Boston University graduate Gloria Chun, first second vice president for Advocacy and Program of the League of Women Voters Board, and founding editor of Sampan, recently joined a podcast on “The First Amendment” series produced by WGBH Educational Foundation.
During the podcast, Chun answered a question and stated her opinions on the issue of breaking the silence of the Asian Americans.
“One thing that most Asian communities tend to do is to kind of sweep under the rug some of the problems and not show in public, because of a cultural thing — the problems that do exist,” said Chun.
As a result, the Asian communities ought to be more outspoken and shatter their stereotypes held by Americans. There were 3,795 firsthand complaints of racism and discrimination against Asian Americans from March 19, 2020, through the end of February 2021, according to the coalition Stop AAPI Hate.
Later, Gloria talked about her experiences with the Sampan Newspaper. “What I wanted to do with Sampan was to simply communicate and to inform people. And it seemed like such a tiny, tiny effort way back then. You know, we started typing, hand collating, and working very hard. All we wanted to do was inform, not even to excite or to bring news to the forefront of the Chinese community. We wanted to talk about what Social Security was, what availability of police services were, because we were talking to a community that didn’t understand English and didn’t have access to the regular newspapers.”
Since then, Sampan provided a gateway for Chinese residents who want to keep up with current events.
In addition, as the time went on, more and more conflicts began to emerge in Chinatown. Chun talked about the time when two Chinese men were attacked in a parking lot in Chinatown by two white men who were rather drunk. “The police took custody into the police station and booked the two Chinese men. Why? Because they didn’t speak English!” Chun described that there were old people sitting around at the site. Devastated, they talked about past incidents of humiliation like this —about discrimination.
“You can see anger in their eyes. You can see tears, and you can see memories, and you can see hurt, and you can see pain. And nobody covered this story. This goes on all the time. The Asian community isn’t covered. It’s not a big community; we’re small in numbers, and we’re scattered.”
There has been much coverage about the discrimination of Black and Hispanic people, but the public don’t really hear much about the Asian population. The “model minority” myth, the racist idea that the hardworking Asians never face discrimination, was perpetuated. Ironically, at the same time, micro-aggression toward Asians occurs frequently in our society — whether it is at work, at school, or just casually talking with our friends.
According to Chun, “We’re all Asians, and we find we still have the same problems. An example [is] our mental health clinic in Boston Chinatown, [which] has uncovered many, many mental health problems, not only within Chinatown but from suburban-type Chinese who are really having identity problems. Now this is something that is just beginning to show itself and to creep up.”
Over 19 million people in the United States identify as Asian-American or Pacific Islander (AAPI), and of that population, more than 13% were diagnosed with a mental illness in the past year. Study shows that Asian American females, in grades 9-12, were 20 percent more likely to attempt suicide as compared to non-Hispanic white female students, in 2017. Ever since the pandemic, more and more Asian Americans have been facing challenges like racism and xenophobia, which has eventually led to a surge in mental health problems.
