Thread by @Joshua_Luna

I really appreciate you sharing your thoughts from a Black perspective. I think it's important for AsAms to acknowledge how the Asian gender divide isn't just an intra-community issue that only affects us, but also affects the Black community & other groups of color. Thread: 1/

https://twitter.com/thotscholar/status/1441148526252081162

It's important to hold Asian men & other MOC accountable for patriarchal misogyny, but not via rhetoric that invites racist white men to weaponize that accountability & justify their violence against MOC. Same thing with critiquing racist women—it should be done w/o misogyny. 2/

Unfortunately, that's not the current mainstream approach. When Asian men’s misogyny is discussed, it’s frequently blamed on Asianness & not manhood. This gives white men a safe space to reinforce racism against MOC. Here's a recent example. 3/
CW: Anti-Asian & Anti-Black racism

When I posted my comic Reconciliasian encouraging Asian men & women to reflect on toxic, bigoted behavior towards each other & do better, I wasn't entirely surprised by the backlash. What did surprise me is how many Asians in power enabled slander and harassment towards me. 4/

But from this I learned that complicit Asians leverage anti-Asian rhetoric like this precisely because white supremacy wants them to. They are given media power so their message is the one that dominates AsAm spaces. 5/

CW: Anti-Asian & Anti-Black racism

https://twitter.com/joshua_luna/status/1276286674314711041

At this point I'm not sure the term internalized racism is sufficient in holding complicit Asians accountable because it implies the only victim is themselves. The fact is every person of color is taught to hate themselves & that hate affects others. 6/

https://twitter.com/joshua_luna/status/1055873318539137024

Overall, complicit Asians want to validate their violent mindset & keep their position as tokenized gatekeepers. But unfortunately for them COVID anti-racism was a wake-up call for AsAms. Asian America is ready to grow & these "leaders" aren't. They profit from the status quo. 7/

I want to add that the harassment I received didn't only come from Asian women. The issue gets boiled down to a "men's side" & "women's side" but it's really about extremists who make excuses for either patriarchy or white supremacy. I block bigoted AsAms regardless of gender. 8/

Ending on a personal note, I’m really sorry you’ve had to deal with cyberbullying and having your photos reposted and features mocked. It’s a deeply painful experience, particularly for POC, and I don’t wish it on anyone. Thank you for being so supportive, I appreciate it. 9/9