin that goes into who, who counts as an Asian American Pacific Islander in this country? Are those experiences similar within those different groups are you know, are there differences that you could point to? What What does that look like?
Janelle Wong 9:18
Yeah, that is such an important point to raise. And my colleagues actually wrote a paper called, who counts as Asian American? You know, it's really interesting. So what we have seen is that is, especially in terms of hate incidents, that at the very beginning of the pandemic, the group that was most likely to say that they were very worried or somewhat worried about a backlash against Asian Americans were actually Indians, South Asians, and that's kind of surprising to people because the blame was on China. Right? But if you think about the long history of anti Asian violence in this country, it was really South Asians who bore the brunt in the Asian American community of the post 911 kind of assumed terrorist stereotype. And of course, you know, right, you know, a month after the shootings in Atlanta of six Asian American women, workers at a FedEx center, who were sick American, were also gunned down. And so, you know, that, I think really shows that, despite the fact that many people who are East Asian that is Chinese, Korean, or Japanese don't always think about South Asians, as Asian Americans, South Asians themselves, do consider themselves Asian American, and we're very worried about the community as a whole. And as we have seen the pandemic kind of continue on, we've actually seen that, though China was specifically mentioned, especially by Republican lawmakers, as you know, responsible for the spread of the pandemic. It's been Asian Americans across the spectrum. The some of the very first who experienced violence and kind of scapegoating were Burmese, for instance. And so Southeast Asian groups, and all Asian groups have actually experienced some level of this backlash.
Kelly 11:19
So at the same time, that there's this, this backlash, and this violence, there's also this growing sense that the Asian American community is a powerful voting bloc, we of course, have the election of the first Asian American vice president in Kamala Harris. So, you know, is that is that related at all? Are these sort of separate things? You know, and what, what does that rise in the the power of this voting bloc look like? So,
Janelle Wong 11:47
we just got these data in, and it turns out that, you know, in 2020, compared to 2016, what we see is the groups that had the very largest increase in turnout from 2016 to 2020, are Pacific Islanders, and Asian Americans, the AAPI. community. And why is that, you know, this is sort of a shock to me, because, for so long, the two parties have neglected the Asian American population, partly because, you know, we're concentrated in blue places in even in Texas, you know, we're, we tend to be in those bluest places in Texas. And it has been hard to for parties to sort of get their act together and develop in language campaigns and to take the community seriously. But in 2020, I think we've really seen a turnaround, and it is partly attention, you know, it I mean, it has to do a great deal with organizers on the ground who have brought attention to the power of the Asian American voting bloc. And, you know, there's no better place to look than Georgia. So Georgia experienced a surge in Asian American voters. And that is really the result of a long history of community organizations who were just relentlessly trying to get out the vote even in the face of being ignored by many candidates, many politicians this what's happening, really, prior to the current attention to this was way before the Atlanta shootings, for instance. And what we saw there is that the runoff in Georgia was so tight, that Asian Americans really could make a difference in this case, and there was a pretty deep effort to reach out will that last, we'll see, you know, the parties tend to wait until three weeks before any election to do their Asian American outreach campaign. But I think we're we will see, you know, Asian Americans are about 4% of the national electorate, but they are the fastest growing group in some of these swing states like Georgia, North Carolina. There's a there's an election coming up in Virginia this year. It's one of the few kind of statewide contests and so we'll we'll see what if Asian Americans continue to be a focus of candidates and parties.
Kelly 14:15
And you mentioned that they're often in blue areas. And of course, the this piece in The Atlantic the other day says, you know, the growing Asian American folk could be a problem for the GOP. Do Asian Americans generally vote with the democrats? Does that depend at all on location and national background? You know, what, what does that look like?
Janelle Wong 14:35
Over the last 20 years, we have seen the Asian American population shift most dramatically of all racial groups towards support for the Democratic candidate in presidential elections. And so I think we're beginning there's it's kind of undeniable, we're starting to see a pretty consistent voting bloc for the Democrats, where we see you know, I think the best estimates are about 63 to 65% of Asian Americans. voted for Joe Biden. In 2012. More, the exit polls show more Asian Americans are a higher proportion, I should say, a higher proportion of Asian Americans voted for obama than Latinx. And so many people don't know that. Why is that? You know, it is partly because of the democrats kind of association with being champions for minority voters. But it also has to do with some bread and butter issues. So many people due to stereotypes think that Asian Americans are, you know, going all in on education or going all in on immigration. But the the issues that really set Asian Americans apart from the general us electorate, our health care reform, they love Obamacare, the environment, Asian Americans, our environmental lists, big time environmental voters, gun control. So the vast majority across the board support gun control. This includes even Vietnamese, the only group that leans slightly Republican, and they prefer a bigger government with more services to a smaller government with fewer services, and they like to tax the rich. So most people don't think about Asian Americans in these kinds of ways. But this works very well for the Democrats.
Kelly 16:17
And do you think Democrats are, are sensing that are starting to embrace that a little more?
