As a Korean adoptee facilitating anti-racism workshops within the arts field, I have experienced many artists who view race and racism as a black and white binary. I have noticed terms such as BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, People of Color) being weaponized against People of the Global Majority by organizations when they are only referring to the Black community.

Now, don’t get me wrong. We do need to center the most harmed and impacted communities which are the Black, Brown, and Indigenous communities. However, that does not mean communities such as the AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander)*, Middle Eastern North African, Latinx, and Mixed should be forgotten. If your anti-racism work is not intersectional, you are still upholding white supremacy.

“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

Yeun’s quote resonates with me. We often see AAPI* artists’ names being pronounced wrong. We have seen white organizations get credit for co-productions with an AAPI* culturally specific organization. We have also seen predominately white institutions using a different AAPI* artist’s image by mistake for another artist. I, too, experience these prejudices. I am frequently invited into inclusive conversations where I am often the tokenized individual invited so the “box” can be checked off for the AAPI community.

For too many generations that can be accounted for, the AAPI* community has been presented as the “Model Minority” because of individuals’ proximity to whiteness. First off, this is a MYTH, and we are not a monolith! This ideology was created to make Asians seem to have a monolithic identity of being hard working and light skinned. The AAPI* community consists of a wide range of identities including Eastern Asian, South Asian, Middle Eastern North African, Pasifika, Native, and Mixed. All these cultures and communities are always forgotten when the ideology of this Model Minority Myth is being upheld within our society.

This has shown up in the arts community even when artists are practicing and actively becoming anti-racist. I have had conversations with individuals who question if we should call the hate crimes the AAPI* community is experiencing because of COVID-19 “racist events.” I have had to discuss with my friends and colleagues how Asians are not considered white and are in fact People of The Global Majority. I have also had to explain that AAPI* individuals who are light skinned do hold power but not enough to define, protect, and pass laws to protect our own community. When conversations and topics like these come up, my proximity to whiteness is questioned. This is white supremacy showing up. Not all Asians look like me. Not all Asians have a similar experience.

In addition, this Model Minority Myth causes the AAPI* community to be pinned against other communities of color (especially the Black community). This alone has caused so much harm and pain between the different communities through anti-Blackness and colorism. Most recently, we have been seeing hate crimes by individuals from different communities of color attacking Asian identified individuals. All of this is a tactic that white power uses to uphold white supremacy. Instead of creating solidarity to uproot white supremacy, we are fighting each other for a seat at the “master’s table.”

“For the master’s tools will never dismantle the master’s house. They may allow us to temporarily beat him at his own game, but they will never enable us to bring about genuine change.” — Audre Lorde

As we continue our journey to become anti-racist, we need to take an intersectional approach to dismantling white supremacy. We have to start acknowledging that all of us are multi-faceted and multi-layered individuals. At times, a person’s intersectional identity might create layers of discrimination. We saw this with the recent murders of Asian women in Atlanta. Many individuals were debating if it was race or gender issue, when in fact it was an intersectional issue of race, gender, and class. It is essential that we move past how an individual may physically present and start to explore how all of a person’s identities, even those not easily seen, can affect a person’s experience. Most importantly, we need to stand together and support each other’s communities. We are stronger together than fighting apart.

By adding AAPI* history of race and racism to your anti-racism work, organizations will get a fuller picture of the racialized oppression that occurs in the United States. It will allow institutions to understand that race and racism is not a binary. Racism and white supremacy are an infection that has caused an abundant number of wounds and affected so many communities—and has to be healed.

*The term AAPI (Asian American Pacific Islander) is helpful when acknowledging and naming the Asian community; however, it also causes harm by leaving out identities that fall under the Asian umbrella. I want to acknowledge this as the community finds a better term to name their beloved community.