“I didn't want them to see what was in my lunchbox.” Recently, a younger Chinese schoolmate told me about her case of lunchbox shaming. Several dim sum dishes she enjoyed at home turned into sources of her embarrassment in the school cafeteria, even when she felt no actual insult or ridicule. I explained to her that I’d had the same experience before, too, and it took me a long time to recognize that racism could take place even in our most intimate moments, and that dealing with it required internal battles as much as grand social movements.

The dialogue happened not long after the Stop Asian Hate Movement, which for a time had made the public aware of the marginality and discontent of Asian people across this country. But somehow the movement has come to a standstill in our everyday life. As passion and anger gradually faded, we find ourselves back again to an ordinary reality still haunted by fear, bias, and threats of violence. It is as if by resuming our daily routines we have chosen to put the movement in abeyance, as if we believe that our struggle against racism can be outsourced entirely to politicians and activists, or that it is after all just a show.

Far more dangerous than racism itself is an antagonistic mindset that prevents us from seeing the whole picture. Today, in a political atmosphere that values contention more than reflection, we have taken for granted the delusion that we stand opposite to the devil—someone else is to blame while what we should do instead is to simply stay strong and united. Is this not another version of racism? What does this antagonistic mindset ultimately lead to if it is not a new wave of hatred and conflicts?

“Stop Asian Hate” is only a beginning. Glorious and encouraging as it may be, the movement cannot provide us with any specific solutions to racism in real life. Rather, it is in the smallest details of our everyday life that such solutions gradually unfold, from opening a lunchbox to speaking out proudly with an accent, from taking risks to understand a different culture to enduring skepticisms in questioning a movement’s divisive rhetoric.

Above all, we need to redefine this great struggle: it never comes without a price for each one of us, without changes of our everyday habits and the courage to face fear and threats from within and without. This is the true message of the Stop Asian Hate Movement. And it is only by sending out this message that the media, government, and education system of this country can truly exert a positive influence on stopping racial hates.
Works Cited

Fong, Mei. “My Son was Mocked for His ‘Stinky’ Ethnic Lunch. Then We Fought Back.” NBC News, 21 Nov. 2017.

Kim, Juliana, et al. “Protesters Gather in Atlanta to #StopAsianHate.” The New York Times, 21 Mar. 2021.

Zhou, Li. “The Stop Asian Hate Movement is at a Crossroad.” Voxmedia, 15 Mar. 2022.