We asked our Discord members how the Stop Asian Hate / Stop AAPI Hate movements resonated with them and how it changed them.
Here is what they told us:
“It was scary that it had to be a thing. I was terrified and sad that my parents had to warn my younger brother who is at uni to not go out as much at the time in case somebody beats him up for being Asian. I never really thought about our representation in media and how we suffer from racism, because it was just a thing right? I was so used to it. But as more awareness is being raised, the more I become passionate about it. I genuinely feel warm and hopefully when I see other Asian people get the recognition they deserve.”
– Alrissa
“The Stop Asian Hate movement hit me pretty hard, especially after Atlanta. I had never experienced anything like that before, but I was incredibly upset, kept crying or bursting into tears that felt like (at the time) for no reason (but I later learned I was going through collective racial trauma). (…) As a result, I got super vocal about the Stop Asian Hate movement, including curating a living list of resources for education. (…) This entire year has been a learning process for me, as much as it has been for a lot of folks outside the Asian community.”
– Snowlit
“I also was used to the representation in media coz it was just a thing, and didn’t think much of it. It kickstarted something in me to find a voice, to not be ‘just okay’ to how we consume media, how we work in the games industry. It did feel like something was missing though. Now, sometimes I cry whenever I see asian actors & leads in movies, guess I never saw it as important as it is more than ever now that representation matters. (…) I’m grateful for this Project in being able to feel less alone and that we are coming together to celebrate us for being us, our cultures, for being ourselves.”
– Scarlett
“The Stop Asian/AAPI Hate made me rolled my eyes at the stupidity of people who found it easier to point fingers at some “Chinese” and then decided to drop kick everyone that even remotely looked like them. It made my blood boils because every time I asked myself “people can’t be this stupid right?” I was proven wrong every single time. (…) The Asian presentation in mass media has been improved, but not by a long shot. There were still stigmas about how Asian girls made good wives because they are obedient, cute and look young forever. (…) Asian men are deemed to be undesirable, even within our own culture itself (marry to a western English guy seems to be more preferable).”
– Lamby
“The Stop Asian Hate movement online made me feel like I wasn’t alone. There were other people going through collective trauma; there were other people grieving along with me. I felt this sense of camaraderie and closeness that I couldn’t feel with anyone else. This movement made me feel more community with Asian-Americans nationwide, and I devoted myself to learning more about diaspora and about organizations that combated against prejudice, racism, and outright racial violence.”
– Smolgecko
“I’m grateful for all the initiatives out there, including the Stop Asian Hate/AAPI. I think it’s great, it’s going in the right direction, it’s moving things forward, even little by little. But on a very personal level, I’m still tired, and I’m not having the energy I wish I had to fight for all these things on a larger scale. I know it’s gonna happen at some point and I feel I’m already doing a lot on a much smaller scale (educating my white friends and colleagues, among other things). But it tends to get lonely and tiring when looking at what governments are currently not doing, at what corporations are also not doing, at all these places where so many false promises have been made over the past decades. It’s hard to keep the faith.”
– Elise
Project AWR 