Photo by Adam Chau, AsAmNews
By Crystal Luag Ntxhi Vang
According to The American Public Health Association, “Public Health promotes and protects the health of people and the communities where they live, learn, work, and play.” Anything that jeopardizes the health of people and communities where they live, learn, work and play should be considered a threat to public health.
Before and following the mass shooting at an Asian-owned Atlanta massage parlor, attacks on the Asian community across America have substantially increased. Community members and volunteers are coming together to escort elderly Asian Americans using public transportation or accessing public spaces like grocery stores, shopping centers, or China Town.
It is hard to ignore something more is going on. Are these nearly acts of racism or have they now affected the peoples’ right to a safe and healthy life? What is jeopardizing the Asian American communities that volunteers are coming together to protect one of our most vulnerable populations, the elderly? Is racism a public health crisis now?
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As an Asian American woman, growing up and from a young age, I knew I was different. No one had to tell me how I was different, I knew. I knew in the way the teachers asked me “how was Chinese New Year” when I am Hmong and not Chinese.
I knew in Elementary when classmates asked if I ate dog but never my blonde desk mate. I knew when on the playground other kids would shout at me and tell me to go back to my own country. What country? My parents came to America because of my people’s involvement in Secret War led by the United States.
You can sweep a war under the rug, but you cannot sweep thousands of people fleeing and being hunted from their country trying to find safety because they were now labeled as traitors by helping the United States.
Racism changes the way I experience this world. How I receive care from the healthcare systems, my sharing voice in school when I talk about my experiences of racism towards me, how comfortable I am to walk alone in broad daylight as an Asian woman during the pandemic because of the rise of racism towards the Asian community.
If racism can affect not only me but whole communities to the point where they do not feel safe in the spaces they belong to, their mental health is at stake, and they cannot perform daily activities like others then these are not acts of racism alone, this is a public health crisis now.
The constant fear of being targeted due to your race is detrimental enough to one’s health and mental state. We must come together and declare racism as a public health crisis so we can work together towards a better future for us, for others, and our children.
About the Author: Crystal Luag Ntxhi Vang is a Ph.D. student of the public health program at the University of Hawai’i Manoa. Vang is Minnesota-born and raised.
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