HomeAsian AmericansGene Wu calls for unity between asian and black communities

Gene Wu calls for unity between asian and black communities

Texas State Representative Gene Wu has sparked widespread discussion with his viral comments emphasizing the interconnected struggles of Asian and Black communities in the fight for civil rights. As reported by MSN, Wu argued that the privileges many Asian Americans enjoy today would not exist without the sacrifices made by Black Americans during the civil rights movement.

Speaking on a podcast with Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist Jose Antonio Vargas, Wu stated, “The day the Latino, African American, Asian, and other communities realize that they share the same oppressor is the day we start winning because we are the majority now.” Wu highlighted how stereotypes, such as the “model minority” myth imposed on Asian Americans, have been used to pit minority groups against each other.

According to Houston Chronicle, Wu pointed to America’s history of systemic oppression against Asian communities, such as the Chinese Exclusion Act and the quotas that followed, as part of the narrative that Asian Americans must remember and confront. He called for Asian Americans to stand in solidarity with Black Americans, rejecting complacency and actively engaging in the fight for equity and justice.

Wu, who represents District 137 in Southwest Houston, an area renowned for its ethnic diversity, has been an outspoken advocate on immigration issues and a critic of policies like Senate Bill 147, which restricts land ownership for legal residents from countries including China. He recently became chair of the Texas House Democratic Caucus.

His comments have resonated widely, going viral on social media platforms focused on Black and Asian audiences. They have also reignited discussions about the shared struggles of minority groups in the United States and the importance of unity in addressing systemic racism.

AsAmNews is published by the non-profit, Asian American Media Inc.

Happy Lunar New Year. We’re almost there. We are now 71% of our goal of meeting our $5,000 matching grant challenge with less than 5 full days to go. Every donation will be matched dollar for dollar through Sunday for up to the remaining $1,500 from our challenge. All donations will go toward fully funding an editor position at AsAmNews and to support our reporting. You can make your tax-deductible donations here via credit card, debit card, Apple Pay, Google Pay, PayPal and Venmo. Stock donations and donations via DAFs are also welcomed.

Please also follow us on InstagramTikTok, FacebookYouTube and X.

5 COMMENTS

  1. Back in the mid-1970s, I was part of a student-led organization uniting African American, Latino, and Asian/Asian American students on my college campus. Yes, we need to work together in solidarity.

  2. I agree, 100%! We must all join together to block Mass Deportation II. Estimates as high as one million American born citizens were included in Mass Deportation I, 1920 – 1941.

  3. Congrats to Rep. Wu for his bold stance and activism. My comments will likely be misinterpreted as there is not enough space here to fully explicate. I provide the bio below in partial support of my comments. I am almost 30 years older than Hon. Wu and from a different part of the US. My experiences, probably similar in many respects, must also differ, as I grew up in an earlier time and in Brooklyn, NY, and that’s not citing my career path. POINT #1: I find most of the contemporary so-called AAPI experts are younger (under 60) and have only read the histories, not lived it. I was born in Hong Kong and migrated to the US in 1949 through Ellis Island. I lived my youth in Brownsville which along with Crown Heights was a focal point of the civil rights riots of the 1960s. We were not poor but far from middle class. POINT #2 Many of the current AAPI experts are later immigrants, with educated and well-to-do backgrounds. Empathizing with lower class immigrants in sweatshops, laundries, takeout food establishments or nail salons may not be as easy if not a lived experience. I went to college in the Bronx and law school in Manhattan. While others were taking law school courses aimed at helping the pass a tough NYS Bar Exam, I took independent study or fringe courses like EEO, Civil Rights and Constitutional Law, Public School Law, etc. which were randomly given at my school in those days. POINT #3 in the 70s when I went to law school, formal civil rights in academia was rare, although TV cameras did cover my seminar when we discussed the Bakke case (the definitive statement on quotas while it was at SCOTUS). Now, there exist a multitude of Asian and civil rights courses, merely reviewing history. Upon graduation I began a federal career at the Office for Civil Rights (then DHEW) and continued to EEOC where I litigated employment discrimination cases. I was an upstart AAPI Federal employee and had to win an internal EEO grievance just to attain a lowly Hearing Clerk position. I ultimately retired as a US Administrative Law Judge. I worked at almost every pay grade in Federal service. POINT #4 if you had high paying jobs all along in high positions without going through much ado to get there (likewise with elite schools) the struggle is less real IMHO.

