Is There Privilege in Being Asian American?

Over the past week, news headlines, talk shows and internet traffic have been filled with commentary on the shooting death of 14-year-old Trayvon Martin. Martin was shot by Florida neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman. Zimmerman has claimed self defense, but there is strong evidence from witnesses and a 911 recording that Martin was profiled and targeted because he looked “suspicious”: i.e., he wore a hoodie and was Black. Now reports are investigating whether Zimmerman used a racial slur in that very 911 call.

Deservedly, the incident has sparked a great deal of outrage and media responses. One piece that moved me was Michael Skolnik’s powerful and, dare I say, confessional response: “White People, You Will Never Look Like Trayvon Martin.”

“I was born white. It was the card I was dealt. No choice in the matter. Just the card handed out by the dealer. I have lived my whole life privileged. Privileged to be born without a glass ceiling. Privileged to grow up in the richest country in the world. Privileged to never look suspicious. I have no guilt for the color of my skin or the privilege that I have. Remember, it was just the next card that came out of the deck. But, I have choices. I got choices on how I play the hand I was dealt. I got a lot of options. The ball is in my court.”

But social privilege is not exclusive to white people in America.

As Asian Americans, if we are going to stand in solidarity with our African American brothers and sisters, we must not only acknowledge our forms of privilege, but leverage the influence that comes with that privilege in order to serve as allies to Black communities as well as other marginalized groups. There is privilege for many Asian Americans in not generally being perceived as threatening, which allows us to move about public spaces without eliciting suspicion.

On the other hand, Laotian American teen Fong Lee who was shot eight times and killed by Minneapolis police because they claimed to see a gun on him while he was out riding his bicycle. Korean American artist Michael Cho was shot and killed by police, allegedly for approaching officers with a tire iron in his hand which he refused to lower. In post-9/11 America, Sikh and Muslim Americans are unjustly clouded with suspicion, by fellow citizens as well as the government.

While privilege exists in various forms specific to Asian Americans, strong parallels can be drawn between the African and Asian American communities and their histories. African Americans like Martin, who are followed and feared, have more in common with Fong, Cho and other racially profiled Asian Americans than one might think upon first glance.

And while there is privilege in the “model minority” myth that that gives Asian Americans access to academic settings because of assumed hard work, high standards and good intentions, there is a well-publicized debate about discriminatory admissions practices with regard to Asian American applicants in higher ed. In K-12, meanwhile, researchers in lower-income school systems such as New Orleans have found that of 450 students surveyed (almost half of them Asian American), “over 70% don’t have textbooks to take home from school or use in class.” In New Orleans, where African Americans are 60% of the city’s population, Black and Asian American students enduring the same educational inequalities have a chance to unify.

There is privilege in how Asian Americans came to the United States, which does not include a history of slavery. Yet, although the public imaginary envisions Asian Americans as entering the country on H1-B visas or as scholars, many of us come from a legacy of being exploited “coolie” labor on Hawaii plantations, subject to unjust taxes based on race, targeted by immigration bans and quotas, or considered less than human in the eyes of the judicial and immigration systems. Many undocumented Asian immigrants currently live in the shadows and toil under exploitative labor conditions; speaking out against abuse exposes them to deportation and separation from their families.

Coming to recognize our forms of relative social privilege in the context of such histories and complicating realities is how Asian Americans may experience Martin’s death as relevant, and part of our causes, too.

Not sure where your privileges do and don’t lie? Take the White Privilege Pop Quiz, for some food for thought. What your answers may say: that privilege isn’t just white, and the lack of privilege is not just Black.

Please do not hear any of this as my trying to discount the very real racism and violence that are directed toward either community; this moment is not about oppression Olympics. This is about the Asian American community standing with the Trayvon Martins and Fong Lees of the past, present and future and doing our part in a united struggle for justice.

- New American Media

8 Comments to “Is There Privilege in Being Asian American?”

pops 28 March 2012 at 7:52 pm #

Really interesting article. I applaud who wrote it but there’s one thing I would like to add: Sikh and Muslim Americans doesn’t equal Asian because not all Sikh and Muslim Americans are Asian. Some may not think that’s an important thing to remind others but it is.
JessicaP 28 March 2012 at 8:26 pm #

I love this article for its truthfulness in talking about a serious issues that doesn’t just affect blacks.
Michael Vriesde 30 March 2012 at 2:33 pm #

I can only speak from my European context and reality. Still I think (and think in a piece I had posted on this site before) have proven that white American privileged behaviour is similar (maybe even identical) to the American one.
I am black and have Asian relatives. My aunt (who is half native American) is married to a Chinese man. Their children (my cousins), look more Asian than anything else. They would not stand out is countries like the Philipines or Indonesia. And that gives them privileges they know they have but never voice. They have more white friends than any of my black relatives and whenever those friends meet me (a black male), even knowing I am their cousin, clearly act uncomfortable.
My cousins notice, but never confront their friends.That is Asian (so you will “yellow”) privilege.
I can see where it comes from though. I see a lot more black people “in trouble”than Asian people. I used to work in a governmental job center where in the 7 years I worked there only 1 Asian client had ever gone bazerk opposed to many more blacks (males). On the other hand, Asians DO usually have financial back ups, blacks generally do not have. Asians were never pushed to limits blacks have been pushed to and especially not on that scale.
Just another Asian 8 April 2012 at 10:24 pm #

Academic privilege… financially better off than blacks… appear less threatening?… I have to say, this article really doesn’t and should not be applied at all. I am an Asian American, and I don’t believe that this applies to me. I come a hard working low class family, and have not much to my name. I have voiced myself about the Trayvon Martin case and feel that I am equally impacted by this than any other black, asian, white, middle easter, ec….

I think one needs to consider that a lot of the acts and behaviors of individuals come from a cultural standpoint that has been, very frequently and unfortunately, turned into streamline stereotypes. Would it be so simple keep voice the negative generalization that black people are loud and that serves as a catalyst for their threatening appeal?
Asian American 13 April 2012 at 4:14 am #

I agree that Asian American, and everyone else, should stand with Trayvon Martins. But I disagree that there is a privilege to be Asian or Asian American in America. We are not white – we do not have the racial privilege.

So please, don’t even spread this idea.
- Alex 14 April 2012 at 5:50 pm #
  
  I’m Asian American and sometimes talk or write about having what I call Not Black Privilege, where as many white AmeriKKKans tend to think I’m less threatening or even fetishize my Brown skin and Asian ancestry. Of course this isn’t the same everywhere in the U$, but it has been my experience more often than not.
Z M 17 April 2012 at 11:24 am #

I think this is a great piece in the context of the Trayvon Martin case and the idea of the “threatening type” that people of colour are subject to. While I agree with some of the criticisms that not all Asian people experience “privilege”, it is still important to acknowledge that the “privilege” Asian people experience comes in varying degrees (and can be attributed to several things such as status, class, gender, etc.). In saying that, I do think that the article does a great job of addressing the privilege of Asian people without necessarily pitting the experiences of people of colour against one another.

I guess a criticism I can offer regarding the discourse of the “threatening type” is that it tends to focus solely on who is considered “threatening”, instead of a thorough discussion on which bodies are constructed as “normal” in particular spaces to show how certain bodies (racialized and gendered bodies) are constructed as “threatening”.
- Z M 17 April 2012 at 11:29 am #
  
  edit: ” (and can be attributed to several things such as IMMIGRATION status, class, gender, SKIN TONE etc.)”