双语：反亚裔种族歧视甚嚣尘上坐实美国种族主义社会本质
反亚裔种族歧视甚嚣尘上坐实美国种族主义社会本质
Increasing Racial Discrimination Against Asians Exposes Overall Racist Nature of U.S. Society
中国人权研究会
The China Society for Human Rights Studies (CSHRS)
2022年4月
April, 2022
长期以来，美国主流社会给亚裔贴上“模范少数族裔”的标签，极力营造不存在针对亚裔种族歧视的假象。然而在新冠肺炎疫情大流行的背景下，部分美国政客肆无忌惮的种族主义言论，以及美国社会针对亚裔愈演愈烈的种族主义攻击，已经撕下了这层虚幻的面纱。2021年3月16日，美国亚特兰大地区连续发生3起针对亚裔的枪击案，共导致包括6名亚裔女性在内的8人死亡。这一惨案是美国近年来针对亚裔歧视、暴力现象不断升级的后果。
For years, Asian Americans have been labeled as “the model minority” by the mainstream society of the United States, but this labeling creates only an illusion that there is no racial discrimination against them. Incidents that occurred during the coronavirus pandemic, such as some U.S. politicians’ unscrupulous racist remarks and the wave of harassment and attacks on Asian-Americans, further proved this point. Recently, shootings in Atlanta have set off a new wave of fear among Asian Americans. On March 16, 2021, the shootings at three spas in Atlanta, United States, resulted in the death of eight people, including six women of Asian origin. This tragedy is the consequence of the mounting anti-Asian hate in the United States.
美国的反亚裔事件如同那里的新冠肺炎疫情一样持续肆虐。“停止仇恨亚裔及太平洋岛民”组织2021年11月18日发布的报告显示，2020年3月19日至2021年9月30日，该组织共收到10370起针对亚裔的种族主义攻击事件报告，大多数事件发生在街道、工作场所等公共空间。纽约市警察局2021年12月8日发布的数据显示，该市2021年针对亚裔的仇恨犯罪比2020年猛增361%。有媒体报道说，纽约实际发生的针对亚裔的仇恨犯罪案件远远高于以上公布的数量，因为许多受害者并没有向警察局报告立案。《经济学人》周刊和舆观调查公司2021年3月联合进行的民意调查数据显示，70%的受访者认为亚裔在美国受到严重歧视，其比例甚至高于非洲裔。“肤色在决定美国人的命运方面，显然具有举足轻重的作用”——美国社会这个铁律再次得到了印证。冰冷的现实映照出，美国在骨子里依然是一个白人盎格鲁-撒克逊新教徒的国家，亚裔同非洲裔、拉美裔、原住民一样，在享有和实现人权的诸多方面受到有形无形的歧视和侵害。
In the United States, there was a continued rise in the anti-Asian incidents during the period when the coronavirus pandemic ran rampant in the country. According to a report published on Nov. 18, 2021 by the national coalition Stop Asian American and Pacific Islander Hate, from March 19, 2020 to Sept. 30, 2021, a total of 10,370 hate incidents against Asian American and Pacific Islander people were reported to the organization, and a majority of the incidents took place in spaces open to the public like public streets and businesses. Statistics released by the New York City Police Department on Dec. 8, 2021 showed that anti-Asian hate crimes in the city rose by 361 percent from that of 2020. Some media commented that the actual number of hate crimes against Asian Americans in New York was much higher than the number announced above because many victims did not make any police reports. According to the public opinion survey jointly conducted by The Economist weekly magazine and YouGov in March 2021, 70 percent of respondents believed that Asian Americans were seriously discriminated against in the United States, and suffered more from racism than African Americans. Thomas Sowell, a U.S. scholar, writes in his Ethnic America: A History, “Color has obviously played a major role in determining the fate of many Americans.” This irrefutable truth of American society has been confirmed again. The cold reality reflects that the United States still takes pride in recognizing itself as a White Anglo-Saxon Protestant country and that Asian Americans, African Americans, Hispanics and Native Americans are subject to discrimination and violations in various forms, and cannot fully enjoy their human rights.
