Newsletter Vol. 1 Issue 21

Christ Crucified Today: The Asian American/ Pacific Islander Community

As we journey closer to the cross of Christ, we do so mindful of those crucified in our country and world today – suffering as Christ suffered. Given the increased violence against Asian American / Pacific Islanders (AAPI), including the killings in Georgia last week, we begin this week intentionally examining the experience of AAPI persons in our country and our church. 

Last Tuesday, eight people, including six women of Asian descent, were murdered in Georgia. This horrifying violence is unfortunately not an isolated incident, but part of a larger resurgence of anti-AAPI sentiments across the country. STOP AAPI Hate, an organization started a year ago to track and respond to these anti-AAPI incidents reports that nearly 3,800 incidents of violence have been reported over the past year. National trends show that women experience these incidents at more than twice the rate of men, and the majority of incidents are directed at Chinese people. 

These are just the cases that have been reported. 

These attacks are closer to home than we in and around San Francisco think. In the past year there have been over 700 incidents reported in the Bay Area. Last month, as businesses prepared to celebrate the Lunar New Year, there was a dramatic increase of attacks against Asians in the Bay Area, especially against senior citizens. Due to the attacks in Georgia, the mayor of San Francisco has increased patrols in areas of the city with large populations of Asian residents or visitors. 

Tragically, this should not surprise us. Over the past year, the previous President of the United States stoked anti-AAPI sentiment through his responses to the Coronavirus pandemic, which he referred to with racist names like the “kung flu” and “China virus.” These comments reflect larger anti-Asian sentiments that have plagued American history. In her book America for Americans: A History of Xenophobia in the United States, Erika Lee documents how Chinese were the first group to be labeled as “illegal,” commencing what would become our massive deportation system. Racist sentiments, culminating in the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882, prevented additional Chinese from entering the country. 

We also cannot forget our treatment of Japanese Americans during World War II. While our schools teach our children that internment camps were simply a relocation that was “not that bad” (assuming the material is covered at all), the reality is that Japanese properties were seized and families were forced into camps guarded by guns because White Americans were afraid they would be a threat during the war. The experience was so traumatic that many Japanese Americans never spoke about it, even decades after leaving the camps. 

According to a report from the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops, one in five Asian American and Pacific Islanders in the country is a Catholic. Three percent of the American Catholic population identifies as AAPI, the vast majority identifying as Chinese, Filipino, and Vietnamese. Like other populations, including Latin American, Caribbean, and African populations, AAPI communities became Catholics largely as a consequence of colonialism, negative impacts of which are still felt in occupied countries. These include a “ colonial mentality” – an internalized sentiment that what is White is better than what is Asian. 

As a result of being such a small population in the United States, many feel their parish or diocese does not know they exist. If they do not feel known during normal times, we ought to pause and ask ourselves how the people in our parish feel living during these scary times when they are the object of discrimination, harassment, and violence, all because the pandemic is thought to have originated in Asia. Why is it that so much racism against our AAPI communities has gone unnoticed in our country, and how have we, the Church, been complicit in keeping our AAPI members in our church invisible? 

Any hate expressed to any group due to an identity they hold is antithetical at any time to our Catholic faith. Now, it is our mandate to see and remember the human dignity given to all of us, especially to our AAPI siblings, by our loving God who creates and fashions all of us, and calls all of us good. This violence against our AAPI members is a historical and current reality of our culture which privileges the protection of White people over other groups. 

Christ is crucified in our world whenever violence and suffering occur. AAPI-identifying people in the United States today carry the cross of Christ as they walk down the street, go to the grocery store, take public transportation, or enjoy an afternoon at the park. Like Jesus, they are scourged and forced to bear the burden of simply being themselves. Like Jesus, they are scapegoated and blamed for something that is not their fault. Like Jesus, they are beaten and they fall multiple times. Like Jesus, they need us to help carry the cross because it is just too heavy to bear.

Resource: ABC News Report 

Questions for Reflection: