Editor’s Note: In light of the recent shooting in Atlanta, Georgia which took the lives of eight Asian-Americans, Features Editor Sam Tarter sat down with senior Peter Pham to discuss Asian racism in America and the topic of the anti-Asian sentiment, which Pham wrote his Grande Project over.

Sam Tarter (ST): Why did you decide to do your Grande Project on the topic of the anti-Asian sentiment?

Peter Pham (PP): I hadn't really thought of anti-Asian sentiments in the U.S., not until Covid when I realized how prevalent it was, and people were sort of hiding what prejudice they held inside. I myself had a racist encounter in St. Louis back when Covid first hit, and I just felt isolated, to say the least. So I specifically wrote my Grande Project on that experience of Asian racism and how it goes unnoticed. In the U.S., I feel like our voices are not heard most of the time. Many times it's due to the model minority myth, which is essentially saying that we as a minority are doing better than other minorities, and so our needs are ignored because of that. 

ST: Were there any examples of Asian-centric racism in the United States that you wanted to touch upon or bring light to in your Grande Project?

PP: I've read about it and heard about it many times, but Asians are used as scapegoats in many instances of U.S. history. The only prevalent example that is usually taught is the internment camps of Japanese people after Pearl Harbor. When I researched more, I found out that the first Chinese Americans that came over to America, they came over during the Gold Rush, and they worked pretty much slave labor jobs, where they earned next to nothing, and they were scapegoated as taking away the jobs of other Americans. When the 9/11 attacks happened, many Southeast Asians—people from India—were blamed for 9/11. Many people don’t know this, but one of the first deaths attributed to the backlash and racism from 9/11 wasn't even someone who was Muslim. It was a person who was Sikh, and Sikhism is usually an Indian religion. So many Asian people have been scapegoated for the backlash of nationwide events when in reality they weren’t even taking part, which nowadays is pretty prevalent in terms of things.

ST: So, obviously these anti-Asian sentiments and mindsets have been around for a long time, but do you think that recently the rhetoric around Covid-19 has been one of the most prevalent and shocking examples of mass Asian racism in the United States?

PP: Yes, definitely. This is probably the most recent, most shocking, and prevalent example I’ve seen in my life. I've seen statistics and anti-Asian sentiments have risen almost 200 percent in America and Canada, and mainly it’s because of how the coronavirus has been attributed to China and most people can't differentiate between the two. The racist encounter I had was when I was shopping at Schnucks. This was before many of the six-feet rules and mandated masks, but people kept their distance more than they usually did. In that Schnucks, there was a Caucasian man that came up to me, and essentially started yelling slurs at me and blaming me for bringing Covid over to the United States, and I'm not even Chinese. I'm Vietnamese, like 100 percent Vietnamese. And that was my first firsthand experience with racism. I've actually heard racist experiences of others, and I just felt really discouraged.

ST: Thank you for being able to talk about that experience, I’m sure it's been really tough to go through. Now, in terms of the anti-Asian sentiment happening recently, of course what everyone is thinking about is the shooting in Atlanta. All the victims were Asian and almost all of them were women, and lately the media and the shooter himself have said that this was solely an attack against women, and it wasn’t race-related despite the evidence proving that it was. Do you think that this is an example of the media or just America in general not wanting to acknowledge Asian racism? What are your thoughts on this?

PP: Yeah, the media wants to say how the shooting was not race based, but I disagree. I feel like he was part of the incel community, but I think he had a special fixation towards Asian women. He killed eight people, but six of those people were Asian women. I think in his mindset, he specifically targeted those people because on his way to the nail salon, he passed over several strip clubs. So I feel like the attack was definitely targeted primarily towards Asian people. Democrats tend to not really acknowledge us, but then I hate it when Republicans use us as a counteract, like to bash the Democrats for what they do, even though Republicans haven't done anything for the Asian community either. I feel like our voices aren’t heard. We've been protesting, but it's just that our voices aren't heard until it's useful to be heard.

ST: That’s got to be very disheartening in a lot of ways. So a lot of people say racist mindsets can be built on action and inaction. In terms of getting rid of an active racist mindset, what are ways you think people can educate themselves to prevent that?

PP:The best way to counteract this is trying to find sources that are reliable to trust. Many of these mindsets that racist people have are based on just a bunch of lies and fake propaganda that many people use to portray us as something that is not right, and project that onto others.

ST: In terms of preventing inactive mindsets and racism, what do you wanna say to people who don’t want to acknowledge the anti-Asian sentiment and people who are opposed to having these conversations? 

PP: That’s a hard question. I think that if these conversations are never had, then these problems will never be able to be solved in the first place. The plight of anti-Asian sentiments were never brought up until now, when people heard things like, ‘Oh, they started to rise up.’ And now more and more people are talking about it. Because before they didn't talk about it at all. Yeah, now it is because it's getting sensational.