一、美国亚裔正在遭受愈演愈烈的种族主义攻击
1. Asian Americans Facing Rise in Racist Attacks Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic
新冠肺炎疫情这场严重的公共卫生危机，为检视美国社会种族歧视问题提供了一个直观透明的窗口。非洲裔与拉美裔成为美国新冠肺炎疫情的直接受害者，他们的感染率和死亡率要远高于白人群体；而亚裔则不幸沦为美国新冠肺炎疫情的间接受害者，他们是伴随着疫情而日益猖獗的种族歧视言行的主要攻击目标。加州州立大学圣贝纳迪诺分校“仇恨与极端主义研究中心”的统计数据显示，2020年美国整体仇恨犯罪案件较2019年下降了7%，然而针对亚裔的仇恨犯罪却激增149%。2021年第一季度美国15个大城市针对亚裔美国人的暴力犯罪相比2020年同一时期增长了169%。
The coronavirus pandemic, a serious public health crisis in the United States, has exposed various racial discrimination problems existing in the society. Black and Hispanic Americans are the direct victims of the pandemic, as their infection and mortality rates are much higher than those of the white population. Asian Americans, however, became the indirect victims, because of veiled or explicit racist words and deeds toward them amid the pandemic. The Center for the Study of Hate and Extremism at California State University, San Bernardino (CSUSB) released a survey, showing that compared with 2019, hate crime cases in the United States decreased by 7 percent in 2020, but those against Asian Americans increased by 149 percent. In the first quarter of 2021, violent crimes against Asian Americans in the 15 large cities in the United States increased by 169 percent compared with the same period in 2020.
近两年来，美国针对亚裔的种族主义攻击频发，案情令人触目惊心。
In the past two years, shocking racist attacks against Asian Americans have occurred frequently in the United States.
——2020年3月14日，得克萨斯州一名男子在超市里持刀攻击一户亚裔家庭，试图杀死他们全家，被刺伤者中甚至包括两岁和六岁的儿童。
– On March 14, 2020, inside a Texas supermarket, a man stabbed an Asian family in an attempt to kill them, including their children aged two and six.
——2020年7月14日，纽约一名89岁的华裔妇女在街边行走时，突然遭到两名陌生男子扇耳光。当她试图逃离时，攻击者却从背后点燃了她的衣服。
– On July 14, 2020, in New York City, an 89-year-old Chinese American woman was slapped in the face by two male strangers on the street, and when she tried to escape, the two strangers set her clothes on fire from behind.
——2021年1月28日，一名84岁高龄的泰裔男子在旧金山被蓄意猛烈撞击重摔倒地，最终因伤势过重而不幸死亡。
– On January 28, 2021, an 84-year-old Thai man died from injuries after being viciously slammed onto the ground by a man in San Francisco.
——2021年3月16日，21岁的白人男子罗伯特·亚伦·朗持枪袭击亚特兰大地区3家亚裔经营的按摩店和水疗中心，共造成8人死亡，其中6人是亚裔女性。
– On March 16, 2021, Robert Aaron Long, a 21-year-old white man, opened fire in three Asian massage shops and spas in Atlanta with a gun, killing a total of 8 people, including 6 Asian women.
——2021年8月30日，一名菲律宾裔老年女性在纽约皇后区雷哥公园地铁站内遭一名白人男子推下楼梯，脸部和身体严重受伤。
– On August 30, 2021, an elderly Filipino woman was pushed down the stairs by a white man in Rego Park Subway Station in Queens, New York, resulting in her sustaining serious facial and physical injuries.
——2021年11月17日，费城3名华裔高中生在放学乘地铁回家时遭到种族主义袭击，当地警方表示，“受害者之所以被选中很明显是因为他们是亚裔”。
– On November 17, 2021, three Chinese American high school students in Philadelphia were attacked when they took the subway home from school. The local police said, “The victims were picked because they were Asian, obviously.”
……
《纽约时报》在2021年4月3日一篇题为《愈演愈烈的反亚裔暴力》的长篇报道中写道，“在过去一年里，在一系列明显带有种族敌意的事件中，亚裔被推搡、被殴打、被踢踹、被唾面、被辱骂，甚至连房屋和商店也遭到破坏。”根据亚裔遭受种族主义攻击的不同形式，该文将搜集整理的案件分为三类。第一类是亚裔遭受身体攻击的案件，例如遭遇殴打、胡椒喷雾袭击或者被吐口水，许多亚裔受害者因此身心受重创；第二类是亚裔遭受口头攻击的案件，主要是一些带有种族主义性质的侮辱性言论；第三类是亚裔受害者的财产遭受破坏的案件，例如房屋、店面被破坏，或被喷涂上种族歧视标语。事实上，该报道也只是揭露了过去一年中亚裔所遭受种族主义攻击的冰山一角。令人震惊的是，就在这些种族主义行径开始引发美国社会的关注与抗议之际，针对亚裔的攻击行为还在持续不断地发生，其中妇女和老人等弱势群体成为重点攻击对象。
The New York Times published an article on April 3, 2021, which was entitled “Swelling Anti-Asian Violence: Who Is Being Attacked Where.” The article started by pointing out the following facts: “Over the last year, in an unrelenting series of episodes with clear racial animus, people of Asian descent have been pushed, beaten, kicked, spat on, and verbally abused. Homes and businesses have been vandalized.” According to the different forms of racist attacks on Asian Americans, the article uses three categories to sort and group the cases it collects, namely: “Beaten, pepper-sprayed, spat on,” “Called names and racial slurs,” and “Homes and businesses vandalized.” The cases under the first category involve the acts of spitting on Asian Americans or using pepper spray and physical violence against them, and those under the second category are mainly subject to racial slurs and derogatory language. The third category groups are cases of malicious damage to the homes, shops, and other properties of Asian Americans, such as vandalizing and writing graffiti. This article that aims to reveal the Asian Americans’ sufferings in the past year can hardly be called all-inclusive, but these exposed racist acts do arouse attention and protests from the U.S. society. Unfortunately, attacks against Asian Americans continue to occur, with vulnerable groups such as women and the elderly as the key targets.
