Thread by @amycfanphd

Some highlights (🔦) & reflections (🪞) from this conversation because I thought it was recorded and would be available for viewing afterward but see that it is not yet up.

A thread. 🧵

https://twitter.com/amycfanphd/status/1375742627123851264

The goals of this event - as introduced to me - were to raise awareness of anti-Asian violence and discrimination; share personal experiences; and put the recent Atlanta shootings into context.

Reflection (🪞) #1: Before I move onto the content of the event itself, I will state that this ask was infuriating to me because of conversations we had already had at Stanford last summer about not placing the onus on affected communities to share and to educate others.

🪞 #2: I recognize that this was organized very quickly and therefore people's availabilities were limited.

HOWEVER, it is important for us to note that all the panelists presented as lighter skinned individuals of East & Southeast Asian descent and most were medical faculty.

The one non-faculty panelist was myself, a PhD candidate who immigrated to the US, but spent the majority of my childhood in an economically secure household in the suburbs of Seattle with two parents with degrees in STEM fields. I am a cishet woman.

I can be confident in saying that we can speak honestly about our own journeys as Asian Americans in the U.S., in biomedicine, and at Stanford. However, our experiences are not generalizable, and we are not AAPI history experts.

That brings us to...

Highlight (🔦) #1: We need to listen to the experiences of the AAPI community members not only throughout Stanford -- the postdocs, medical trainees, custodial staff, nurses, administrators, etc. -- but also outside of academia and medicine.

We shouldn't force people in our lives to share their stories and perhaps reengage with traumatic experiences. There are already a lot of stories out there. I urge you to find them and read them.

🔦 #2: We cannot ignore and invalidate the AAPI experience as a marginalized experience, a phenomenon that is partially perpetuated by the model minority myth. Our experience is not the same as the white American experience. Also, our experiences and needs are not monolithic.

The AAPI "group" is heterogenous -- in culture, economic vulnerability, and historical relationship with the U.S. Moving forward at Stanford, it is important to disaggregate the "AA" and "PI" and within the "AA"/"PI", and to see their overlap with "International" status.

🔦 #3: The model minority myth is harmful. As @JamJX outlined yesterday, this narrative was used during the Civil Rights Movement to drive a wedge between Asians and other minority groups and to pose the question, "Why can't Black/Brown communities be like that?"

We also touched on how the model minority myth undermines Asian individuals' recognition in the workplace (#BambooCeiling), erases economically and socially vulnerable Asian communities, and erases the harm that the U.S. has afflicted on Asian communities abroad and in the U.S.

A lot has been written on this, but I particularly love @viet_t_nguyen's piece in TIME Magazine: bit.ly/3u5gdXj

🔦 #4: We touched on the disproportionate amount of violence against and harassment of Asian women.

Asian women are vulnerable. Asian individuals working in the service industry are vulnerable. Asian women working in the service industry are especially vulnerable.

There is a legacy of hypersexualizing Asian women in the U.S. There is a stereotype of a silent and "docile" Asian woman.

I wish so much that I could have spoken better on this topic. It is so important, and one of the reasons why I really wish there was an expert with us today.

Please, please, please learn more from people who are doing the work on the ground and studying these issues.

If you are at Stanford, consider attending Drs. Elena Shih and Lee Ann Wang's conversation with @Clayman_Inst & @stanfordccsre next Monday: bit.ly/31o9Wth

🔦 #5: Discrimination and microaggressions happen at Stanford. Thank you to the panelists (@LindaNguyenMD & Dr. Grace Lee) who opened up and shared your own experiences, especially as Asian women.

🔦 #6: We spoke about allyship, what to do as a bystander, and how to be compassionate to one another.

I recommend taking bystander intervention training if you have time: bit.ly/3deZ3PR.

[ quoted tweet featuring @alvarezzzy ]

https://twitter.com/StanfordEMED/status/1375568667384029185?s=20

🔦 #7: Stanford is an institution built on the exploitation of Chinese labor. The impact of this legacy and the anti-Chinese beliefs of Leland Stanford need to be recognized by the community.

🔦 #8: There is a long history of anti-Asian discrimination and violence in the US. There is also a history of Asian American organizing and activism -- for ourselves, in collaboration with one another, and in solidarity with Black, Hispanic, and other minority groups.

As individuals moving forward, we need to self-educate and to listen. We need to grow in our individual journey as allies, advocates, and accomplices toward cross-cultural compassion and towards racial justice in both our professional and personal lives.

For those of us Asian Americans who may be "waking up" -- we need to educate ourselves with curiosity and humility and look to those who have already been engaging with this work for leadership.

We need to also push back on the anti-Black rhetoric that has resurfaced.

🪞 #3: This <45 minute conversation really was not sufficient to convey the complexity of the historical and present Asian experience. I hope that there will be continued conversation in the Stanford and broader academic communities about how structural racism affects Asians.

🪞 #4: We also didn't explicitly talk about the Pacific Islander/Pasifika experience and how it is distinct even though the event was to supposed to provide a forum for "AAPI" community members.

🪞 #5: Messages I received during and after this event, and a @majetilab anti-Asian hate processing/reflection session yesterday emphasized for me the need for a healing and processing space for Asian members of our community at Stanford Med, ESPECIALLY Asian women.

/FIN