By Nathan Reddy
As a result of the rise in anti-Asian hate crimes, especially after the Atlanta shootings, Asian Americans are more visible than they have been in a while, and that visibility has manifested in the media. David Nakamura of the Washington Post somehow discovered one of my many articles written about Asian America and contacted me. He wanted to speak to me about something.
Wow. Someone from WaPo wants to speak to me? How awesome would it have been to be quoted in his piece? He invited me to give him a call.
I was experiencing a mix of nerves and pride and alerted my family members to the news. “Don’t be controversial,” my sister said. My views are unorthodox for a young, self-described progressive Asian American, and you can find them on AsAmNews. I inflict them on my family members every time I write something, and each time they renew their faith in my treading down the wrong path.
Admins of many progressive Asian American Facebook groups agree, as I have been kicked out of several for “speaking my truth.” Apparently, there are right truths and wrong truths. After having dealt with this rejection from my family and peers, having this conversation with David felt validating. Someone, supposedly important, actually wants to hear what I have to say.
LATEST STORIES
Finally, I called him and espoused the thesis of my manifesto. You can read that here if you’re interested, but please finish this piece first. Anyways, after my spiel he notified me that he really didn’t care about all that. What he really wanted to know was what “people” thought about Kamala Harris.
I said, well, young progressive Asian Americans don’t really like her because of her past as a prosecutor. To the point that when I was a member of the group subtle asian activists (all lowercase for some reason), I learned Mindy Kaling was not a good Asian for making dosas with her in this one video.
My mom, however, loves her. To my mom, she embodies the American Dream. My mom has a special affection for Kamala’s mom. Being a young single mother and immigrant while navigating a revolutionary time in this country is no joke. There’s a joke among the Indian parent community I’m acquainted with, and that’s that Kamala has now raised the bar yet again for us offspring.
“How important is it for Kamala to take a lead role in addressing anti-Asian hate?” I half-joked that if she did, my mom would develop an Asian American consciousness. He (mercifully) laughed and that concluded our talk. He took down my email so that he could send me the article when it was published, and I couldn’t wait for it to be.
A few days later it was published and I was nowhere to be seen. He quoted some head honchos at high-profile organizations instead. They provided some cookie-cutter quotes (based on my skimming) about being Asian American, and that sealed the deal. I was fairly disappointed, but life goes on. As my girlfriend’s boyfriend put it, “what was he supposed to say? I called this Indian kid…” I wasn’t part of any high-profile organization. I just represented myself.
One thing that still irks me though, is that my opinion only mattered when it came to Kamala Harris. “Hey, what does this Indian kid think about Kamala Harris?” Interestingly, everything I had said up until the point that he set me straight wasn’t just about the Indian American community, or about the South Asian American community for that matter, but Asian Americans as a whole. South Asian Americans have clamored to be equal representatives of Asian America ever since “Asian America” was conceived, and we still get the short shrift.
I understand how untimely it is for me to remind people of this clamoring, but it is still important in that we are all racialized as “Asian Americans” for a reason.
We are racialized as the white-aspiring “model minorities” from the outside, but we must admit that deep within the Asian American psyche is an acquiescence to the model minority myth. Unconsciously, we are here striving to prove that we are fundamentally better than our Asian brothers and sisters across the globe.
Cleaner, more “civil.” Less inclined to dissent and more inclined to material success. What this does is legitimize America as the guardian of the world and bearer of opportunities, a role that the Biden Administration asserts so strongly that its posture is reminiscent of the Truman Doctrine. It isn’t a coincidence that this is occurring as China rises, and as Asian Americans, we are being drafted as foot soldiers in this new Cold War, and as far as hegemony goes, we are not fighting back.
The only way to move forward is to destroy the model minority consciousness that chains us to middle-to-upper class values, and forge strong coalitions with working-class communities of all races, and that includes working-class Asian American communities who don’t have economic or political power.
Our rejection of them and other working-class communities parallels our rejection of our continental Asian counterparts, and that is not by coincidence. We need a genuine resurgence of the Asian American movement that is fundamentally anti-capitalist, anti-colonial, anti-imperialist, and anti-genocide, and we can only do this by the side of working-class people.
To be clear, I am specifically speaking to Asian Americans, both East and South Asians for the most part, who are middle-to-upper class and are either in the process of ascendance to or are already bona fide members of the Professional Managerial Class (PMC).
This is the twenty-first century generation that inherit the privileges of the post-1965 immigrants of the Hart-Cellar Act. This is why Indian Americans make up the highest paid ethnic group in America, and Asian Americans the highest paid racial group.
These “progressives” engage in the exclusive “woke” lexicon for the singular purpose of obscuring their class position. Catherine Liu says that the only way for socialism to take off in America is for the PMC to be bulldozed by grassroots movements as they make their way towards attacking the capitalist overlords. Basically, we’re in the way, and being run over isn’t the only option. We can turn around and attack capitalism with working class-communities by renouncing our class position.
All of this is the sort of talk that David Nakamura would not like to hear (I hold a grudge) and that is by design. He would rather engage in the furious identity politics of the modern age, and reduce my identity to an “Indian kid” that might clue him in on what South Asians think about Kamala Harris. Revolution be damned.
Ironically, David Nakamura was writing a piece on Asian American unity, but his complete disregard for my thoughts on anything else other than Kamala Harris only underscores the notion that the in-group can only talk about the in-group, and South Asians aren’t even in the in-group of Asian America.
I am here to say that the in-group should include everyone except the reigning capitalists, and as I see it, as young, “progressive” Asian Americans, we have a special role to play in that group. The war against China might as well be a war against me and all my fellow Asian Americans. Solidarity is the lynchpin for the revolution, and if we don’t follow the revolutionary current, the only way forward is through. I, for one, will be turning around.
AsAmNews has Asian America in its heart. We’re an all-volunteer effort of dedicated staff and interns. Check out our new Instagram account. Go to our Twitter feed and Facebook page for more content. Please consider interning, joining our staff, or making a financial contribution to support us.