二、美国亚裔被歧视被排斥的历史仍在延续
2. Racism Against Asian Americans: Not Unique to the Coronavirus Pandemic
长期以来，美国针对亚裔的种族歧视之所以未引起足够重视，一方面是因为在非洲裔与白人之间的种族冲突过于引人注目，另一方面则是美国主流社会意图掩盖历史上亚裔的悲惨遭遇。美联社曾坦言，“针对亚裔美国人的种族主义，一直是美国历史上的丑陋主线”。
For a long time, racial discrimination against Asian Americans has not attracted enough attention in the United States. One reason is that the racial conflict between blacks and whites has been society’s principal focus of attention, and the other reason is that the mainstream society always tends to cover up the suffering of Asian Americans in U.S. history. The Associated Press once observed that “Racism against Asian Americans has long been an ugly thread in the U.S. history.”
美国华裔的命运是亚裔遭受歧视和迫害的缩影。亚洲人移民美国的历史始于19世纪中叶，当时他们因美国经济社会发展亟需廉价劳动力而远渡重洋来到这个国家。19世纪后期，在政客的鼓动与媒体的渲染下，亚裔被污名化为“黄祸”，被主流社会视为对美国白人的“种族威胁”“经济威胁”“健康威胁”，美国对亚裔的排斥和攻击达到一个顶峰。在美国历史上的各个时期，亚裔持续遭受着偏见、仇恨和种族暴力的折磨和煎熬。早在1854年，美国联邦最高法院就在判例中判定亚裔不能成为美国公民，对亚裔获得公民权的限制直到二战前后才最终被取消。对亚裔的群体暴力的最早记载是1871年，一伙白人冲进洛杉矶唐人街附近街区，枪击和绞死了21名华裔；亚裔社区被焚毁，居民被赶出城市。对亚裔的恐惧和偏见最终导致美国禁止亚裔移民美国：华裔移民在1882年开始受到《排华法案》的限制；日裔在1907－1908年间开始受到移民限制；到1924年所有亚裔都被禁止移民美国。亚裔在公共卫生事件中被当成替罪羊在美国历史上也不新鲜，早在19世纪70年代旧金山暴发天花疫情之时，华裔就曾被诬称为“罪魁祸首”。
The suffering of Chinese Americans is just the epitome of the discrimination and persecution against Asian Americans. In the mid-19th century, as the then U.S. economy was in badly need of cheap laborers, Asian people started immigrating to the United States, but in the late 19th century, some politicians and media deliberately stigmatized Asian Americans as “Yellow Peril,” and deluded the mainstream society into believing that they constituted “racial threat,” “economic threat” and “health threat” to American whites, sparking off a surge of hatred toward Asian Americans in the United States and making them suffer from long-time prejudice, exclusion, and racial violence. In 1854, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that Asian Americans were not and could not be citizens in a case, and such restrictions on Asian Americans’ access to citizenship were not finally abolished until around the 1940s. The earliest record of organized violence against Asian Americans was in 1871, when a group of whites rushed into an Asian community near Los Angeles’ Chinatown, shooting and hanging 21 Chinese Americans to death, burning down the community, and driving the residents out of the city. The severe prejudice against Asian Americans eventually led to the prohibition of Asian immigrants in the United States: Chinese immigrants were restricted by the Chinese Exclusion Act of 1882; Japanese immigrants began to be restricted from 1907 to 1908; and in 1924, all Asians were forbidden to immigrate to the United States. The scapegoating of Asian Americans in a public health incident is not something new in U.S. history. For example, during the smallpox outbreak in San Francisco in the 1870s, Chinese Americans were falsely called the “culprits.”
