Processing Atlanta:
Perspectives from an Asian American Woman
|
|
BY THERESE ANNE SANTIAGO
(CSRE Major, '21) | March 23, 2021
I’ve often refrained from sharing my opinions on the internet, and in my writing and photography, I shy away from casting myself in the spotlight in fear of taking up space not meant for me. I know now, in light of the tragedy we faced in Atlanta last Tuesday, that this space is meant for me and other Asian women to take up. And if this space does not yet exist, it must be made. Our opinions and our voices always have and always will matter, regardless of the world’s inability to listen.
|
|
Therese Anne Santiago's distorted self-portrait is overlaid by Sun Yung Shin's word find puzzle.
|
|
Therese Anne Santiago's distorted image of her hand is overlaid by anti-Asian hate crimes data. |
|
I woke up on the morning of March 17th to several ambiguous texts from my Asian friends about Atlanta. I had not read the news, but I could tell from the tone of the messages and my friends’ reluctance to name the tragedy that I should brace myself and prepare for the worst. And though I did, nothing could have prepared me for the pain I felt while reading the first headline in the news.
I scrolled through the article in shock, unable to process the murders themselves, much less the media’s denial of a racist motive. Because it was finals week, I spent much of that day vacillating between loud sobs and studying on autopilot as I thought of these women, who went to work that day not knowing it would be their last-women who looked like my mother, my titas and my late grandmothers; women who looked like my mothers’ friends and the mothers of my friends. My heart breaks every time I think of them and picture their smiles, which the world will no longer have the privilege of seeing.
|
|
The day after their deaths, I didn’t have eloquent thoughts of my own to express my grief, so I instead turned to the words of Sun Yung Shin, whose art created space for the anger, fear, and sadness I felt after hearing the news. Her word puzzle, which can be seen in the image below, contains exactly 80 words, and though I have yet to find all of them, I’ve found comfort and validation in the few that I have seen. Here are some that caught my eye: Community. Solidarity. Assistance. Elders. Imperialism. Colonial. Trauma. Hold. Heal.
As we continue grieving, I hope that the art accompanying these words is as comforting as it is unsettling. I hope it forces you to grapple with the centuries-long history of violence against Asian communities, the damaging influence of American imperialism in Asia, and the sexualization of Asian women that has come with it, our eyes serving as unfortunate targets of male sexual violence. I hope that in reckoning with these difficult truths, we can turn to our communities to find love, care, and healing amongst each other.
Read Santiago's full piece and see her additional works of art on our blog here.
|
|
THE RISE OF HATE CRIMES
"Discrimination and Violence against Asian Americans"
|
|
BY SHIRIN SINNAR, Q & A with SHARON DRISCOLL
The Stanford Report | MARCH 19, 2021
Last Tuesday, March 17, a gunman opened fire in three Atlanta-area massage businesses killing 8 people—6 of them Asian women. Two days later, Professor Shirin Sinnar, an expert in national security law, civil rights and liberties, and civil procedure, testified before the U.S. House Committee on the Judiciary Subcommittee on the Constitution, Civil Rights, and Civil Liberties for a hearing on “Discrimination and Violence against Asian Americans.” In the Q&A that follows, Sinnar discusses the rise of hate crimes in the U.S., the effect politicians’ speech has on the population, and how law and governmental programs can help to mitigate it. Her reflections draw in part on research from a Stanford Law School policy lab she taught on assessing alternative approaches to hate crimes, in partnership with the Brennan Center for Justice.
|
|
Has there been an increase in hate crimes directed against Asians in the U.S., particularly since the start of the COVID-19 pandemic?
Asian American communities over the past year have experienced fear and stigma from what appears to be a wave of harassment and hate violence. During the first six months of the pandemic alone, the coalition Stop AAPI Hate logged over 2,500 anti-Asian hate incidents across the nation, including verbal harassment and physical assaults. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University-San Bernardino reports that anti-Asian hate crimes in 2020 in 16 of the largest U.S. cities, as reported to police departments, surged to 149% of the previous annual total.
How is this affecting the Asian community? Are researchers looking at the personal toll of hate crimes?
