The Missing History of Asian America

03/22/21 • 46 min

2 Listeners

We’ve been here before: A time of national stress, Asian Americans made into scapegoats, and violence follows. The community saw it coming. So why didn’t everybody else?

A mass shooting in Atlanta follows a year of warnings from Asian Americans who have said they do not feel safe. But the violence has forced to the surface old questions about where Asian Americans sit in our nation’s maddening racial caste system, and community leaders have struggled to get people across the political and racial spectrum to take the moment seriously.

Helen Zia, activist and author of Asian American Dreams: The Emergence of an American People and other books about the Asian American community, was spokesperson for the Justice for Vincent Chen campaign in the early 1980s. She tells the story of that era’s scapegoating of Asian Americans, and draws a line all the way back to the 18th Century.

And Arun Venugopal, senior reporter in WNYC’s Race and Justice Unit, shares his reporting on the community in New York City, which has emerged as an epicenter of day to day reports of harassment and violence.

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“The United States of Anxiety” airs live on Sunday evenings at 6pm ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts. To catch all the action, tune into the show on Sunday nights via the stream on WNYC.org/anxiety or tell your smart speakers to play WNYC.

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Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

We’ve been here before: A time of national stress, Asian Americans made into scapegoats, and violence follows. The community saw it coming. So why didn’t everybody else?

Companion listening for this episode:

The (Un)Making of a ‘Model Minority’ (1/4/21)

An odd racial pecking order puts Indian Americans in a curious place -- outside of whiteness, but distinct from other people of color. How’d that come to be? And is it changing?

'Community' Is a Verb. And It’s Hard (6/12/20)

We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Previous Episode

Collective Loss, Collective Care

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Activist Dean Spade, the author of “Mutual Aid: Building Solidarity During This Crisis (and the Next)” and Associate Professor at Seattle University School of Law, offers a primer on the political history of mutual aid and communal care-taking before taking listener calls.

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We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].

Notes from America airs live on Sundays at 6 p.m. ET. The podcast episodes are lightly edited from our live broadcasts.

Next Episode

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We want to hear from you! Connect with us on Twitter @WNYC using the hashtag #USofAnxiety or email us at [email protected].