亚裔在美国的悲惨历史未能得到公正的清算和反思，甚至不为美国主流社会所知晓，因而其中所潜藏的种族主义恶意自然无法彻底消除。亚裔被塑造为美国种族关系的局外人，美国主流社会中很多人否认存在针对亚裔的种族歧视历史，更拒不承认当前存在针对美国亚裔的种族主义攻击。华裔历史学家李漪莲在美国国会关于针对亚裔种族仇恨犯罪的听证会上发言说：“当今亚裔美国人和太平洋岛民面临的种族歧视和暴力的行为并非由精神错乱的个人随意犯下的罪行，而是一个系统性的国家悲剧。它反映了美国针对亚裔美国人的系统性种族主义的悠久历史。”对于美国各地针对亚裔暴力事件的增加，联合国秘书长古特雷斯表示深感关切，“过去一年发生的数千起事件，是长达数百年来刻薄、刻板化、寻找替罪羊、剥削和虐待历史的延续。”
The United States has never compensated for or reflected on the sufferings it has caused to Asian Americans, and even tries its best to cover up or blur relevant facts. As such, the deep-rooted malice toward Asian Americans in U.S. society can never be eliminated. In the United States, Asian Americans are portrayed as outsiders in racial conflicts; the mainstream society denies the history of racial discrimination against Asian Americans and refuses to admit that there are racist attacks against Asian Americans at present. Erika Lee, a Chinese American historian, published her speech at the Congressional hearing on violence and discrimination against Asian American and Pacific Islander (AAPI) communities. She said, “As shocking as these incidents are, it is so vital to understand that they are not random acts perpetrated by deranged individuals. They are an expression of our country’s long history of systemic racism targeting Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders.” The UN Secretary-General António Guterres has also expressed his profound concern over the rise in violence against people of Asian descent across the United States. He said, “Thousands of incidents across the past year have perpetuated a centuries-long history of intolerance, stereotyping, scapegoating, exploitation and abuse.”
对亚裔的种族歧视之所以从历史延续到现在，深刻体现了美国社会对亚裔作为“弱者”的欺凌以及作为“他者”的排斥。美国亚裔整体力量的弱小使其成为种族主义欺凌的目标。亚裔“弱者”地位主要体现在以下几个方面。第一，亚裔人口总量相对较少。美国亚裔总人口约为2400万，在美国总人口中所占比例约为6%，与白人、非洲裔、拉美裔相比都存在较大差距。第二，亚裔人口内部异质性很强。美国亚裔指的是来自东亚、东南亚及南亚数十个国家的移民及其后代，而这些国家的文化遗产、经济状况、政治体系、宗教习俗和语言的差异很大，导致亚裔内部的异质性极强。第三，亚裔群体内部的认同感和凝聚力不强。亚裔这个共同的身份认定在很大程度上是外部社会强行赋予的结果，多数亚裔甚至并不愿意接受属于单一亚裔种族的身份。人口数量少、内部差异大、群体凝聚差，再加上政治参与低，使得亚裔长期以来在遭遇整体性种族歧视时缺乏反抗的能力，而默默承受的弱者形象又使得亚裔更易成为种族主义攻击的对象。
The racial discrimination against Asian Americans that has continued to the present time is probably a built-in and natural product of American colonialism, and it also reflects a mindset of the United States: bullying the weak. Asian Americans are in a weak position in U.S. society, which makes them vulnerable to racial attacks. Such weakness is mainly caused by the following reasons. The first one is the small population of Asian Americans in the United States. The total population of Asian Americans is about 24 million, accounting for about 6 percent of the total U.S. population, and being significantly outnumbered by whites, African Americans and Hispanics. The second reason is the huge internal differences among Asian Americans. Asian Americans include immigrants and their descendants from dozens of countries in East Asia, Southeast Asia and South Asia. These countries differed from one another in cultural traditions, economic status, political systems, religious customs, and languages, resulting in stark differences and disparities among Asian Americans. The third reason is that Asian Americans are never a cohesive group. Although they are perceived as Asian Americans by mainstream society, most of them think of the term as an imposed label. They simply do not agree that they belong to the same Asian ethnic group. Numerical inferiority, internal differences, and lack of coherence and political involvement make it impossible for Asian Americans to unite in resisting racial discrimination against them. Such weakness makes them more vulnerable to racist attacks.