As hate crime scholars have documented, hate violence inflicts psychological and citizenship harm on both direct victims and the larger communities that share the victims’ identities, in addition to society at large. The recent spate of anti-Asian violence has left elderly people afraid to leave their homes and parents reluctant to send their children to in-person school out of fear of racial harassment. For many people within targeted communities, hate incidents shake one’s sense of belonging in this nation—affecting even those born in the United States or whose families have lived here for generations. For many Asian Americans, hate violence sends the message that, no matter how deep your roots, you remain “perpetual foreigners.”
|
|
NEW FDI HIRE ANNE H. CHARITY HUDLEY
JOINS GSE FACULTY
|
|
GSE NEWS | March 19, 2021
Stanford Graduate School of Education (GSE) will welcome Anne H. Charity Hudley as a new member of its faculty in July 2021. Charity Hudley's appointment is in collaboration with the Center for Comparative Studies in Race and Ethnicity as a new Faculty Diversity Initiative hire at the School of Humanities and Sciences.
Charity Hudley’s appointment reflects a deliberate focus at the GSE to address educational inequities through research, teaching, and practice, and deliver solutions that improve learning for all. Charity Hudley will join a team of researchers in the GSE program on Race, Inequality, and Language in Education (RILE), which examines the major cultural, societal, and historical factors that influence educational attainment.
“Anne presents a multicultural, multidisciplinary approach to linguistic and racial justice to address educational challenges,” said GSE Dean Dan Schwartz. “We’re thrilled she’s bringing her expertise and enthusiasm to the Stanford community."
Read the full announcement here.
|
|
|
|
RACE IN MEDICINE SPEAKER SERIES |
|
RACE IN MEDICINE SPEAKER SERIES
Spring '21
in partnership with Ethics in Society
May 5: Anti-Racism Workshop (no speaker)
in partnership with Ethics in Society
May 26: TBD
|
|
FROM PROGRAM TO DEPARTMENT
African and African American Studies
|
|
Two academic leaders involved in departmentalizing the African and African American Studies (AAAS) program at Stanford explain the process and the rationale for the move. |
|
BY JOY LEIGHTON
Stanford Today | MARCH 22, 2021
In summer 2020, shortly after the killing of George Floyd and continued Black Lives Matters protests to end racial injustice, the Black Student Union (BSU) and Black Graduate Student Association (BGSA) circulated a petition calling for the departmentalization of the African and African American Studies (AAAS) program at Stanford.
In October, Provost Persis Drell announced that she was creating the Framework Task Force, which was charged with “recommending a new infrastructure at Stanford for the study of race and the impacts of race on society.” Ultimately, the goal of the task force is to identify ways in which Stanford can increase research and teaching about race that can lead to overcoming racism and inequality in our world.
This February, the university announced that Provost Drell and Dean Debra Satz of the School of Humanities and Sciences accepted the task force’s recommendation to move AAAS forward to becoming a department. Here, Dean Satz, the Vernon R. and Lysbeth Warren Anderson Dean of the School of Humanities and Sciences, and Professor Claude Steele, co-chair of the task force and the Lucie Stern Professor in the Social Sciences, Emeritus, discuss key issues and the process toward AAAS’s departmentalization, as well as the rationale for the change.
|
|
What issues does the subcommittee need to address and solve before AAAS can become a department?
Steele: As a process overseen by the faculty, the path toward departmentalization has several stages.
The first is to develop a broad conception of AAAS that will enable it to be as strong an academic department as possible, that will enable it to have as distinctive a Stanford identity as possible, and that will enable it to support other developments in the area of race and ethnic studies on campus.
This phase will be managed by a soon-to-be-appointed subcommittee of the larger Framework Task Force. It is important that this subcommittee include members of the Task Force so that the planning of both entities – the Task Force and subcommittee – can be coordinated. The subcommittee will also include faculty from outside of the Task Force and two student members, one undergraduate and one graduate student.
Following this first stage is a second stage in which AAAS faculty will flesh out the details of a AAAS department and shepherd that proposal through the university’s various faculty review processes.
|
|
Have news or events to share? |
|
We invite news and stories written by and about our CCSRE community—including from faculty, students, staff, alumni, and on and off campus partners—as well as race-centered events submissions to feature in our newsletter and blog.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
