I recently received a call from a recruiter with the Marines assessing my interest and eligibility for their law student program. After candidly informing the recruiter that I have never done a single pull-up in my entire life (this was in response to a question; I would not have offered this information unprompted), he asked me how fast I could run three miles. The answer is that I would never voluntarily put myself in a situation that requires running three consecutive miles.
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Not Your Model Minority
“Sometimes I wonder if the Asian American experience is what it’s like when you’re thinking about everyone else, but no one is thinking about you.”
-Steven Yeun
Let’s talk about this past week and the hate crimes perpetrated
against Asian Americans the last few days in Oakland
Let’s talk about this past year and our past period in American history
This neglected narrative
This invisible experience
While the country does its annual round of capitalizing
off of Lunar New Year this weekend, I think about the Asian Americans who will spend
what is supposed to be one of the most festive and important holidays in their culture
cowering instead of celebrating
Let me tell you about the attacks that have been happening
because you won’t find them headlining on national news
A conversation that is long overdue
An 84 year old Thai man was attacked in bright daylight and died from his injuries
Vicha Ratanapakdee
Say his name
and pronounce all. of. it.
Numerous robberies and assaults in Oakland’s Chinatown
A 91 year old man was pushed down
It was like watching my own grandfather get slammed into the pavement
Look up the video on your own if you want to see it
but I refuse to circulate Trauma Porn – my trauma, your porn
Non-POC: You cannot fathom how personally traumatizing it is to watch these videos
Faces slashed, grandmothers set on fire
The sheer volume of violence is staggering
I’m having a hard time grappling with this inhumanity against our elderly
Our elders
Who are revered and respected in our culture in a way unlike the culture of this country
Who rose from the ruins of a broken nation seeking solace
Searching for a better life in the Land of Opportunity that only knew them by the word
Foreigner
In the wake of these assaults there is one word that comes to mind
A word that has been grinded and conditioned into the Asian American experience:
Invisible
Anti-Asian sentiment since the beginning of this pandemic
Targeted hate crimes have surged by almost two thousand percent
Where are you, CNN?
Where are you, my fellow activists and leaders of social justice?
Deafening silence from the news media and our so-called allies
Feigned outrage only when it’s trendy
I am traumatized by your apathy
You cannot be anti-racist without acknowledging the Asian American experience.
Enough with the narrative of the Model Minority
What is the Model Minority Myth?
I guess I’ll save you the self-education
And tell you about a nation that only respects you when
you keep your head down and talk nice
Get good grades and that’s the price
of being tolerated in White America
But despite staying out of trouble and being quiet
equality never comes with being compliant
Because you see,
the Model Minority Myth was weaponized
by our government back during the Civil Rights movement
to say that there is a “correct” way to be a minority
The audacity of White Supremacy
To give us a pat on the head for being silent
To take a diverse race of people and reduce them to a monolith
The audacity of White Supremacy
To use us as their tools to undermine the Black fight for civil rights
To pit minority groups against each other and further the divide
A nation built on the backs of
Black people and immigrants
Born with this burden that we were doomed to carry
as soon as our lungs drew in the first breath
The breath that got heavier and heavier with each year of life
A life of N*****, Ch*nk, Oriental, “blacks” as a noun with a lower-case B,
Dred Scott, Korematsu, Plessy
Yellow Peril, Chinese Excluded, For Colored Only
A life of imperialism and colonization and cultural appropriation
A life of “I think you may have confused me with the other [insert indistinguishable face of color] in this room” and
“I’ve never dated a [insert fetishizable object of color] person before” and
“But what’s your real name” and
“Can I touch your braids” and
“Your English is good” and
“You don’t sound Black” and
“Your lunch smells funny” and
“Go back to your country”
No amount of the Model Minority Myth embedded in deep interracial conflict
will change the fact that we have always been seen and treated as secondary citizens
If citizens at all
From a young age I didn’t know how to take up space
It’s having to laugh off microaggressions because
we are made to feel that the racism against us isn’t real – is miniscule, is just a joke
Gaslit over and over
We are told to embrace our “good stereotypes”
I mean what exactly is our plight when
we’re all just so good at math
Right?
But this Myth invalidates the reality of the Asian American experience
Our internalized racism, our intergenerational traumas
Our women the subject of hyper-sexualization
Our men the epitome of emasculation
It paints us as submissive and void of personality
Strips us of our individuality
It erases the millions of low income Asian Americans that exist in poverty
It ignores the historic underfunding of Chinatowns as people huddle
around what little reminders they have of their homeland
It silences our struggles and shoves them to the sidelines
This repulsive notion of white proximity
I’m tired of being told that we are not Oppressed Enough.
Enough.
We are not your model minority.