美国亚裔外来者的身份认定使其成为种族主义排斥的目标。亚裔遭遇愈演愈烈的种族歧视也与疫情之下美国排外主义情绪高涨有关，因为亚裔在美国主流社会中某种意义上被认定为永久的“外来者”和“他者”。一方面，美国亚裔人口的增长很大程度上是由于移民而不是自然增长，大量亚裔的出生地在美国之外。另一方面，大部分亚裔与美国主流社会和主流文化保持着一定的距离。因此我们可以看到在针对亚裔的种族主义攻击中，“滚出我们的国家”“滚回自己的国家去”“离开这里”“你们不属于这里”的排外主义表述极为常见。种族主义者甚至将这种“外来者”的认定视作发动针对亚裔种族主义攻击的合理性支撑，这在美国社会中具有相当的民众基础。正如一位亚裔美国人所言：“新冠肺炎疫情提醒我们，我们的归属是有条件的。前一刻我们还都是美国人，下一刻我们就是‘把病毒带到这儿来的外国人’。”
The identification of Asian Americans in the United States makes them the target of racist exclusion. The growing racial discrimination against Asian Americans may also be related to the upsurge of xenophobia in the United States, as its mainstream society has long defined Asian Americans as “outsiders,” or sometimes, as “colonial others.” This definition is based on two reasons. Firstly, the growth of the Asian American population is largely due to immigration rather than natural growth, which means a large number of Asian Americans are born outside the United States. Secondly, most Asian Americans keep a certain distance from the mainstream society and culture of the United States. Therefore, xenophobic expressions such as “get out of our country,” “return to your own country,” “get out of here,” and “you don’t belong here,” are frequently heard during the racist attacks against Asian Americans. Racists in the United States even regard this false identification as a reasonable support for launching racist attacks against Asian Americans, and their actions are widely recognized by U.S. society. Just as an Asian American actor named John Cho observed, “The rise in anti-Asian attacks (during the coronavirus pandemic) only reminds Asian Americans like me that our belonging is conditional. One moment we are Americans, the next we are all foreigners, who ‘brought’ the virus here.”
三、疫情大流行背景下反亚裔种族主义甚嚣尘上的原因
3. Reasons Behind the Rising Anti-Asian Sentiment Amid the Coronavirus Pandemic
（一）美国政客对新冠肺炎疫情的种族主义操弄
(1) Some U.S. politicians’ racist coronavirus attacks on China
美国政客对新冠肺炎疫情的种族主义操弄是美国社会针对亚裔的种族歧视日渐猖獗的直接动因。美国前任总统特朗普擅长利用种族因素达成自己的政治目的，其执政4年间不断操弄种族主义议题，导致美国种族紧张局势不断加剧。随着美国因防控不力逐渐沦陷为全球新冠肺炎疫情的重灾区，特朗普和蓬佩奥等一众美国政客出于推卸责任及竞选的需要，多次采用“中国病毒”等带有地域指称性而非国际公认的名称来指代新型冠状病毒，并千方百计地将本国疫情的蔓延归咎于中国。受美国政客种族主义操弄的影响，那些被认为是华人或其他东亚血统的人士遭受到各种形式的种族主义攻击，如恶意诽谤、拒绝提供服务及野蛮暴力对待等。联合国当代形式种族主义问题特别报告员滕达伊·阿丘梅指出，“那些试图将新冠病毒归咎于特定国家或族裔的领导人正是那些奉行民族主义和民粹主义、将带有种族主义和仇外心理的花言巧语作为其政治平台核心的领导人”。白宫现任新闻秘书普萨基在解释美国当下反亚裔情绪高涨时也承认：“特朗普政府的伤害性言论是导致对亚裔美国人威胁增大的原因之一，并且影响很大。”特朗普下台后，美国政府继续操弄和炒作病毒溯源政治化议题，客观上也使得美国国内反亚裔情绪保持在高位状态。
Some U.S. politicians’ manipulation of public opinion during the coronavirus pandemic is the direct cause of the increasingly rampant racial discrimination against Asian Americans. Former U.S. President Donald Trump is good at utilizing racial issues to achieve his political goals. During his four-year term of office, he repeatedly made explicitly racist remarks, resulting in mounting racial tensions in the United States. When the United States became the country hit most badly by the coronavirus due to the lack of adequate prevention and control measures, Trump, Pompeo and other U.S. politicians who were eager to shirk their responsibilities and ensure the success of the upcoming election, even attempted to make China the scapegoat by referring to the virus as “China virus” or other names that falsely accused China of being the pathogen’s geographic origin, instead of using its internationally-recognized name. What they did led to a rise in racist sentiments toward Asian Americans of Chinese or other East Asian origins, making them suffer from various kinds of racist attacks featuring malicious defamation, denial of service, or brutal violence. Ms. E. Tendayi Achiume, the UN Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of racism, racial discrimination, xenophobia and related intolerance once sharply pointed out that “politicians of relevant countries proactively refused to use the internationally-recognized name of the virus and deliberately replaced it with other names that linked this particular disease to a particular country or nation, which was an irresponsible and disturbing expression that came from and would give rise to racism, xenophobia, stigmatization, and exclusion of certain groups, and violence against certain groups.” Faced with the rising Anti-Asian sentiments, Jen Psaki, the White House press secretary, also admitted that there was “no question” that the Trump administration’s “damaging rhetoric” led to “elevated threats against Asian Americans.” Frustratingly, when Trump left office, the U.S. government continued the manipulation of the public opinion and the act of politicizing COVID-19 origins tracing, further stoking the Anti-Asian sentiments within the United States.