    With that as a backdrop, I suggest that working together is obviously the way to go. But that does not mean everything any group does is correct and when incorrect, and that that group should not be called out. It is not wrong or contrary to critique. So, when I ppint out something, I should not be viewed as anti-Black or anti-AAPI. I’d like to think I come from a position of knowledge and experience, superimposing an element of fairness. The key takeaway is no one nor organization is 100% correct and can always amend its ways positively. POINT #5 for many years and I believe currently, many in the Black and Brown communities, especially the youth, hold the belief AAPI are weak and can be preyed upon as in robberies, muggings, beatings, etc. Adults such as Steve Harvey perpetuate this dangerous myth. To me, this misconception is an undeniable fact. It has been explicitly verbalized to me. Those parties should be called out for this stereotyping and it is not wrong to do so. There can be citation to statistics to show AAPI are victimized by certain communities disproportionately, and that AAPI are the disproportionate victims of such mistreatment. But very few civil rights groups will acknowledge this and it is seen as violating necessary allyship. It is not. It is a necessary step in admitting the undeniable and then working to improve it TOGETHER.

    Critiquing, however, is not a one way street. If Hon. Wu asks us to work together, everyone must acknowledge their warts and to be sure, AAPIs could use a dermatologist. On the topic of BIPOC and unmentionables, IMO a big bugaboo is the microagression that AAPI are intellectually superior and BIPOC inferior. This superiority comlex is as undeniable as AAPI victimization by certain communities disproportionately. Attacking this myth requires just as much awareness and allyship as the other complaint. POINT #6 AAPI victimization was especially bad in the ghettoes in the 50s to 70s, but living it enforces the reality while history books can devote only a few hundred cold words. The “experts” repeat the books and don’t tell usually tell first person sagas. What we need is to determine how we determine who an “expert” is. If these “experts” who have formed a cottage industry are so adept at bettering the AAPI condition, why do we now need anti-Asian hate movements even more? Why is there more hate with so many experts plying their expertise?

    This is just the proverbial tip of the fast melting iceberg but it must be seen, acknowledged before it melts away–forgotten and swept under the even more proverbial rug. Partners should be able to criticize each other without fear of jeopardizing the partnership. POINT #7 there is again no doubt the Black community is responsible for civil rights in this country. I owe my livelihood to the CRA of 1964 which created EEOC. They endured the suffering I escaped. But that does not mean as an AAPI I should be a target. I challenge Hon. Wu and his partners to face up to these two critical issues and deal with them, and not just move on with lives unexamined.

  4. I’m apolitical due to my religious convictions, but this man seems to be one of the very few politicians that makes any sense. His take on Americas historical racist policies, are clear and not WHITEWASHED

  5. Let me start off by saying I did not know what racism was until I came to America. I’m from Jamaica which is a predominantly Black Country but still in Jamaica we have other races it’s not until I came to America I realized the hatred that was upon African Americans/black people. It’s nice that he wants unity but living in America I am thinking or I am led to believe that African Americans/black people are the most hated people in the world, and for that reason no other group would want to merge with African Americans/black people. I look at people like Asian, Latinos, Indians in their community they see us AA/Black people as less than and that they are more relatable to white America, this is what America has shown me or what is given by America. I also think that the hatred for black people and African Americans are what people see from America, so if you go to countries like Japan or Russia or Australia these predominantly white, Asian countries and they don’t want to accept you as a visitor or a guest in their country it’s because of the stereotypes that they see on TV and in America and it’s sad to think that way but that’s how I think. America had molded me, I know better now I definitely know better but I’m just saying in order for Asians and African Americans and black people to be one in the United states, Asian America will have to put down their guard of if I’m not standing with the white people and standing with the black people I am just as bad as black people are and I think Asian do look down on AA/BP by what is shown or said via social media and on your news.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

This site uses Akismet to reduce spam. Learn how your comment data is processed.

Happy Lunar New Year. Receive good fortune

Latest

Anti-Asian Hate

Must Read

Immigration

Health

Happy Lunar New Year. Receive good fortune

Latest

Discover more from AsAmNews

Subscribe now to keep reading and get access to the full archive.

Continue reading