So far, over 6,000 complaints of violence against Asian Americans have been made since March of 2020. Within the past year and a few months, more members of the AAPI community are experiencing increased rates of violence towards them simply for their ethnicity. Those in the criminal justice system are currently in a unique position to take this as an opportunity to fine tune their services to those of the AAPI community to ensure that they receive culturally-specific and trauma-informed care - and it starts with prosecuting these incidents for what they are.
Hate crimes.
What is AAPI?
Short for Asian American & Pacific Islander, AAPI provides an identification for individuals who have cultural and biological ties to Asian and Pacific Islander communities. Whether someone is a first-generation migrant or a fifth generation citizen, AAPI individuals come from a variety of nations and cultures. Most don’t even know that Indonesia and Oceania - archipelagos nestled in the Indian and Pacific Oceans - are filled with thousands of islands, each with unique cultures and languages (ever heard of the deep sea fishermen of the Bajau Sea?). The AAPI community is highly diverse, and it reaches all across the Pacific Ocean and the continent of Asia.
Without understanding the complexity of cultures and geographical areas within Asia and the Pacific Islands, we set ourselves up for a lack of cultural relativism and increased expressions of discrimination. Because of the vast array of cultures present within the AAPI community, individuals who are ignorant of the nuances within the AAPI community will ultimately make assumptions about AAPI individuals they meet - and unfortunately blame individuals for things they cannot control (such as a global pandemic).
A Brief History of AAPI Culture in the United States
Before getting into the criminal justice systems’ role in the AAPI community, let’s talk about some of the history of the AAPI culture in the United States. Prior to the mid-1800s, much of the Asian landscape ruled by China and Japan followed culturally-specific forms of isolationism, where the governments prevented and/or discouraged interaction with other countries as a way to avoid globalization. Additionally serving as a defense mechanism to protect the individual cultural and political interests of the respective countries, isolationism allowed for Asian culture to thrive without outside influences. While some political scholars argue against isolationism, especially in today’s global market, many Asian countries maintained isolationist policies until the 1800s.
During the Gold Rush of the 1850s, many Chinese migrants made their way to America. Due to racism and a large language barrier, many Chinese migrants were forced to work on the Pacific Railroad in grueling conditions and little pay. Other Asian migrants faced similar prejudices, ultimately culminating in the US government passing a variety of exclusionary migration laws aimed at Asian nationalities. Typically focused on Chinese migrants, these laws also included Japanese, Milasian and other Asians from migration into the US. Those who had migrated during the Gold Rush continued to experience extreme racism - the Hells Canyon Massacre remains one of the main examples of brutality against Asians in the United States (including the subsequent masking of the event by purposefully hiding court documents in safes in the county courts).
The racism came to a head in the 1940s, when the US government imprisoned Japanese Americans in camps in remote areas to keep them away from the rest of America to prevent Japanese espionage during World War II (despite none of the 5 million German-Americans being forced into similar situations…). These camps, which are *technically* defined as concentration camps, resulted in thousands of Japanese Americans, and other Asian Americans, being forced from their homes for years. Though the US government paid reparations in the 1980s, the impacts of the camp relocation remain to this day.
During all of this, the US maintained multiple colonies in Asia, most notably the Philippines (still a US territory to this day) and Hawai’i (which became a state in 1959). Native Hawaiians lost most of their culture due to American colonization - even being forced not to speak their native Hawaiian language from 1898 until the late 1970s.
The history of Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders in the US is tumultuous at best.
AAPI & The Criminal Justice System
For many decades, those in the AAPI community were specifically targeted by incarceration practices, and many were subjected to heartless hate crimes. Seen as perpetrators (you know, the Yellow Peril of the 1900s?) and less as victims, when AAPI individuals were victimized, their experiences were brushed off and swept away - such as in the case of the Hells Canyon Massacre mentioned before.
Throughout much of the 20th century, many Asian Americans were blamed for the increased dependency of opium, despite it actually being the French and British governments pushing the cultivation of opium in Burma, India and other areas in Southeast Asia. In fact, PBS goes on to describe that it was even a white, German, male scientist credited with heroin production, but the ideas surrounding the Yellow Peril and general xenophobia towards Asian individuals perpetrated the idea that opiates - including opium dens - were their fault. Thus, the Harrison Act and other US legislative movements toward the restriction of opiates were born, including opium den raids.
This sentiment, blaming large groups of people that share racial or ethnic qualities for one particular phenomenon, continues to this day. With the rise of Covid-19, many Americans blamed Asian individuals for the pandemic itself. With hate crimes towards AAPI individuals on the rise, what can those in the criminal justice system do to support victims?
AAPI Victims: Ways to Help
As victim service providers, we’re called to ensure that all victims of crime are treated with dignity and respect within the criminal justice system. Here are some ways that we can help AAPI victims as they come through the justice system.
Listen.
An act of physical aggression, such as a mugging or an assault in public, probably isn’t the first time an AAPI person has experienced racism - this is just the culmination of years of microaggressions. The escalation we see as victim service providers is years in the making, so sitting and listening to what AAPI survivors have to say is truly essential to providing quality care.
Seek cultural competence.
Asian cultures carry specific nuances that might require us to unlearn what we think we know and relearn based on our conversations with AAPI survivors. The medical field experienced this when Anne Fadiman’s ethnography, The Spirit Catches You and You Fall Down, premiered in 1997 and admonished the medical field for their cultural mistreatment of a Hmong refugee family. As victim service providers, we should aspire to the same type of reflexivity needed when working with members of culturally diverse communities. It’s important that we take a moment to learn about other cultures as a way to ensure we’re providing quality services.
Additionally, we should remember to take a step back and never assume that someone who appears Asian or a member of the AAPI community will culturally identify as such. Many Asian Americans are third or fourth generation migrants - meaning they were born here in America and have very little ties to another country. Keeping this bias in mind as we move forward will only help in providing stellar services.
Encourage reporting.
A majority of crimes go unreported, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics. There are a variety of variables that influence reporting, and feeling as though you won’t be taken seriously is one of them. For many victims, this is the largest barrier to reporting. As victim service providers, we hold the key to encouraging victims to report crimes against them. When survivors interact with us, they should walk away feeling like they have someone in their corner, someone who would take them seriously no matter what they say happens. If crimes remain unreported, especially from AAPI survivors, then we can’t tailor services to members of the community because we don’t know what they need. Any crime committed against a person due to their identification is considered a hate crime, and some states, including Virginia, go further in their exploration of what is defined as a hate crime. If hate crimes go unreported, then it appears as though they aren’t happening - despite locals and members of the community knowing that isn’t true.
As victim service providers and members of the criminal justice system, we have a call to ensure victims who walk through our doors feel safe. Without the dedicated work that we do, many survivors would be without a voice. However, there are always things we can do to continue ensuring that we provide stellar services to members of all communities.