Old Man Joe makes a mockery of Asian America. Seems like being the oldest President this country ever had, his views on Asian America are just as outdated as him.
On May 31st, 2022 President Biden made a mockery of Asian America and displayed it to the entirety of the United States. Joe Biden invited the infamous Korean Pop group, BTS, to the White House for a press briefing to discuss the increased hate crimes happening to Asian Americans in the United States. Biden’s decision to give BTS a platform to speak about anti-Asian hate and violence happening and unfolding amongst the American public will rehash existing wounds Asian America has been dealing with for generations. It is often forgotten Asian Americans have experienced racism before COVID-19, the Asian American identity doesn’t revolve solely on immigration. It is often forgotten that many members of the Asian American community have been here for more than three generations.
In 2020, President Donald Trump’s racist rhetoric referring to the COVID-19 virus as the “Chinese virus”, resulted in Asian hate crimes in the United States increasing by 339% in the following years, with large reports coming from those of East & Southeast Asian descent. President Trump’s racist language isolated members of the Asian American community from the rest of the American public, making them vulnerable to harassment, violence, and hate from those who perceived them as blame for the pandemic. Trump’s racist language racialized those of Asian descent as foreigners in America and alienated the Asian American community from the rest of America. As videos, news articles, and increased police reports depicting violence against Asian Americans are being circulated, protests nationwide to address the issue of anti-asian violence emerge.
On May 31st, 2022, President Biden and his staff decided to end AAPI heritage month by inviting a famous Korean Pop group, BTS to speak on the physical assaults happening to Asians across America. President Biden invited seven individuals who aren’t American citizens and do not live in America, to talk about Asian hate crimes happening in America. Instead of choosing organizations like Stop AAPI Hate, Asian Americans Advancing Justice, Red Canary Song, etc, who have the necessary knowledge and resources to speak on Asian American issues and hate crimes happening to Asian elders and children in America, he decided to invite seven literal foreigners to speak on American issues, continuing to perpetuate the notion and stereotype that Asian Americans are foreigners. As members of BTS shared their experiences of discrimination in a White House press briefing, one member stated “We have endured expletives without reason and were mocked for the way we look. We were even asked why Asians spoke in English.” True, these are experiences of racism that Asians in America face daily such as fighting stereotypes of Asians not being able to speak english. However, the Korean pop group needed a translator present, reinforcing the narrative that Asians actually don’t speak English fluently. Worse, these Korean nationals invited by Biden to speak on Asian American hate crimes are representative of Biden’s understanding of his Asian American constituents who live in the US and hold citizenship here. This narrative of Asians being unable to speak English is long overdue and instead of having American people of Asian descent speak on violence members of the American community are facing across the United States, instead Biden invites onto the White House stage the very stereotypes the Asian American community has been combating for generations. When RM, a member of BTS posted a video thanking Joe Biden for signing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act as the RM during the White House press briefing stated, “We want to say thank you sincerely for your decision … such as signing the COVID-19 Hate Crimes Act into law,” said RM, the Grammy-nominated group’s leader, in the video posted late Tuesday.” Instead of highlighting Asian American struggles to the American public and ways to support and aid members of the Asian American community, stereotypes of foreignness, alienation, and not being able to speak English are inserted and perpetuated in relation to the Asian body in America. Biden’s solution to violence happening to his Asian American constituents is to seek help from Korean nationals. Instead of inviting Asian Americans to speak on anti-Asian American hate crimes and help introduce Biden’s Covid-19 Hate Crime Act to his American constituents, he invited foreigners to act grateful for passing a bill that has no relevance to them. Biden’s perception of Asian Americans continues to mirror the same reality of Biden’s age, old fashioned and outdated.
Although there are many Asian immigrants who lack proficiency in English and come from a wide range of diverse cultural backgrounds, this is not the entirety of Asian America but a long overdue narrative that has had historical & systemic consequences for American communities. Only 30.9 percent of Asians in the United States identify themselves as not fully fluent in the English language. The general consensus seems to be that the majority of Asian America seems to be more than 50 percent fluent in English as their primary language. As even 73.5 percent of Asian Americans speak a second language outside of English. Asian Americans have been a part of this country’s political, social, and economic fabric since the 1850s yet still unable to escape racist presumptions and stereotypes of the inability of unfamiliarity with speaking the English language. The long term consequences of foreignizing a community that has been racially present in the United States since the 1880’s appears to be a continuing trend in American politics. On February 19, 1942, President Roosevelt signed Executive Order 9066 which forcibly relocated all those of Japanese descent living in America to internment camps. This act set a legal and racial precedent that marked the Asian body in America as an alien, outcast, and non-American. Japanese Americans who were born on US soil and held citizenship in this country, were forcibly removed from their homes and treated like animals as they were shipped off to internment camps that were referred to as “relocation centers”. Japanese Americans were treated and viewed as foreigners in the very country they called home. When President Biden invited seven individuals who don’t hold US citizenship and need a translator present, to speak on American issues happening to American constituents, notions of foreignness become tied to the image of Asian American once again.
Many Asian Americans do not believe Biden truly cares about his constituents and their issues. Asian American Democrats, like Jennifer Lee from San Diego, acknowledge that Biden’s political demeanor seems performative. “It seems like he’s more performative and he’s trying to say whatever the people want to hear. Also, I understand he’s of an older age, not that all people of that age are Joe Biden. But mentally, I think he’s not all there”. It seems like many members of the Asian American community have been skeptical about Biden, his age, and whether he truly cares about his constituents. Some believe that it’s due to his growing age that has resulted in his inability to think clearly. His BTS-based understanding of Asian Americans seems to align with these past spectualations of mental inefficiency made by many of his constituents. These existing wounds become reminders that no matter if Americans with Asian descent are born on American soil, and hold American citizenship, in the eyes of America, “Asian” is either “virus bringing foreigner” or “kpop idol foreigner”. Either way, Asian America seems to be everything BUT American in America and in the eyes of our dear President Biden too.
Featured Image: PICRYL
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