I’ve said this a hundred times and I’ll say it again:
The burden should not fall on people of color to be educators
I’m going to be honest and I hope you will be modest enough to listen
Because writing this piece was so exhausting
So emotionally draining
I wanted to swallow my words, swallow my pain
To shut off my brain and just mourn in bed
I wished I was privileged enough to write about Snow Day instead
But instead I opened a Google Doc and my curtains and my wounds
This toxic rhetoric of
“Your oppression isn’t as bad as mine” and
“Now is not the time”
Sorry but
I didn’t know that racism had a sign-up sheet
A hate crime against one community is a hate crime against all of our communities
We all suffer under the puppetting hand of this systemic oppression
The problem is not us and each other and this underlying tension
The problem is White Supremacy so pay attention
If your anti-racism isn’t intersectional, are you really anti-racist?
Don’t ask us to shrink our space when we have already gone
our whole lives feeling small
I promise that there is enough space to go around this arena of
Oppression Olympics that was designed to be the modern day Hunger Games
Designed to point fingers and call names but we are all pawns of the same system
So shouldn’t we be asking instead: who designed it?
And how do we get out?
Unity is not possible with White Supremacy
But unity against it is necessary to defeat it
The only way out is together
Diversify your narratives so we can do and be better
So that we can uplift all of our communities and stand in solidarity
This struggle for safety
This struggle for scraps
of space at each other’s expense
But now that I’m here, let me make this clear:
Asian Americans cannot find safety in the same institutions
that terrorize Black Americans
Although we are wounded, the police must still be defunded
Increased policing is not the answer
Black Lives Matter
So we must make good on our promise from last summer
To use our privilege and protect the Black community
So instead of calling for increased policing that will harm Black bodies
Let’s get to the root and provide adequate services and resources
for all of our communities
Let’s rid this false notion that there is mutual exclusivity in this fight for equality
The solution lies in addressing this violence that is rooted in White Supremacy
A violence that is not the violence that we see but the violence that is
Unemployment, Homelessness, Wealth Hoarding, Redlining, and Poverty
So let’s turn this mentality into a new story
One where Asian Americans can take up space unapologetically
and speak their truths and shed their invisibility
One where our white and POC allies support us openly
by condemning anti-Asian violence in their own communities
I challenge you to check your own biases
and follow through on your commitment to diversity
See us, show up for us, and take on responsibility
Hold accountability
Marginalized freedoms have always been and will always be intertwined
My pain is your pain is our collective pain
It is our collective grief and our collective loss
And so your fight is my fight and my fight
Should be yours, too
Rosa Kim is a second-year student at BC Law. You can reach her at kimeot@bc.edu.
Featured image: Vicha Ratanapakdee
Act Like You Belong. Because You Do.
I’ve always been surrounded by a host of resilient people who modeled confidence. My grandmother ensured that my identity was a core value of my life. She often shared memories of her grandmother, born into slavery, or her father, a sharecropper, or her own challenges climbing out of southern poverty to self-determination. That deep, rich personal history propels me forward every day. My mother is the hardest-working woman I know, who overcame immense obstacles growing from a struggling young mother to a businesswoman with multiple degrees.
I have no shortage of personal examples of perseverance. In spite of those examples, like many people, I struggle with a lingering self-doubt that questions my abilities. The feelings aren’t debilitating, nor do they outweigh my confidence. But, they are there.
Black Art Matters
About five years ago, I stumbled onto some Afrofuturist art in a market in northern Uganda. I was moving through a maze of kitenge stalls when I came to a makeshift gallery that a young artist had set up in a forgotten corner of the market. One of his pieces was of a dramatic skyline, with arched spires climbing into the sky, draped in tropical vegetation. In the foreground, people in stylized, angular kitenge clothes were walking through a bustling public square. I asked him what it was and he said, “It’s the Kampala of the future.”
In contrast to a lot of antiseptic and tech-centric futurism, his mix of sci-fi architecture, verdant ecology, traditional culture, and civic harmony suggested that the ideal future would incorporate a healthy dose of the past. It reminded me of an aphorism from the other side of the African continent, embodied in the adinkra symbol, Sankofa, which depicts a bird with its head turned backward, retrieving an egg. The Sankofa symbol and word convey the idea that in moving forward, it is important to bring along what is essential from the past.
Examining White Privilege
Today I am hosting a guest blog from alumnus Michael B. Goldenkranz ‘78.
Part of what drew this Jewish boy from Brooklyn to BC Law in the mid 70’s was prior Dean Robert Drinan S.J., who left to become a U.S. Congressman shortly before I began law school. Both his and the School’s continuing and unwavering commitment to human rights and social justice, and the mission to “prepare students to not only be good lawyers but lead good lives,” still resonates with me today.
I have tried to instill those values in my now grown children, and to remind them to always question assumptions, as I remember doing during my time at BC Law. My son David, a former primary/secondary school teacher who has also worked on documentary filmmaking, is taking the opportunity to use today’s calls for racial justice and equality to examine his status as a privileged white male in ways that may be sometimes viscerally painful, but certainly necessary. His recent essays include “Pajamas are a Privilege,” “White American PTSD,” “A Black and White Matter,” “What Kind of a Dog are You?” and “Colorblindness: The Façade of Equality.”
Like the cases we studied at BC Law and the discussions we had in our classes, I find David’s writings thoughtful and provocative. They make me think about uncomfortable but really important issues in ways that I think would please Fr. Drinan. My hope is that we may continue to strive to lead good lives and fight for social justice and equality for all.