（二）美国白人至上的种族结构与社会氛围
(2) The effects of white supremacy
疫情下美国亚裔所遭受的仇视和排斥境遇，与非洲裔、拉美裔等少数族裔长期遭受的种族歧视一样，最终根源都在于美国白人至上的种族结构和社会氛围。亚裔群体长期以来一直在美国社会处于边缘位置，许多美国人甚至没有意识到或者没有勇气承认美国长期存在针对亚裔群体的种族歧视问题。在“模范少数族裔”标签的遮盖之下，亚裔与其他少数种族同样面临着系统性的种族歧视。白人至上主义者并没有因为亚裔的“模范表现”而网开一面：针对亚裔的种族仇恨犯罪中，75%的攻击者是白人；针对亚裔的仇恨犯罪同样在白人占主导地位的地区发生最为频繁；特朗普、蓬佩奥等白人政客是蓄意将新冠肺炎疫情的祸水引向亚裔的始作俑者。美国主流社会对于亚裔遭受的种族歧视，长期以来都呈现出漠视与掩盖的态度。2020年9月，164名美国共和党议员投票反对国会通过谴责针对亚裔歧视的法案。很多针对亚裔的恶性暴力攻击事件，如九旬老人被纵火焚烧案、华人在曼哈顿街头被刺案，都未能以“仇恨犯罪”的性质来立案。在“3·16”亚特兰大枪击案发生之后，当地警方发言人杰伊·贝克在发言中否认案件的种族仇恨犯罪性质，并出言为枪手辩护，称“其度过了糟糕的一天”。
The hatred and exclusion suffered by Asian Americans during the pandemic are not very different from the long-term racial discrimination suffered by other U.S. ethnic minorities such as African Americans and Hispanics. All these problems are ultimately rooted in white supremacy that is embodied in the racial structure and social atmosphere of the United States. As Asian Americans have long been marginalized in the society, many Americans do not even realize or have the courage to admit the long-standing racial discrimination against them. The label “the model minority” has never helped Asian Americans to suffer less from the United States’ systemic racism than other U.S. ethnic minorities do, and white supremacists have never shown more mercy toward “the model minority.” Seventy-five percent of the attackers that have committed racial hate crimes against Asian Americans are white; hate crimes against Asians also occur most frequently in areas dominated by whites, and white politicians such as Trump and Pompeo are the ones who have first made Asian Americans the scapegoats for the pandemic. The mainstream society of the United States has long turned a deaf ear to Asian Americans’ complaints of racism and discrimination. In September 2020, 164 Republican congressmen voted against the bill condemning discrimination against Asian Americans. Many vicious violent attacks against Asian Americans, such as setting a 90-year-old woman on fire, and stabbing a Chinese American man on the streets of Manhattan, were not filed as hate crimes. After the three shootings that occurred in Atlanta on March 16, 2021, Jay Baker, the spokesman of the local police office openly denied that it was a hate crime and even defended the shooter by claiming that he was having a “bad day.”