Janelle Wong 16:22
Well, when was the last time you saw an ad that focused on the Asian American community, it's it's pretty rare. And I think Joe Biden's campaign did devote more with, you know, in terms of paid media did more than any other candidate has. But it was still kind of in the last, you know, very late because Biden got money very late to. So, you know, I think they're still for both. I mean, there's no doubt about it that most Americans hold pretty deep stereotypes of Asian Americans. And so a, an uninitiated campaign strategist will say, I know, let's reach out to Asian Americans based on let's have a an ad about education, or let's have an ad about immigration. And they'll completely ignore the other core issues that hold the Asian American population together in terms of real values.
Kelly 17:21
So you mentioned that there was some outreach in Georgia, were there things that they were doing particularly well, that you think, made that kind of difference in reaching that community?
Janelle Wong 17:31
I mean, it was less the parties, there's two things I think Stacey Abrams, Stacey Abrams, has a very long history of working with Asian American elected and community leaders in that state that goes far beyond, you know, prior to her run for governor. And so that that kind of multi racial network that Stacey Abrams, created based on long standing relationships was a catalyst. But also there are community organizations like Advancing Justice, like Advancing Justice, Atlanta, and like the A F, that have been working, you know, way earlier than the parties jump in to mobilize. And so they have really, they had campaigns that were targeted towards particular national origin groups, they translated materials into, in language, you know, assessable kinds of, of mobilization and voter education documents. And I think they had already built these trusted relationships that could then catalyze voters to turn out.
Kelly 18:43
So we mentioned at the top that you're a board member with AAPI. Victory Alliance. Can you talk a little bit about what that group is, is doing what the what the mission of it is?
Janelle Wong 18:55
Yeah, the mission of the Alliance is really to focus on policy and connections, that but between different Asian American organizations. So on the one hand, they want to lift up progressive policies that benefit the Asian American comedian, I think that is so critical, because so many people have this misconception that Asian Americans are conservative on all sorts of policies, especially like tax policy, or even on LGBT issues. And that is simply not the case. And so the AAPI victory of life is a vehicle for also, you know, allowing those outside of the community to recognize Asian Americans as a progressive force. And the other thing that the victory Alliance tries to do is to act as a kind of hub for the many, many, many different organizations in our community, to coordinate and to ensure that there is communication and so the Alliance works to, you know, create forums. They just had a unity forum yesterday, to really try to consolidate progressive power.
Kelly 20:11
I, of course always like to talk about action items things people can do and focus on. What are the kinds of things that you would suggest to our listeners, either listeners who are a pi, or who are not, but who are interested in supporting this community and supporting these kinds of issues? What sorts of things can they should they be doing?
Janelle Wong 20:33
Yeah, there are, I think, two major ways to support the Asian American communities agenda at this time. One is to really lobby your local public education, like your school board, especially, or even your local school to include Asian American Studies content in the curriculum. This has been an and also, you know, ethnic studies more generally, I think, because I don't think students really benefit from learning about one group in isolation. So that is, the first thing is to really think about early introduction to issues of race, including Asian Americans racial position in the US their history, but also, you know, what does that group tell us about race in America. And then second, is get to know your local Asian American organizations, this community has been active for a very long time. And while some people are just starting to understand, you know, the kind of complexities and activism in the community, there are groups that have been actively trying to support the Asian American community, within language materials with connecting, especially building multiracial Coalition's for a very long time, and they exist in most communities. And so I think that's another way is to get to know them, and, and, you know, to follow the work that they're doing, and then, of course, to support that work through donations or through volunteering.
Kelly 22:03
So I know a lot of our listeners to have kids, I, myself have a nine and six year old, I was thrilled to learn that this week in school they were studying at AAPI Heritage Month. So that was exciting. Are there any resources for kids that you know, have particularly good books or TV shows, movies, anything that you would recommend that people either show their own children or, you know, encourage their schools to be looking at?
Janelle Wong 22:32
There is so there's a book, it is called Front Desk, and it's by Kelly Yang, and it's a middle age book. So it's great for I think, you know, fourth graders through maybe eighth graders, and it's about a young girl whose parents own a hotel, and her interactions with members of the community and her identity formation. And it's a delightful book, but it also touches on very deep topics related to police brutality, and immigration, and undocumented status and economic polarization. So it's a really great resource, I think, for parents.
Kelly 23:20
Excellent. I will look that up right after we get off. And if people would like to follow your work, what are some ways that they can follow what you're doing?
Janelle Wong 23:32
So thank you so much. I would love for people to follow me on twitter at @ProfJanelleWong, and I think that's the best way and then I have some kind of boring books that are available via the University of Michigan press and Russell Sage foundation press.
Kelly 23:51
We have some pretty wonky listeners.
Janelle Wong 23:57
Respect.
Kelly 23:59
Excellent. Well, Janelle thank you so much for joining me today. This was really great. I learned a lot and I hope that our listeners did too. And I will definitely check out those books and we'll check out the local resources in my community. So thank you.
Janelle Wong 24:16
Thank you so much, Kelly.
Sonya 24:40
Thank you for listening to Two Broads Talking Politics, part of the DemCast Podcast Network. Our theme song is called Are You Listening off of the album Elephant Shaped Trees by the band IMUNURI and we're using it with permission of the band. Our logo and other original artwork is by Matthew Weflen and was created for use by this podcast. You can contact us at TwoBroadsTalkingPolitics@gmail.com or on Twitter or Facebook @TwoBroadsTalk. You can find all of our episodes at TwoBroadsTalkingPolitics.com or anywhere podcasts are found.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