David’s website can be found at https://davidgoldenkranz.com.
-Michael B. Goldenkranz, BC Law ‘78
It’s been 146 Days Since Breonna Taylor Was Killed
It’s been 146 days since Breonna Taylor was killed. Kentucky’s Attorney General, Daniel Cameron, still has not filed any charges against the Louisville Police Department officers who killed her. Here are some statutes that deserve attention:
Murder (Ky. Rev. Stat. § 507.020):
A person is guilty of murder when: (a) With intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person.
Reckless Homicide (Ky. Rev. Stat. § 507.050):
A person is guilty of reckless homicide when, with recklessness he causes the death of another person.
First Degree Manslaughter (Ky. Rev. Stat. § 507.030):
A person is guilty of manslaughter in the first degree when: (a) With intent to cause serious physical injury to another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person; (b) With intent to cause the death of another person, he causes the death of such person or of a third person under circumstances which do not constitute murder because he acts under the influence of extreme emotional disturbance, as defined in subsection (1)(a) of KRS 507.020; or
In Criminal Law, we were taught to break down and work through each element of a criminal statute. Essentially every class was devoted to identifying the elements of a crime, gathering the facts of the case, and analyzing the case by connecting elements to facts. Our professor was a practicing defense attorney so she kept us on our toes and we learned to take nothing for granted. For the sake of brevity, and at the risk of incurring her wrath, I am just going to say that the uncontested facts of this case easily satisfy the actus reus (guilty act) element of these statutes.[1] No one is denying that these police officers caused Breonna Taylor’s death.
Remembering Bobby Joe Leaster: Saving Boston’s Youth
Guest blogger Rita Muse ’15 comes from a line of BC Law graduates. Her grandmother, Judge Mary Beatty Muse, graduated in 1950, her aunt, Patricia Muse, in 1990, and her cousin, Julie Muse-Fisher, in 2005. Her uncle, Christopher Muse, though not a BC Law grad, has been a longtime adjunct professor at the Law School. He and Rita’s grandfather, Robert Muse were instrumental in the release of the wrongly convicted Bobby Joe Leaster. Their engagement with Leaster in the 1980s had a lasting impact on the Muse family, including on Rita, who, as a law student, helped to free another innocent man.
Bobby Joe Leaster: A Remembrance
By Rita Miuse ’15
When Bobby Joe Leaster spoke to BC Law students and faculties, his story was the same but his message never got old; he was wrongfully convicted of murder and unjustly imprisoned for almost 16 years, but he dealt with injustice in his own profoundly special way. This past April 26, one of BC Law’s favorite guests and a beloved citizen of Boston, passed away from the severe burns he suffered in a home fire three weeks earlier.
Bobby Joe Leaster, with his lawyers, Robert and Christopher Muse, teaching Judicial Youth Corps students in the courthouse where he was convicted.
This is my remembrance of the person who motivated me as a student, inspired me as a lawyer, and became a friend of my family, two of whom, my grandfather Robert Muse and my uncle Christopher Muse, a longtime adjunct professor at BC Law, helped to free Bobby Joe.
All Hands On Deck: Silence is Violence
A couple of weeks ago, Dean Rougeau quoted Martin Luther King in his powerful letter to the BC Law community: “We may all have come on different ships, but we are in the same boat now.”
What does this mean?
It means that not a single person in America can remain silent or apathetic in this fight for racial equality. Racism is pervasive and comes in many forms. Racism is police brutality. Racism is microaggressions. Racism is “color-blindness.” Racism is silence.
And silence is violence.
Black Lives Matter.
I grew up in a pretty traditional South Asian household. I’ve tried talking about the Black Lives Matter movement numerous times before, but my family just didn’t seem too invested in it. Most of the time, I would just give up. Because it was just too frustrating.
But that’s the problem, right? These are just events that we hear about or see in the news, just optional conversations that we can opt in or out of. But for black people in America, this is reality. It’s not just another life lost; it is yet another manifestation of the unhinged, systemic racism that we all allow to continue and continue to allow.
Black people in America don’t get to choose to live in constant fear. They don’t get to choose that law enforcement dehumanizes them. So it feels inherently wrong that my community gets to choose whether or not we care.
Together in a Time of Crisis
BC Law Dean Vincent Rougeau sent the letter below earlier this week to the BC Law community, and I thought it was important enough to share here on BC Law Impact. I have also written about this issue in my recent post Black Lives Matter.
Dear members of BC Law community:
I know the pain that you are feeling because I am feeling it too. And I am tired. So very, very tired. I am tired of writing these letters over and over again. As a Black man with three sons, I am tired of the fear I must carry when they are out moving through their lives in a country where the lives of people of color are so easily extinguished. I am tired of the sickening legacy of racism in this county and of being told not to talk about it because it makes people uncomfortable. Our nation is in crisis and we cannot continue to ignore the fact that the fabric of our society is being shredded by many among us who refuse to recognize our shared humanity.
BC Law: Impact 