（三）亚裔“模范少数族裔”标签的羁绊
(3) “The model minority” label shackling Asian Americans
在20世纪60年代中后期美国黑人民权运动风起云涌的社会背景之下，一批描述日裔、华裔等亚裔族群获得成功的故事相继登上了美国主流报刊杂志。在美国政界、学界和媒体界的共同推动之下，亚裔被贴上了“模范少数族裔”的标签。客观而言，“模范少数族裔”的标签承认了亚裔通过自身艰苦卓绝的努力所取得的成就，也一定程度改善了亚裔在美国长期遭受的污名化困境。然而很多分析指出，“模范少数族裔”只是美国主流社会炮制的“又一个强化种族等级、保护歧视行为的谬论”，对于亚裔自身而言“名为光环，实为枷锁”。其一，“模范少数族裔”使得亚裔面临的种族歧视不受重视甚至不被承认。“模范少数族裔”塑造了亚裔经济收入高、教育程度高的刻板印象，这个标签使得他们通常不被纳入美国种族歧视讨论的范畴。在“成功种族”的光环之下，亚裔群体在经济社会上所面临的困境同样被忽视，如亚裔老年人13.5%的贫困率远高于美国平均水平，亚裔失业之后再就业周期几乎是所有种族中最长的，亚裔在政界、工商业界、学术界、法律界的领导层中代表性明显不足，等等。其二，“模范少数族裔”消解了亚裔对种族歧视的感知能力与反抗精神。美国主流媒体塑造之下的亚裔具有“独立、聪明、勤奋、顺从、从不发表政见”的品德，他们的文化价值观念被认为与美国新教伦理相契合。这种貌似褒奖的话语体系甚至赢得了相当多亚裔的认同，使得他们愿意按照被期望的形象和品质来低调行事。内化了这套话语的亚裔面对种族歧视时缺乏敏感性，甚至羞于承认遭受种族歧视的事实。其三，“模范少数族裔”话语恶化了有色人种内部的关系，成功转移了种族矛盾的焦点。“模范少数族裔”这一概念将亚裔捧上神坛，同时也暗含着对非洲裔隐喻性的批评，其目的正是为了打击当时势头强劲的美国黑人民权运动。这种极具种族分化功效的策略使得有色人种内部产生了尖锐的矛盾，亚裔自此成为很多少数种族群体的指责或攻击目标。
In the mid and late 1960s, when African-Americans struggled to achieve civil rights equal to those of whites, a number of stories describing the success of some Asian Americans such as Japanese and Chinese Americans were published in mainstream U.S. newspapers and magazines, as the U.S. political, academic and media circles planned to label Asian Americans as “the model minority.” Objectively speaking, this label was effective in reducing the long-existing stigma toward Asian Americans and praising some Asian Americans’ hard work and success. Nevertheless, many in-depth analyses also reveal that this label was just a ridiculous idea invented to strengthen the U.S. racial hierarchy and rationalize its racist discrimination. For the following reasons, this seemingly glorious label actually shackled Asian Americans. To begin with, this label made the racial discrimination against Asian Americans sound far-fetched, and people started neglecting and even denying the discrimination against them. Along with the labeling, Asian Americans were stereotyped as well-educated with high incomes which deprived them of the right of enjoying favorable policies for U.S. ethnic minorities. Being labeled as a “successful minority,” their economic difficulties are often overlooked. In fact, 13.5 percent of elderly Asian Americans currently live in poverty, and the proportion is much higher than the average poverty rate of the United States. Asian Americans also experience the longest average unemployment spell than other U.S. ethnic groups do, and they are obviously underrepresented in the leadership of politics, business, academia and law. Furthermore, “the model minority” label subdues the Asian Americans’ resistance against racial discrimination. The U.S. mainstream media frequently describe Asian Americans as “independent, intelligent, diligent, obedient, and silent,” and advocate that their cultural values are consistent with the country’s Protestant ethics. Such seemingly commendatory remarks have successfully won the recognition of a considerable number of Asian Americans, making them willing to act low-key according to the expected image and behavior mode. As such, they become more tolerant toward discriminative speeches and deeds and even feel ashamed of mentioning them. Last but not least, “the model minority” label deteriorates the relationships among U.S. ethnic minorities and shifts their attention from opposing white supremacy. The act of labeling Asian Americans as “the model minority” during the African-American Civil Rights Movement, which implied criticism toward African Americans, was a policy of “divide and rule” used to contain the Civil Rights Movement. It caused acute conflicts among the U.S. ethnic minorities, making Asian Americans a common target for scorn, ridicule, etc.
