I spent a long time trying to figure out how to express what I was feeling during the recent spike i
I spent a long time trying to figure out how to express what I was feeling during the recent spike in Asian hate crimes. It’s been exhausting and frustrating being reminded of the conditional acceptance of Asian people in western society. Model monitory until something like covid comes along. The more I saw the events of the past year unfold, the more I realize that we are loved for our culture but it doesn’t necessarily apply to our people.I started to reflect on my own personal experiences with racism, fetishization and growing up with internalized racism.“All guys should just date a nice Asian girl”“Omg you’re so Asian”“Go back where you came from”“Can you dress up as an asian school girl, I think that’d be really hot”“Having asian media representation isn’t important. I also never saw anyone who looked like me on tv when I was growing up, so it doesn’t matter” - a white cis gender male “I’d offer some to you but it’s not dog meat so you wouldn’t like it”“I only watch Asian porn”“Is your vagina slanted too?”“I love Asian women, they’re so exotic but also obedient”“Can you only speak mandarin to me during sex”And those are just the verbal micro aggressions I’ve been told. I’m thankful I’ve never been physically assaulted.From people getting spit on, robbed, stabbed, slashed, harassed, targeting the elderly, and then the shooting of 6 Asian women in Atlanta. I got tired of not being able to do anything. What could I really do for these victims but keep them in my thoughts and spread awareness. After the Atlanta shooting there were multiple gofundmes for the families of the victims and I didn’t feel like I was in a place where I could donate to all of them, enough to make an impact at least. So I spent a long time upset at myself that there was not a whole lot I could do. But then I had the idea that maybe I could create a charity product to raise money. So that’s where I am today. I have designed a pin where 100% of the profit will be set aside to support POC businesses, communities, and help victims of hate crimes. Link to the pin here -- source link
#poc community#charity#charity pin#enamel pin#lily xia#lapel pin#aapi artist