（四）美国种族关系的对立
(4) The antagonism between Asian Americans and other U.S. ethnic minorities
研究发现，尽管所有少数种族遭受的攻击都主要来自于白人群体，但亚裔比非洲裔和拉美裔更容易遭受到来自其他少数种族的攻击。亚裔遭受攻击的施害者75%系白人，还有25%则系其他少数种族。这一事实在一定程度上揭示了美国种族秩序的复杂性及美国种族关系的对立。非洲裔等对亚裔群体攻击的增加，一方面是由于美国部分政客和媒体对新冠肺炎疫情的种族主义操弄，导致社会上形成了一种特定的种族敌对氛围。在美国政客“甩锅”战术的诱导之下，亚裔成了“替罪羊”和“出气筒”。另一方面，这也是美国亚裔社区与非洲裔社区之间长期对立的反映。美国主流社会对“模范少数族裔”的塑造，文化传统价值观念上的差异，就业等社会资源上的竞争，历史上种族冲突事件的印痕等，造成亚裔与非洲裔之间深深的隔阂与误解。非洲裔和亚裔正在共同遭受明显的种族不公正，然而互不信任的种族关系却使得亚裔更加无力摆脱当下的困境。与“黑人的命也是命”运动中其他种族踊跃参与支持相比，亚裔反种族歧视游行示威中其他种族出席与支持的程度则明显不够。
Relevant research shows that although all U.S. ethnic minorities suffer racist attacks mainly from whites, Asian Americans are more vulnerable to attacks from other ethnic minorities than African Americans and Hispanics. Seventy-five percent of attackers who committed hate crimes against Asian Americans were whites, and the remaining 25 percent were people of other ethnic minorities. This fact, to some extent, reflects the complex racial relations and conflicts within the United States. For instance, deceived by some U.S. politicians’ and media’s lies about the coronavirus pandemic, some African Americans mistook Asian Americans as their enemy and attacked Asian Americans to vent their anger. Such anger is also a result of the long-lasting antagonism and misunderstanding between Asian Americans and African Americans, which were created by the U.S. mainstream society’s labeling of Asian Americans as “the model minority,” and the two groups’ differences in cultural traditions and values, their competition for jobs and other social resources, and their previous conflicts. Although both of them are victims of racial injustice in the United States, distrust between them makes Asian Americans more powerless to extricate themselves from the difficult position. In the end, it is worth noting that other U.S. ethnic groups clearly offered more support for the Black Lives Matter movement than they did for the Stop Asian Hate movement.
（五）美国政客破坏中美关系的政治诱因
(5) Some U.S. politicians’ actions that seriously undermine Sino-U.S. relations
历史多次证明，来自不同国家的移民及其后代在美国的处境深受美国与其母国关系的影响。一旦美国与某国的关系紧张，针对该国移民及其后裔的歧视就会甚嚣尘上。例如，一战期间的德裔、二战期间的日裔、“9·11”事件之后的穆斯林国家移民在美国都曾遭遇到极为严苛的对待。早在新冠肺炎疫情暴发之前，特朗普政府就不断对中国采取遏制与打压的政策，发表抨击中国政治制度、损害中国主权的极端言论，掀起对华贸易战、科技战，鼓吹中美脱钩，致使两国关系遭遇严重挑战。受此影响，华裔在美国开始遭遇越来越多的歧视性对待，最为典型的是针对华裔知识分子的审查与迫害。新冠肺炎疫情在美国蔓延之后，特朗普政府为了掩盖疫情应对不力，不断使用种族主义言论攻击中国。在造成中美关系进一步恶化的同时，也使得包括华裔在内的整个亚裔群体面临更为严重的种族歧视。拜登政府上台之后，将中国作为主要战略竞争对手，这也是当下美国反亚裔情绪依旧处于高位的动因之一。依此推断，后疫情时代即便美国社会针对亚裔整体的种族歧视可能会有所消退，但针对华裔群体的种族攻击反而可能会愈演愈烈。这不得不引起我们的隐忧和警惕，也需要国际社会持续关注。
In the U.S. history, the country’s diplomatic relations with different countries could often determine its ways of treating its immigrants of different origins: the tension between the United States and a foreign country frequently led to discrimination and racist attacks against the immigrants from that foreign country. Such kinds of discrimination happened to German immigrants during World War I, Japanese immigrants during World War II, and immigrants from Muslim countries after the September 11 incident. The Sino-U.S. relations began to deteriorate even before the coronavirus outbreak, when the Trump administration adopted various policies to suppress China, made extreme remarks to criticize China’s political system and harm China’s sovereignty, launched the so-called trade war or tech war against China and attempted to decouple China and the United States. Affected by that, Chinese Americans began to encounter an increasing amount of discriminatory treatment in the United States, and the most typical example was the censorship and persecution of Chinese American intellectuals. When the coronavirus pandemic went out of control in the United States, the Trump administration continued using racist remarks to attack China as a way of covering up its ineffective epidemic response. This further worsened the Sino-U.S. relations and left the entire Asian American group, especially Chinese Americans, vulnerable to rampant racial discrimination. At present, the Biden administration still views China as a major strategic competitor, which continues stoking the anti-Asian sentiment in the United States. It can be inferred that in the post-pandemic era, even if the racial discrimination against Asian Americans may subside, the racial attacks against Chinese Americans will continue to rise. This increases our worry and requires our vigilance and the sustained attention of the international community.
本文来源：新华网
